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Wow, what a week, month, and year this has been. With no sign of it really ending anytime soon! The thing that I've seen, though, is that people are so resiliant, so ready to try, so anxious to be their best selves, so determined to be happy, come what may.
And I just marvel! Some examples that have moved me in recent days:
1) The mom who was told in her teens that because of a severe case of PCOS, she would likely never have children. She beat the odds with fertility treatment once, twice, and then, when she thought her chances of ever conceiving again were gone, due to the sudden cancellation of her infertility treatments because of Covid-19, in her moment of darkest despair, there it was---the two lines of the pregnancy test. In disbelief they took the test 4 times with different brands of pregnancy tests. Of course, the journey isn't done, she had to endure a painful surgery just to keep the baby in her womb in a hospital all alone. But she has courage, she is pulling through and has profound hope that she will be the mom of a miracle baby in a few months!
2) A young mom of 5 beautiful kids, wife of the high school football coach, successful social media personality, and owner of a successful dance studio, gets the devastating news that she has AML Leukemia. Cancer. Serious. Lethal . Robber of joy. As she shares with everyone her ups and downs in a hospital room where noone is allowed because of Covedf-19 restrictions, she bravely keeps going with her live online sharing sessions, where she not only inspires us, but tells us how incredibly blessed she is. She then starts dancing in her room and does a hospital patient fashion show. It's the craziest thing. It's like she is trying to make us feel better when she is the one enduring all that suffering. She is still on her cancer journey and you bet, I'm right there with her, rooting for her and hoping that she'll recover. Some days are complete failures for h er--her blood count numbers go down, her symptoms intensify, and her husband and children can't be there with her. On top of that, she recently lost her mother, who was her biggest fan, and support system. She swears that she feels her mom there, being her guardian angel, orchestrating the care she can't be there to give. She gives an example: Before she knew she had cancer, through her dance studio she was able to help a little girl named Indy Lew, who was diagnosed with....AML Leukemia, the same cancer she now has. Indy Lew's mom has come to the hospital several times to help her, care for her, and give her encouragement because now Indy Lew is now healed, in remission and doing great! I wish @thetiabeestokes every luck on her journey, because she has helped make ours so much better!
3) A young nurse living in my state of Utah, decided to use her skills to help victims hit hard in NYC by Covid-19. When she got there she was appalled at how bleak the situation was. There were not the resources that she saw in her own state, and nurses and doctors were not equipped to adequately care for patients physically, let alone emotionally. She saw many many patients die alone, with no one there to help them through their darkest and final hours. She wondered what she could really do after all, she didn't seem to be making much of a difference....until she met one special lady. She was an African American lady. I say this because what she did next is to me an example of true human love, transcending the barriers of race, culture, or class. This woman was a mother, a grandmother, a church worker, a volunteer in her community, and so much more. The nurse had a realization that this was the one person that she was meant to help. So she pulled out all the stops. She hand-made motivational signs which she hung all around the hospital room, she brought her special things when she could, she checked on her every chance she got, she gave her neck and hand massages, and she communicated directly with her family. She didn't know if this high-risk lady, with her pre-existing health conditions and her advanced age, would pull through. But she didn't give up and although it was pretty dicey for awhile, the woman turned a corner and she started to recover. The nurse was there with her all the way and was finally able to see her go home with her husband, who said that he had prayed her to New York. He said he prayed for someone out-of-state to care for his wife because he knew that person would be there because they truly cared.
If any one of these women decided to quit because of the failure they had seen, were seeing, and may currently be seeing, where would they be now? Whose lives would never be touched by their brave perseverance and really, their pure love. In all cases, I believe that love of self, love of others, and love of God is what drove them to continue in their journey, keep the faith and move forward.
It inspires me to do better, stay the course, work through the weariness, the failures, and maybe give just a little more. After all, maybe someone needs just what I might have to give.
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