After Josh got home last night we were sitting upstairs watching Everyn toddle around draped in pearls in a little purple dress, end-of-day-messy-pigtails framing her sweet face. I was thinking of the dozens of things still on my to-do list when I let out a long sigh. Josh looked at me quizzically, "What is it?"

"Life is too short."

He laughed, entirely amused, "Okay... and why do you say that?"

Still staring at my girl standing over her toy basket chattering happily to herself, I answered without looking his direction, "If I could live forever I'd have a hundred babies, write a thousand books, eat a million perfect meals, and visit every single city in the world. Twice."

"Oh, is that all??" he joked sarcastically.

I laughed out loud at my poetic notion, amused at how effortlessly it came out. But I meant every word. Truly and completely.

Amidst the diaper changes and meal prep, errand running and project doing, I feel this every present urgency. To live. Not simply "suck air and die" as a pastor friend says frequently, but to live. To be fully present in every single moment, whether I'm wandering a remote village in Europe or wiping a baby bottom. Present. Alive. Optimistic. Adventurous. Engaged.

It's so easy to get lost in Facebook or news stories or even loads of laundry to the point that we become mechanical, disengaged. I don't want that to be my story. I want to live vividly. Every day.

I can't shake it. It's been there all my life, a constant, echoing Whisper... Open your eyes. Taste. See. Don't miss this!

It might seem a stretch to say it's a 'calling.' But isn't it??

"I come that you might have life, and life abundant." John 10:10

He is true Life. And as His followers we are called to experience and give life. To share it, illustrate it, speak it, provoke it in one another, never taking a moment for granted...

Be present today, friends. It's your calling.