I couldn’t have written this sentiment any better.  I may frame it.

dearbaby:

Letters to Everly.

In life, you will hear the word value many times. Our society sometimes has a bad habit of looking at everything in terms of dollars and cents. Often our worth is measured in “things” - in how much we can acquire.

Our hope is that we can teach you the truth about value.  In our house, there will never be a baby doll that will remain in its box because it’s “worth” more that way. There is no dollar amount that could be paid for a collectible that would ever equal the joy it could bring in your tiny hands. We will always encourage you to take that doll out of the box, comb out her braids, lose her shoes in the backyard if you want to - so long as you feel the value in the experience.

I was watching an episode of Antiques Roadshow last week and the appraiser told a little old man holding a first edition copy of a Faulkner classic that it would have been worth more had it not shown such obvious signs of wear, “It was read too much,” he said. READ TO MUCH? I thought to myself - What a life that little book has had! What VALUE it has brought to those who have read its pages. 

I think the greatest injustice you could ever do to a literary work would be to to sit it in on a shelf, collecting dust… where it could never experience the magic of eyes upon a page - never sharing its story solely because someone said it’s worth more if it is never read.

We hope to teach you that the more weathered something is - the more it has LIVED! The more it has lived the more valued it should be. We will measure our worth in how much we love each other and those around us -Our value will be in the rich experiences of our lives. I am certain that as a family, we will be scuffed up and bruised from time to time - but we will be LIVING openly and out loud and that - my darling girl - is what makes the life we share together, priceless.

Love,

mama

(image via)