This year hasn't really turned out to be as fabulous or inspiring in the way that we all hope for every New Year's Eve. I mean, it's not like I typically those midnight toasts to materialize into the health and prosperity that we cheers to. But if I'd most certainly gotten to the point that I felt pretty good about maintaining the status quo. It was reasonable, I thought, to assume family members' health wouldn't deteriorate too quickly. Business most likely wouldn't get too slow. We'd manage to continue to lead our comfortable lives, my family and I. We'd continue to live reasonably modestly (only an American would state such a fallacy!) and splurge from time to time. There was nothing on the horizon that seemed that it would rock our world beyond the normal ebb and flow of the life we'd become accustomed to. I was wrong.
I've been on the sidelines plenty of times to witness pain and grief. My husband and I are privileged to have two dear friends who literally stared cancer in the face and told it to go to hell. They fought hard and they are winning the daily battle against this bastard curse that we have come to call reality for too many. We see daily that hate that infuses so many minds and drives them to acts of terror in our global community. Shoot, we hurt when our kids experience the reality of feeling left out.
But as much as we all hate to admit it, without the struggle the victories wouldn't be so sweet. Tragedy unites us--ALL politics aside--to me there is no more emblematic image of American pride as when George W. Bush reminded all of us from the rubble of the World Trade Center that our country would not be destroyed. Every time I hear Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down" I'm taken back to the whirlpool of emotions I had in the days following 9/11...shock, grief, patriotism. It was a raw, horrific, beautiful time when people set aside their own agendas and looked outward to see who needed help next. Its times like these that remind us that we are not alone. That the artificial constraints that we allow to so frequently divide us don't stand up to Our collective hearts were broken and it was in the wounding that we vowed to press on, to not merely survive, but to go on living. That's true redemptive beauty emerging from the ashes: to live when enduring seems like a long shot. Our cancer ass-kicking friends typify this spirit.
So do the thousands of Paralympians who just wrapped up their games in Rio. I spent a significant time watching events this past week and a half. I'll just put it out there and say that I was completely ignorant about what all these games entailed. All I knew was that they coincided with the Olympic games and that the participants had some sort of physical challenge. Well, let me tell you that I feel like my eyes have been opened to a whole new realm of humanity. These are incredible human beings. I was completely enthralled at their level of athletic prowess and I found myself fascinated by the individual stories of triumph and perseverance. I've always been someone who wants to know "the story." It's the journalist in me.
So it's September and in a few short months we'll be ringing in 2017.
soul searching-what makes me tick is " the story"
asking why-let go, look up. the point is to let go
grown up struggling w/sadness
"I know we were meant for something better"
