This morning I am listening, half-heartidly, to the news as I read through several blogs of encouragement I read each day that give me things to think about (to chew on really) throughout the day. If I chose to listen to what the news was saying, I think my heart would skip a beat. The current financial crisis America is facing is really a global issue. Our money affects EVERYONE. Our economic decisions here on our soil impact the smallest of investments halfway around the world. It is times like these that I look to the Heavens "where my help comes" and decide to turn down the volume on the television.
I used to get caught up in the daily turning of our world. I felt if I knew everything that was going on, then I would be informed enough to help those around me when the time came. I'd be ready. The truth is, as I listen too closely, my heart and soul absorb the contents being spoken and I find myself grappling with negativity and pessimism. Not that I want to be an ostrich with my head in the sand, I just realize that I am very sensitive to surrounding energies, and I choose to exclude the world as it turns or at least lessen its impact by concentrating on good. I decide to see the world through a more insightful filter... a filter of hope.
A more important question for me is who do I affect on a daily basis. What family, friends and neighbors need my help? How can my life impact another, even with a smile? I first have to have a smile stashed away inside my soul before I can give it away. Like Anne Frank wrote in her diary as she sat in a concentration camp looking out at what we would consider a bleak world, "I choose to be happy." If, given her environment, Anne can make a choice to be happy, how much more do we have available to us?
When the world shows us its ugly side, we have a choice. We can fret about our future and trap the negativity into our being, or we can reach out to others and be a positive light of encouragement that illuminates an unstable world. I know the choice I desire to make. How about you?
Friday, September 26, 2008
Monday, September 22, 2008
Saying Goodbye
There is never an easy way to say goodbye to those you love. I have had a very busy month in my life saying goodbye in many areas. None of them were easy or timely. In fact, they were a little shocking to my system.
On August 29, my wonderful mother-in-law of nearly 30 years passed away just three days after being diagnosed with cancer. None of the immediate family was prepared for this. Mom was 86 and up until the last year, she had all her faculties about her. Little did we know that she was extremely tired and apparently very ready to go. We all felt the diagnosis gave her the permission she needed to check out this side of Heaven. The doctor gave her less than six months at her appointment and being a self-determined woman, she figured that was a bit too long to linger. But, she didn't go out without being prepared. She lived a life of conviction and faith and passed those qualities along to her children. While she held that spirituality was a very personal relationship, she did not hesitate to show God's love in her everyday actions. She was a giving woman with such a big heart and she will be greatly missed (for now). We can rest assured that we WILL see her again on the other side of life's curtain. Even so, we mourn. Life is less full without her in it.
Just two weeks later, I lost a beloved pet of mine. His name was Charlie and he was 11-years old. How do you say goodbye to something where you were responsible for every one of his needs since birth? Though there is no comparison to the loss of a human being, losing Charlie tore at my soul as much as losing a parent figure. He had been absolutely fine one day, and the next morning he died in my arms apparently of a blood clot. Within one minute of waking, he was gone. His eyes meeting mine as he passed into Animal Afterlife. I have never had a pet die. I cannot put into words what I am feeling exactly, but its such a profound sense of loss. He had been such a good friend to me while my husband traveled and he filled up the empty side of the bed every night with gratitude. I know I will recover and the sun will shine again, but for now, the painful rawness I cannot shake.
On top of the loss of loved ones, I am also in the process of moving out of Georgia where I have called home for over 20 years. We are moving to the D.C. area, and I am trying very hard to find the silver lining in what I think of as clouds right now. I am determined to know that God is carrying my family to a new adventure and new beginnings. I want to believe that He has our best in mind...but still, in a deep recess in my heart, I am a weary traveler not sure where to call home or really whether or not I want a new home...but I DO trust that He knows even my smallest of concerns and will be there to help carry me forward into the life He has planned for me.
How do you cope with loss of any kind? For me, it is faith in action. I know that life will go on, and my hope is in the realness that I serve a God who has everything worked out already. I do not have to carve a path that no one else has traveled. He has always traveled EVERY path before me. I rest in that today. I know He will never give me more than I can handle and that gives me the peace I need to take another step. I choose to be happy. I choose to believe the best is yet to be....
On August 29, my wonderful mother-in-law of nearly 30 years passed away just three days after being diagnosed with cancer. None of the immediate family was prepared for this. Mom was 86 and up until the last year, she had all her faculties about her. Little did we know that she was extremely tired and apparently very ready to go. We all felt the diagnosis gave her the permission she needed to check out this side of Heaven. The doctor gave her less than six months at her appointment and being a self-determined woman, she figured that was a bit too long to linger. But, she didn't go out without being prepared. She lived a life of conviction and faith and passed those qualities along to her children. While she held that spirituality was a very personal relationship, she did not hesitate to show God's love in her everyday actions. She was a giving woman with such a big heart and she will be greatly missed (for now). We can rest assured that we WILL see her again on the other side of life's curtain. Even so, we mourn. Life is less full without her in it.
Just two weeks later, I lost a beloved pet of mine. His name was Charlie and he was 11-years old. How do you say goodbye to something where you were responsible for every one of his needs since birth? Though there is no comparison to the loss of a human being, losing Charlie tore at my soul as much as losing a parent figure. He had been absolutely fine one day, and the next morning he died in my arms apparently of a blood clot. Within one minute of waking, he was gone. His eyes meeting mine as he passed into Animal Afterlife. I have never had a pet die. I cannot put into words what I am feeling exactly, but its such a profound sense of loss. He had been such a good friend to me while my husband traveled and he filled up the empty side of the bed every night with gratitude. I know I will recover and the sun will shine again, but for now, the painful rawness I cannot shake.
On top of the loss of loved ones, I am also in the process of moving out of Georgia where I have called home for over 20 years. We are moving to the D.C. area, and I am trying very hard to find the silver lining in what I think of as clouds right now. I am determined to know that God is carrying my family to a new adventure and new beginnings. I want to believe that He has our best in mind...but still, in a deep recess in my heart, I am a weary traveler not sure where to call home or really whether or not I want a new home...but I DO trust that He knows even my smallest of concerns and will be there to help carry me forward into the life He has planned for me.
How do you cope with loss of any kind? For me, it is faith in action. I know that life will go on, and my hope is in the realness that I serve a God who has everything worked out already. I do not have to carve a path that no one else has traveled. He has always traveled EVERY path before me. I rest in that today. I know He will never give me more than I can handle and that gives me the peace I need to take another step. I choose to be happy. I choose to believe the best is yet to be....
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