<\/a>"Oreo" swimming along slowly, but happily, in his great big tank. <\/p><\/div>\n
The death of seven fish was not something I thought I would write about on my Hands Free blog. There is definitely nothing warm and fuzzy or inspiring about it.<\/p>\n
But there is a critical Hands Free lesson here.<\/p>\n
When I watch little Oreo swimming alone slowly in his great big tank, it is almost as if there is a sign on top that reads:<\/p>\n
LIFE IS PRECIOUS.<\/p>\n
One day you could be going along quite happily and then suddenly you might find yourself fighting for your life, or worse, you might find yourself flat on your back wondering where your life went.<\/p>\n
LIFE IS PRECIOUS.<\/p>\n
I can\u2019t help but think about the fish that do end up dying in the pet store, never getting out to see what real life and real joy look like staring back at them.<\/p>\n
I think it might be a lot like dying with a cell phone against your ear or a to-do-list in your hand\u2026like you \u201cmanaged\u201d life, but never got to the \u201cliving\u201d part.<\/p>\n
I told you this wasn\u2019t going to be pretty. <\/em><\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n***************************************<\/em><\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\nUpdate: Since this writing, Oreo has passed away, but his message lives on. In fact, because of Oreo\u2019s passing, I heard this exchange between a father and his daughter:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cKeeping fish alive is a lot harder than we thought it would be. The book I was reading said most people give up after two months.\u00a0 But we\u2019re not going to give up. We\u2019ll get the water figured out and then we\u2019ll get more fish.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cO.K., Daddy. Let\u2019s not give up.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThe Hands Free lessons of the fish tank just keep coming. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nWhat are your dreams? What do you want to accomplish in life in order to grasp what really matters to you? It may take several tries; sometimes you may get discouraged, but don\u2019t give up. Don\u2019t settle for life at the pet store. Get out there and live life\u2026 even if it means a little heartache along the way. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is not going to be a pretty message. Nope, nothing pretty about this one. But sometimes life\u2019s most meaningful messages don\u2019t come in pretty packages. This is my story\u2026 My oldest daughter received an aquarium for her eighth birthday. The process of immersing herself in the research of all things \u201cfishy\u201d for an entire […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2167,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[262,18],"tags":[451,468,401,381,469,179],"gutentor_comment":5,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/IMG_4959-e1310326483487.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1fUJF-yY","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2168"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.handsfreemama.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}