All But This Is Fleeting

A Reflection on the First Reading for Sunday, August 3rd, 2025:
​Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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Ecclesiastes
1.2; 2.21-23

Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, 
vanity of vanities; all is vanity.

Sometimes one who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave all to be enjoyed by another
who did not toil for it.
This also is vanity and a great evil.

What does a person get from all their toil and strain,
their toil under the sun?
For their days are full of pain,
and their work is a vexation;
even at night their mind does not rest.
This also is vanity.

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

My beautiful granddaughter doesn’t understand that many evenings, although I am at home, I am still working. She will open the door to the room I use as an office in our shared home, and regardless of what I am doing, I hear her sweet voice asking, “Nanny, can you play with me?”. Lately she has been opening the door and saying, “Nanny, I know you’re probably going to say no because you’re working, but can you play with me?”. 

It breaks my heart when I have to tell her I am working on something that has a deadline. She will hang around for a while, chatting with me, picking up things from my desk, vying for my attention, and then reluctantly leave to go back down the stairs. And I return to work.

This beautiful soul is a gift straight from God to me. I was never blessed with children of my own but have been given the privilege of being a stepmother to two now-grown men, and through our eldest, the bonus of two beautiful granddaughters who don’t know me as step-anything. To them I am simply Nanny. I treasure the nights that I haven’t brought work home with me and have the time to curl up and read a book, or play store, or sing songs, or simply hang out. But I don’t make those times nearly frequently enough. Instead, I lock myself up in that room and work long hours for my paying job. I justify it by telling her that my job helps us to pay bills and live more comfortably. She is quick to tell me that she hates my job.

Life is fleeting. The little girl that stole my heart almost seven years ago is growing up so quickly, and I have missed precious moments with her because I am upstairs, busy toiling. I recently made the decision to set my retirement date, and suddenly a lot is coming into perspective for me. After I am gone, no one is going to say, “Well done, good and faithful public servant”. But there may be one who says, “I loved my Nanny”. Perhaps instead of me helping her understand the value of work, she’s teaching me what is important in life instead.

How will this little girl remember me? I want those memories to be of time spent together being silly and having fun. I want her to know how much Jesus loves her and knows every freckle on her beautiful face. I want her to experience the love of Jesus through our time together, and I want that to carry her through the inevitable challenges she will face in this world.  

Let us pray: Lord, thank You for the gift of family and community. Never let me again take it for granted, and as I pass from this earthly life, let Your love be the legacy left behind for generations. Amen.




Sandy Graves

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