On August 19th, 1981, I came into this world; however, on August 19th, 2024, my beautiful and powerful mother left it.

That was about 2 weeks ago from the time I’m writing this Blog, and it seems so odd and wrong to say. Quick changes to our reality often have that effect on us – not being easy to accept.

I could go on an on about such a sensitive and delicate topic like this, however I really want to share a few thoughts that have come to me out of this situation that I never really experienced before, in hopes that I can take a sliver of meaning from this and help us all out a little. These lessons all came to me within the 24 surrounding my mothers’ passing.

First of all, our physical bodies are fragile. In the opening sentence of this post, I described my mother as being powerful – which she absolutely was. If anything, she was almighty. However, in the last few weeks we had with her – her physical body was not. I understand that this is normal for anyone remotely near their final days on Earth, regardless… this left a strong reminder to me that we can not go through lives taking our physical health and strength for granted. We need to take better care of our physical health immediately. This body we have is just meat and bones, and it needs to be fed, exercised and cared for. This won’t just extend your life, but it will improve the quality of it. If you want to live a long life and meet your grandkids, or even great grand kids – take care of your physical health. To be specific – you NEED to weight and cardiovascular train consistently, you NEED to eat healthy almost all the time, you need stretch (or better yet, do Yoga), and you need to get fresh air, Vitamin D, and any supplements you may be lacking. If you don’t – you will lose your body quickly.

Second – we are capable of being much more mentally strong than we realize. One of the most mind boggling characteristics about my mom’s experience is that she didn’t complain despite torturous conditions. In fact, not only did she not complain – she was defiant in the face of certain defeat, and refused to back down. IN FACT, not only was she defiant – she actually spent this time being grateful, loving and concerned for others. HOW IS IT POSSIBLE that when every physical reading and visual cue is sounding a critical and painful alarm, that someone’s disposition can be graceful, gentle and kind? HOW? The only thing I can think of is that the desire and the force of love is stronger than anything else this world can muster. Even when pain if sharply focused on the individual – love can prevail. The lesson I learned here is that our most precious and valuable gifts to this world are love, grace and kindness – and we must give as much of these gifts to each other as possible. Take your time HERE to give the world the best you have to offer. Life can and will be hard, but the human spirit is incredibly strong and can shine in the darkest of circumstances. Focus on letting your light shine as much and as often as possible.

Together, those are some of the most significant lessons that I can share with you from this experience. There are many personal lessons I’ve learned, as well as MANY that are natural conclusions of these two – however that being said these are the foundational principles that really stand out to me.

You’ve heard a million times that life is precious, and I suppose this post is aimed at shedding some light on why. It’s precious because it is both fragile and ours to make worthwhile. There are so many aspects to this experience that are ours to shape and share with others, and those aspects within our control are all we have in this world.

Be strong enough to love yourself and others with all you’ve got.