{"id":6275,"date":"2016-06-02T07:37:55","date_gmt":"2016-06-02T11:37:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=6275"},"modified":"2016-06-02T07:37:55","modified_gmt":"2016-06-02T11:37:55","slug":"grateful-for-every-step","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=6275","title":{"rendered":"grateful for every step"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"photo-1421999430108-bcb78bd726ce\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s an excellent annual quest to find wisdom embedded in the collection of commencement speeches. This year \u2014 from Apple CEO Tim Cook encouraging George Washington U. grads to find \u201cwork that\u2019s infused with moral purpose\u201d \u2014 to Hank Azaria delivering advice in the varied voices of\u00a0“The Simpsons” characters Chief Wiggum, Moe Szyslak, and Apu Nahasapeemapetilon at Tufts \u2014 there was yet one address I found myself returning to repeatedly. It was delivered by Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook, at the University of California-Berkeley two and a half weeks ago. I started by liking part of her intro\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 Today is a day of thanks. A day to thank those who helped you get here \u2014 nurtured you, taught you, cheered you on, and dried your tears.\u00a0Or at least the ones who didn\u2019t draw on you with a Sharpie when you fell asleep at a party\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

She was also, wisely reflective\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 A commencement address is meant to be a dance between youth and wisdom. You have the youth.\u00a0Someone comes in to be the voice of wisdom \u2014 that\u2019s supposed to be me. I stand up here and tell you all the things I have learned in life, you throw your cap in the air, you let your family take a million photos \u2013 don\u2019t forget to post them on Instagram \u2014 and everyone goes home happy\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

She was bold\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 Today will be a bit different. We will still do the caps and you still have to do the photos. But I am not here to tell you all the things I\u2019ve learned in life. Today I will try to tell you what I learned in death\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

And then in a seemingly unprecedented message, Sandberg was transparent. She shared the story of losing her husband only a year ago. He was young; it was sudden and unexpected. She talked about being \u201cswallowed up in the deep fog of grief \u2014 what I think of as the void \u2014 an emptiness that fills your heart, your lungs, constricts your ability to think or even to breathe.\u201d And instead of pouring into these brand new adults by imploring them to \u201cbe all they can be\u201d in all \u201cthe places they\u2019ll go,\u201d she shared with them an empowering reality. She shared with us<\/em><\/strong>\u2026 a deep truth \u2014 a lesson in death\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cLast month, eleven days before the anniversary of Dave\u2019s death, I broke down crying to a friend of mine.\u00a0We were sitting \u2014 of all places \u2014 on a bathroom floor. I said: \u2018Eleven days.\u00a0One year ago, he had eleven days left.\u00a0And we had no idea.\u2019 We looked at each other through tears, and asked how we would live if we knew we had eleven days left.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2026 Can you ask yourselves to live as if you had eleven days left? I don\u2019t mean blow everything off and party all the time\u2026 I mean live with the understanding of how precious every single day would be. How precious every day actually is.<\/em><\/p>\n

A few years ago, my mom had to have her hip replaced. When she was younger, she always walked without pain. But as her hip disintegrated, each step became painful. Now, even years after her operation, she is grateful for every step she takes without pain \u2014 something that never would have occurred to her before.<\/em><\/p>\n

As I stand here today, a year after the worst day of my life, two things are true.\u00a0I have a huge reservoir of sadness that is with me always \u2014 right here where I can touch it. I never knew I could cry so often \u2014 or so much.<\/em><\/p>\n

But I am also aware that I am walking without pain. For the first time, I am grateful for each breath in and out \u2014 grateful for the gift of life itself. I used to celebrate my birthday every five years and friends\u2019 birthdays sometimes. Now I celebrate always. I used to go to sleep worrying about all the things I messed up that day \u2014 and trust me that list was often quite long. Now I try really hard to focus on each day\u2019s moments of joy.<\/em><\/p>\n

It is the greatest irony of my life that losing my husband helped me find deeper gratitude \u2014 gratitude for the kindness of my friends, the love of my family, the laughter of my children. My hope for you is that you can find that gratitude \u2014 not just on the good days, like today, but on the hard ones, when you will really need it.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Sandberg makes me think. About being grateful. For every step.<\/p>\n

Respectfully\u2026
\nAR<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s an excellent annual quest to find wisdom embedded in the collection of commencement speeches. This year \u2014 from Apple CEO Tim Cook encouraging George Washington U. grads to find \u201cwork that\u2019s infused with moral purpose\u201d \u2014 to Hank Azaria delivering advice in the varied voices of\u00a0“The Simpsons” characters Chief Wiggum, Moe Szyslak, and Apu … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “grateful for every step”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[585],"class_list":["post-6275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-life","tag-sheryl-sandberg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6275"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6279,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6275\/revisions\/6279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}