This afternoon, while running on the treadmill, I happened to look up just as a commercial was finishing on the TV screen. Every now and then, even a commercial can be inspiring. It was an ad for life insurance. The slogan read, “Life is knowing what you live for.” That gave me a lot to think about as I pounded out the last half mile.

If life is knowing what you live for,

Then I live for the complicated, messy love of family.

I live for messages from my children.

Phone, texts, emails, cards, memories of laughter.

Especially snap chats.

I live for “I love you, Grandma.”

If life is knowing what you live for,

Then I live for Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, and Rachmaninoff.

In any order, day or night.

I live for sister time.

I live for learning new words and word origins.

I live to learn about new discoveries in science.

Especially brain science.  Or the universe.

I live for wildlife sightings and natural surprises.

I live for poems, memoirs, and Chapter 13 of East of Eden.

I live for Stephen who didn’t get to live past 22.

I live for my parent’s hands which blessed me.

If life is knowing what you live for,

I’m pretty sure I know.