Within Us

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Rhonda’s Reflections: I have returned and expanded person from spending ten days with my niece and her family in Seattle. Their two year old son, Connor, was air lifted down from Alaska to Children’s Hospital in Seattle diagnosed with leukemia. In one moment all their life’s plans and expectations were turned inside out and rearranged. Their life as they knew it ceased to exist and all their dreams for the future must now be put on hold. Today, and for at least the next seven months they must discover what lies within them. Amidst the challenges, painful procedures and frightening unknowns they are called to reach within to reveal their courage. Their happiness depends on being able to travel the journey of honeing blessings out of uncertainty. As hard as it isl, they are the lucky ones. Connor has a fairly good chance of recovery, unlike many who are there. As I offered my hands for a few days to help care for baby brother, Carson, I saw in an even more exagerated way that it is not the circumstances that matter. A sense of joy and grace was available to those who were able to grasp that their power and joy was within. I will return Friday to walk through Connor’s many procedures and chemo treatments, as dad returns today back to work in Alaska. Questions float through my head about how my work has been disrrupted, writing due dates missed, and yet this is where I am called to be… to witness grace in action and to offer a safe and sacred place to be human, along with the reminder, when it is time, to breathe and stand up again one more time than you falter. That is all we are called to do.