as many of you know, i have been through a personal tragedy these past almost 3 years now. (and it's not over yet. in some ways, mostly legal ones, it's just getting started.) but this post is not about my tragedy.
it's about what i've done with it. and i tell you about what i've done with it not to self-aggrandize (how often ya get a chance to use that word?) but to teach. to instruct. to, really, "pay it forward." if i can be an example to you, then good has come of this pain.
what i have done with it:
- i have prayed. yes, for my relief but more importantly......for his.
- i have re-defined what it means to have "the good life." and the new, improved definition is, well, new. and improved.
- i have increased my charitable giving.
- i have gotten off my high horse.
- i have read about the lives of the saints.
- i have tried, in almost every instance, to think of this from his perspective. and not from mine. or, at least, in addition to mine.
- i have lit votive candles at church.
- i have become a better therapist. (and i wasn't all that shabby to begin with!) :)
- i have let more people cut in front of me. whether they're grateful or not.
- i have thought and prayed and thought and prayed and thought and prayed. and im not done. (and i don't plan to ever get done!)
- i have come to appreciate pain. to appreciate it. carly simon didn't have time for it. that's painful right there.
- i have discerned what matters.
- i have discovered strength i never knew i had.
- i have become humble. it. is. not. a. bout. me.
- i have come to know that i need to come to know God.
- in short, i have been "re-born."
- but, shhhh.......don't tell that to my priest. :)
