of Showing Up for Life

For example, reflecting on my own experience raising a family, I think about how as parents most of us try to feel our way through the challenges that come with being married and raising children. We have very little formal training for those roles, and they are two of the most difficult and important things we’ll ever undertake.

What I learned from this is that life sends opportunities and challenges our way. And our futures are shaped by how we respond to them.

"To love and to cherish"
Celebrate his good points and remember you don’t have to love everything about him. If you see some things about him that you simply have to improve upon (things his mother did not get just right) recognize ... reforming a husband is a long-term project and it doesn’t always work out. Sometimes it is better to reform one’s own expectations.

"For better or for worse" Don’t expect calm waters. Pray for courage. Keep your sense of humor. No man and woman ever had a perfectly harmonious marriage. A good marriage takes effort, resilience and suppression of personal ego, but the fundamental requirement is living with the fixed vision that your relationship is permanent and forever.

He suggests that collaboration is fundamental to life and progress, and I couldn't agree with him more.
I have witness the power of collaboration, in many different forms, and with no small degree of awe, in many parts of the world.
I suspect the famous anthropologist Margaret Mead had the same experience before writing words now renowned among those who volunteer for good causes; "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

"Life is the ultimate teacher, but it is usually through experience and not scientific research that we discover its deepest lessons. We are all here for a single purpose: to grow in wisdom and to learn to love better. We can do this through losing as well as through winning, by having and by not having, by succeeding or failing. All we need to do is to show up openhearted for class... So fulfilling life’s purpose may depend more on how we play than what we are dealt. You have to be present to win.”