To the editor:

The smile on her sundrenched face radiated joy. My friend—along with myself and eight others on a 2011 mission trip–were traveling by train across India. We were sitting across from each other taking in the scenery. Now at dusk we marveled at the homes popping up with colored lights celebrating Puja, a Hindu festival.

“You seem so happy” I said.

“I am.” She replied. “India is an amazing adventure.”

Last week, I shared this memory in a eulogy I delivered at her memorial service. . Her death reminded me that all of our moments of joy are numbered. I asked myself, “How am I catching the joy as it flies by?” This morning, while I was rolling the empty trash bins away from the curb, I wondered if I had paused long enough to look up into our pear tree and savor the Brown Thrasher singing his heart out.

These days, if I pay too much attention to the news and social media, my emotions are flooded with dread and despair. Nothing good comes of it. So, I made a pledge: I will carve time away from both, lest the media yank my mind around as if I was tethered to it. I will decide to whom and to what— relationships, goals, values, commitments—I will give my attention.

At the top of my list? I will look for moments like the one that came to my friend while riding the rails into India’s setting sun.

Peter Luckey,

Lawrence