Reflections on Enjoying Life | June 2025

In memory of my uncle.

My Uncle Harry was a man who lived every day to the fullest. He’d walk in a room and greet everyone with love, a big smile and a tight embrace. You couldn’t miss him and honestly, you never wanted to. He wasn’t just the life of the party, he was the party.

Until he wasn’t.

He passed away this month after a decade of decline. And listening to the speeches and memories, it’s made me realize how much I tend to block myself from living as fully as he did. I spend time being overly critical, doubt filled. It seems silly to withhold enjoying every day as much as we can, when it can all be taken away so quickly.

I think this is one of the reasons I love making sourdough bread so much. I love the effort, planning on Tuesday for something I’ll enjoy on Friday. But mostly, I love that moment of unadulterated pleasure, when everyone around the table stops their chatter and just has a taste of pleasure.

It reminds me of a passage from a Billy Collins poem, Introduction to Poetry. In it, he talks about the challenges of getting his class to just enjoy the poem and find their own meaning in the words:

I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author’s name on the shore.

Photo by Ron Lach

But of course, the students can’t sit back and just take pleasure in the experience.

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.

And how often we do that in so many different ways! We don’t just walk by and look up at the sky and notice the sunset. We’re too tied up in the future or past to appreciate the only thing we really have.

So that’s my hope for everyone. Let’s take a little of the passion of living in the moment and bring into every part of our day.