Ever had an epiphany? Ever had a life shattering moment of awakening to a life changing truth? These are a very big deal. You should share these moments with your grandchildren in your letter.

My biggest epiphany came to me when I was about 25 years old. I was living by myself and exploring the world with my own eyes after living at home for the first 20 years of my life. I was questioning everything I had been taught by my parents and my religion. I was out there exploring in the wilderness. It was scary, but I was brave. I know in my heart I was doing the right thing.

I had been breaking off from my lifetime of religious doctrine and exploring new spirituality by reading about Zen. It was very enlightening and expanded my previously enclosed thinking. I don’t know if it mattered, but I was reading “Catch 22” by Joseph Heller when the lightening struck me.

Bam! A billion volts blasted through me.

“I could never understand it all.”

That was was the thought that burst into my mind.

I could never understand everything I wanted to understand or needed to understand to have my life make perfect sense. At the very best I could understand some things. Hopefully that would be enough. But, also I might just be fooling myself. Maybe there was so much to learn that reading 100 or 1,000 books would never be enough to have a sufficient grasp of what I truly needed to live a good life. Why try to understand things if I would never understand enough? Why push that huge rock up the hill Sisyphus? Why try if it is all futile?

That was one of my epiphany moments. It was a very big “Ah Ha.” 

Have you ever had one of those kinds of moments when the ground under your feet gives way or you get kicked in the head?

These experiences are worth sharing in your letter to your grandchildren. They too are going to have life changing moments. Let them know they are coming. Let them know they are part of the amazing human experience.