Hello,
Rhonda here. I am with my grandsons (and my two daughters) in Long Beach. These three little guys are ages five, 16 months and 18 months. What a joy they are, and how meaningful to me to know that they recognize me and see me as a safe place to land in this sometimes crazy world. By choosing to live every moment fully with them I am way behind in postings and other writing. Balance is illusive, especially since they sahred a cold with me,but, today I feel the inspiration and energy to share, and it’s nap time.
For the past months I have been wearing an orange rubber prayer bracelet to hold Connor present with me on his healing journey from leukemia. He is my three year old grand nephew who was diagnosed a year ago and airlifted from Alaska to Children’s Hospital in Seattle. two house from where I live. I intercepted Connor’s mom, my niece Alicia with baby brother Carson (then five months old) at the airport while dad rode with Connor on the air ambulance. Although challenging, I have totally leaned into my past year being detoured and my work distracted to be there for Connor and his family in any way I could.
My own grand babies love to play with this simple orange rubber bracelet, that has the words ‘courage, strength, faith and hope’, etched on it. As I put it on this morning, it broke. At first I was sad, and then I realized that it was a significant sign. Today is the perfect day for it to break! It happened on the day that Connor returns to his own home in Alaska. In this moment Connor is free of cancer, and it is one year post diagnosis, exactly, that he will return to run free and healthy in his own back yard!! Hmmm. God (by whatever name you use) is everywhere, even in a rubber orange bracelet!
This journey with him and his family has taught me sooooooo much, buyt the most important one is to live every moment fully! And so, remember……
“Every man dies. Not every man truly lives.” — Braveheart
What are we waiting for? Many of us die until we die, rather than live until we die. So, if you’re going to die anyway, you’ve got little to loose and a lot to gain! And, the amazing miracle is that those who live until they die never die, only change form. They live on and on and on.
We look to other leaders, authority figures, or ones who have dared to live lively, thinking that they have all the answers and we don’t. Instead of using them for inspiration in shaping our own steps, we compare ourselves to them. We deem ourselves to be tiny and small, even lazy but safe, and let them do the living for us.
Yet, the truth is that we are all ordinary individuals who have extraordinary wisdom to share. Each grain of sand is essential to the beach’s beauty. Each of us, from our own life experiences, have gifts to share that can make the path easier, more enjoyable, and offer insight for another. Our success and contributions need not be big and flashy to be of equal or even greater value. They only need be given openly and authentically from the heart.
Moment of D’Light: Today choose to live proactively, and awaken from your complacent slumber. Today allow your voice to be audible, and choose to live fully each moment until you die. We never really know when that moment will be. Now is the only real moment to have a ‘happily ever after.’ Dive in and live it fully! Joy is possible, even amidst challenging circumstances.
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