In one second your life is about to change irrevocably
My friends made the last entry into the online journal they have kept while their young daughter was dying. I still remember going to the hospital that day when the baby was born. I remember her red red face. I remember seeing my friends happy to have been through the delivery and ready to start their new life. The reality came at them in micro adjustments so that by the time two years had come and gone, this little girl had changed their and other lives completely.
In the wink of an eye, another friend wakes to greet the day, a day where everything is coming together for her after many years of struggles. And in one second, in the groggy clarity of the morning, her life changes irrevocably with sad news of her son. As if the elephant gods had stepped carelessly on her chest and mashed her heart down to the ground.
I sent a note to my friends after the dedication of a swing set they had installed in their daughter’s memory and said I am reminded again and again that the meaning of life is to live it. And grace under pressure sometimes looks like a high wire act while juggling, and some fall off the wire to no net below, and some sprout wings and fly and this circus act is our shifting reality.