As a caveat to this post, I have to state a disclaimer: this thread is the first part of what was initially intended as a personal journal of mine dedicated to Izzy & Lucas that I was going to title "Lessons for my Children". Though as I began writing the first page, I was already editing it and wanting to add thoughts to it as if it were going to be a book i'd eventually publish. So what better forum than to post each "episode" here. As a warning, it has a somber tone as it is looking ahead to if our worst fears were realized but also from the perspective of someone who comes out on the other end a survivor and what can be gleaned from it. So this will be a series of sorts intermingled with other posts from Alysha. I hope you find inspiration from them as that is their intention and that you all may take the words with love and maybe, just maybe, it'll have an impact on your own life.
~Pete
A Drop in the Bucket: The Leak
Whether confronted with or reflecting on a life-changing or even life-threatening event, one can't help but ponder: have I accomplished everything I wanted to, have I loved enough, have I made a difference, will I be remembered? It puts everything into perspective. If that event doesn't make even the slightest change in your life, if you carry on saying, thinking, acting, eating, praying the the same as before; you've already lost. Everything happens for a reason. If the purpose of your journey past something traumatic or simply profound passed you by shrouded in the shock and sadness or even anger or depression it brought with it, then you ARE lost. We all have a choice of how we will allow things to affect us. More than the best medicine and the most highly complicated medical procedures can cure, faith and a positive attitude are far more powerful healing tools, as a body may be broken, by it's spirit will sustain it.
In today's cliche society, a person faced with a prognosis that carries a definitive 'shelf-life', may be inclined to accept that as the focus of their remaining days and compile a 'wish-list' of things yet to be accomplished; the ephemeral "bucket-list". Great adventures always dreamed of, far away lands dreamed of visiting, coveted possessions never afforded. Whatever the desire, the list of things one could imagine 'checking off' before their time is up would bring joy, satisfaction, and a sense of completion culminating in a sigh of "Now I can die happy." But what will it gain you? What can you take with you when you go? Most importantly, but contrary to today's perspective: what have you left behind? Will you be asking yourself in the last days; have I lived just but a drop of the full bucket I wish I had or was my life something that inspired, and will continue to inspire in others, a love of life, compassion, faith, strength in all things, love and wisdom that will someday, long after you're gone, overflow the bucket from just that one drop.
~Pete
A Drop in the Bucket: The Leak
Whether confronted with or reflecting on a life-changing or even life-threatening event, one can't help but ponder: have I accomplished everything I wanted to, have I loved enough, have I made a difference, will I be remembered? It puts everything into perspective. If that event doesn't make even the slightest change in your life, if you carry on saying, thinking, acting, eating, praying the the same as before; you've already lost. Everything happens for a reason. If the purpose of your journey past something traumatic or simply profound passed you by shrouded in the shock and sadness or even anger or depression it brought with it, then you ARE lost. We all have a choice of how we will allow things to affect us. More than the best medicine and the most highly complicated medical procedures can cure, faith and a positive attitude are far more powerful healing tools, as a body may be broken, by it's spirit will sustain it.
In today's cliche society, a person faced with a prognosis that carries a definitive 'shelf-life', may be inclined to accept that as the focus of their remaining days and compile a 'wish-list' of things yet to be accomplished; the ephemeral "bucket-list". Great adventures always dreamed of, far away lands dreamed of visiting, coveted possessions never afforded. Whatever the desire, the list of things one could imagine 'checking off' before their time is up would bring joy, satisfaction, and a sense of completion culminating in a sigh of "Now I can die happy." But what will it gain you? What can you take with you when you go? Most importantly, but contrary to today's perspective: what have you left behind? Will you be asking yourself in the last days; have I lived just but a drop of the full bucket I wish I had or was my life something that inspired, and will continue to inspire in others, a love of life, compassion, faith, strength in all things, love and wisdom that will someday, long after you're gone, overflow the bucket from just that one drop.
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