So I got called out by my twin today on the fact that I needed to blog again...and indeed...he was right. I have been brewing up this post since Saturday morning, but needed to be able to have a solid chunk of time to write it the way I wanted to. So Robert...with no further adieu, my blog post.
This last Saturday morning I had the opportunity to attend the funeral for a woman that has always been in the background of my life, but still played a perfect roll. Radia Cottle (but we only ever called her Sister Cottle) lived in the house right across the street from my family. She has been a widow for over 50 years. She remarried for a short time, but it didn't last very long. So my whole life, she has lived by herself in that house, probably longer. However, she was always so pleasant. She LOVED to talk to anybody and everybody. I learned really quick that if you were going over to Sister Cottle's house, and actually going inside...you'd be there for a while. I didn't actually go inside very many times, but each time I did, she always had great things to say and it was company that was much enjoyed. There are three things I will always think of when I think of Sister Cottle:
- Shoveling Snow: My parents had six kids for a reason. That reason was to shovel all the snow on the sidewalks and driveway of our corner lot home. And then to send us across the street to to Sister Cottle's driveway and walks as well.
- Raking leaves: She has 5 HUGE trees that produced mass amounts of leaves. I always loved coming home from school in the fall and going over to rake the leaves. It was a pleasant task, and after they were all raked up, we could jump in them, make leaf forts, mazes, or have leaf fights. I loved raking leaves at her house!
- Playing with puppies: Her son breeds Labradors and any time he came into town with the puppies, they would always let us come over and play with the puppies in the front yard. We would play with them for hours on end until we had every last puppy sleeping in our laps.
She was always so friendly to let us do these things. I knew I could always count on her to be sitting on the front porch as I walked to or from my friends' houses on the other side of the ward and she would always say hello and sincerely ask how I was doing.
Why do I tell you all this? Because I realized during the funeral how I have become slightly sloppy in the way I live my life. I mean my life is highly structured...I literally have calendars made from poster board so I can keep it all organized neatly...but on some of the important things, I am getting sloppy. I take time to enjoy life by spending time with family and friends, but I don't always take time to do small, simple things, like enjoy a litter of playful, little puppies, those kinds of things get pushed to the bottom of my list. There's not necessarily leaves to rake or walks to shovel at college, but there are so many opportunities to serve people that I frequently miss. It has to be thrown in my face for me to see the opportunity to serve sometimes. I forget to do the small act of service that really matter and make people's days. I don't always take time to sit and talk with people that I care about, or even people that I don't know very well. Sometimes I get hung up on the fact that I am a little shy at first and don't know what to say, so I don't even try, but sometimes it is the conversations where nothing important is said, that mean the most overall. I could not tell you a single thing that I ever really talked about with Sister Cottle, but I know now how much it meant to her for us kids to go over and talk with her.
So as a result of attending her funeral, I have committed myself to be more service oriented. I don't know how yet, but I am going to try. Sister Cottle was and still is a great example of a pure, good, soul. She blessed my life with opportunities to serve, and from those opportunities, I learned to love service. I never lost this love for service, but I have lost my vision for it, and therein lies the problem that I must fix, because when you serve others, you are being used as an instrument in God's hands, so that He may answer their prayers.
Thank you Sister Cottle, for your beautiful example and testimony that lived and shared with us all.
