The eyes of Texas are upon you
All the live long days
The eyes of Texas are upon you
And you cannot get away
Do not think you can escape them
From night till early in the morn
The eyes of Texas are upon you
Till Gabriel blows his horn
Those are the lyrics to the alma mater for The University of Texas at Austin. As you may have figured out by now, I received degrees from there many years ago. For many this is just a song set to the tune of I’ve Been Working on the Railroad, but for Texas Exes it serves as a reminder that what we do with our lives is seen and felt by many people – perhaps not the entire State of Texas or the world, but more people than one would imagine.
A friend and former business associate recently died as the result of a seemingly random traffic accident. He too was a proud graduate of The University of Teas at Austin. While we did not talk as often as we did when we worked at the same company, we exchanged texts throughout the year about the ups and downs of the various Longhorn athletic teams and how things were going in our professional careers.
When I attended his funeral in the small Texas town of Ballinger, it struck me just how many lives one person could touch in their lives. The church was overflowing with people wanting to take a part in honoring his life. As I listened to the eulogies, it also struck me that he was a person that truly lived his life knowing that the eyes of Texas were upon him. As the stories were told of his childhood and on through to his last day, it left no doubt that he had an eye for business from an early age, that community was important to him, and that love of family and God were at the center of every part of his life.
As many of us do, I find myself caught up all too often in the daily work grind. That grind seems to have the ability to consume all our energy, leaving very little for the other much more important things in our lives. The grind gets in the way our relationships with friends and family; it becomes the excuse to not be involved in activities to help those in our community; it even begins to interfere with our faith. In short we let work define our lives. We reach a point where we live to work. What we need to do is work to live.
My friend had it right; he strived for success in his career in order to be a better husband, father, and member of his community. He wanted to make a difference in people’s lives – and I think the evidence is there that he did. I can learn a lot from his short 35 years of life, and the last lesson is to remember what matters most, never lose sight of it and live every day like it is your last chance to impact a life.
Till Gabriel blows his horn…………
Robert Not Bob 