![](https://bethprobst.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/moonrise-768x768.jpg)
This post will be brief. Last week, the Universe reminded me yet again that our time here is not guaranteed — that in fact sometimes life is not fair. Sometimes things don’t happen for a reason. Instead, horribly sad things happen to beautiful people.
I watched from afar as the universe claimed a beautiful soul much too early. Someone who I admired as a colleague and friend. We were not super close but we were kindred spirits who shared a passion for learning and loved to exchange podcast and book recommendations. Simply put, she was and is an inspiration.
The news came the night before this. The night before my son asked me to go on a boat ride with him and dad. Normally I’d say no. I’m a morning person. NIght time rides just aren’t my thing. I then realized that night time now hits at 8:30 pm and there was nothing more important than the little man in front of me. I’d spend the next 30-minutes coasting around Moon Lake with Jake teaching him about the Big Dipper. It was the only constellation pattern I could easily identify. We talked about the Hunger Games and whether Jake could survive living in the woods. We talked about meeting NYT Best Selling Author William Kent Krueger earlier in the day and why mom wasn’t on the NYT best-selling list (yet). It was perhaps one of the most random, unplanned, mundane, meaningful moments I’ve had all summer long.
I started the summer off wishing parents to find magic in the mundane. In my haste to cram as much summer in as possible, I got caught up in my to do list versus my to live list. It shouldn’t take loss or the spirit of Moon Lake and Jake to remind me about what matters but regardless universe, message received.