You Caring

Sick.

Maybe it's just life. Maybe it's inching towards middle age. Maybe it's social media giving us too vivid a glimpse into one another's lives. But after years of graduations and weddings and baby showers, the news from out there has taken a distressing turn. Last year, I lost an old college friend to recurring brain cancer, the kind that comes with years of surgeries and brave recoveries, each one just a little less than the one before. This year, I have three friends with sites like You Caring or Caring Bridge, places you can go to donate money, time, or a cooked meal to them and their family while they go through chemo or recover from some other such awful thing. Maybe it's just life. Maybe it's middle age. Maybe if this was twenty years ago I would be shrouded in ignorant bliss. Maybe not. Maybe I or someone much closer to me will be next. Maybe I should take better care of myself, give up the last of my vices, or meditate more or get genetic screening. Maybe it's all a crap shoot. But I can say, that in some bizarre twist fate and irony, it is the strong and good people in my life that are being handed these challenging roads to walk.

I wonder what it is that we are to learn from it all.

To contribute to the talented mother and actress pictured above who is bravely fighting an aggressive breast cancer click the link. Thanks.
http://www.youcaring.com/medical-fundraiser/help-domeka-beat-cancer/145633

All Troubles Are Troubles

Words.

An old friend going through a life experience that pretty much makes the rest of us feel like whiners about whatever it is we are facing had this to share with us:

Some days its easier than others to recognize that all troubles, no matter how trifle comparatively, are troubles. Its okay to feel that way. Its okay to recognize a broken nail as a trouble, a forest fire, a difficult to cash check, a long light, a ship wreck...etc. All troubles. All important in their way. If we try to pretend all things are insignificant in comparison to something else, we miss part of this experience. Instead, I measure troubles in the moment and honor them all before moving on.

Validating and true. Comparison and judgement do nothing to help us down our paths. Rather, they cast shadows and lead us into the tangled brambles of self judgement, doubt, and fear. There is no way round your challenges, only through. So face them, one by one.