Our world lost an amazing human being today. Anderson Cooper called Steve Jobs the Thomas Edison of our time… the Henry Ford… and the Walt Disney. His commencement speech given at Stanford University has circled it’s way through my Facebook newsfeed numerous times tonight. Sitting here as Brady sleeps, I watched the video quietly on my iPhone. And now I’m blogging from my iPhone. Thanks, Steve.
I’m not sure I’ve ever been moved so much by so few words. It wasn’t what Steve Jobs said about impending death or cancer or college that struck me – but what he said about life and grabbing it by the horns, about the short, few days that we have and waking up and truly living days filled with the things that fill us and fuel our hearts. “If I knew today were to be my last… Would I be excited about what I am about to do?”
There was a time in my life that thought would have made me squirm. Before I embraced this gut feeling that things didn’t have to be the way everyone said they did. But I thought about it… pressed pause, looked at my chubby little (still) toothless sleeping ball of laughs and thought… yes.
Simply, yes.
My days are filled with so much goodness. I have chosen this path. I’ve created it by saying YES and by saying NO. By setting priorities and protecting them. By accepting defeat from time to time, challenging myself to grow and be better and recognizing my own talent when the time is right. AND by reevaluating when something stops me in my tracks.
Today my inbox hit 150 before noon. That’s 0 to 150 in just over four hours. That plus Steve Job’s incredible message made me really think about some of my time stealers. Those quiet little thieves that steal my precious could-be-my-last-day moments from THESE things that set my heart on fire:
– Designing – the pure, unabashed art of it… Not the technical parts or the business end but organizing a thought, a feeling, a personality or a story into something that fits like a favorite sweater.
– My family. Period. Soaking up every bit of their goodness. I just had this mental picture of a really good piece of cornbread with the last drop of my mamas beef stew. Yes please. My goodness I love them.
– Growing this little human being that will one day call me mama. Teaching him. Loving on him as much as I can. Showing him the world.
God give him that hunger Steve talked about. Give him discernment and foolishness and ideas and the need to get messy and make things happen. Give him patience and the ability to be still.
To me, Steve’s most powerful words in that speech were “heart and intuition are almost always right.”
Amen.
Time to step back, simplify, and streamline to get back to those priorities.
Wishing you all a few moments to watch Steve’s speech. And some good cornbread.
Xo
Emily
