One year ago today I was in Montreal General with a horrific head injury. Because of this accident, I do not think I will ever again joke on the first of April. The sad circumstances surrounding the recent death of actress Natasha Richardson brought home to me how very fortunate I was that night. The following months involved a few emergency visits to our local hospital for respiratory probems, headaches, subsequent CAT scans , sleep apnea and allergy tests. The year long congestion that began in November 2007 slowly left me in December of 2008 as mysteriously as it appeared.
As with all life changing cirumstances, we are meant to learn a lesson .... and I did. It was something I had already known but in fact had not practised enough in my daily life. I learned to put the 'joy' back into 'enjoy'. I learned to emulate my dogs and simply "be" in the moment that I am in.
I learned to be more God like .. to forgive, to appreciate , and above all to love more deeply than ever before. Not just my immediate family or friends, but extending a hand to a stranger on the street whenever I had the chance. To say hello more. To have fun more. To laugh more. Hug more. Smile.
To be a better person. A strange thing happened when I did those things. I felt amazingly good.
So was this the secret to life? Do unto others.
If you follow this blog and read between the lines , you might have realized that I had lost a friend of mine to cancer a few weeks back. She was the sister of my best friend .... the one we had visited out west in the fall. By the time the new year began , she was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. She died on March 19th. I learned a lot from knowing this special woman.
She lived , traveled, enjoyed , cherished , gave to others and loved so generously.... to her sisters , her brothers, her husband , her friends , and to people she did not know at all.
She was a humanitarian and an environmentalist. Her life was full.
The head trauma left me with a 4 inch scar on the back of my head. Paulette's death left me with an undeniable ache in my heart . Both taught me the same lesson.
Live like you were living.
6 comments:
Happy Anniversary?
Finding the silver lining: Too bad more people don't practice that.
Mom..I love this post! Good job. I can't believe it's been a year since you dinged your head.
You've got it all right - live, love, laugh. Everyday.
Every single moment of every single day.
Why does it take things like that to bring us back where we should have been all along...but I am so blessed that it does. Thank you for the reminder...so glad you're still here and such a good friend and a blessing.
Krikey! It's been a year already! WOWWIE WOW WOW!
I'm just glad you're still here... The world needs more Ma Hortons.
Post a Comment