Growing up we had a sandbox in our back yard. I think it began with some sort of boundaries and then my mom got tired of trying to keep the sand in those boundaries and just had the truck deliver sand and pour it around the maple tree in the back yard. It was the meeting place for our neighborhood. Life was good in our sandbox in Hope, Indiana, where we were loved and nurtured by our families and neighborhood.
We often went to our grandparents farm, my mom’s parents,
about ten minutes from our house in town where we shared meals and working in
the garden with our extended family. I
hated snapping green beans back then but now I often remember those times
fondly because we all sat on the porch together telling stories and snapping
beans. We were loved and nurtured by our family on that farm.
This past week I sat around the table with my 94-year-old
uncle, 93 year-old aunt, 92 year-old aunt, my 86 year-old mom and three of their
first cousins. Wow I hope I have inherited some of those genes! We sat and
shared many stories of their time of growing up and I am reminded that life is
hard. It always has been. It always will be. It is our attitude that makes all
the difference in how we live our life.
I think the first time I realized that life is
really hard is when two weeks before my 13th birthday my dad had a
massive heart attack and died. My brother was a marine fighting in Viet Nam. My
little brother was six and now my mom was a single mom. I can’t begin to
imagine how hard that was for my mom and my brothers. What I do know is that my world was forever
changed and that I would spend years trying to heal from the loss of my father.
I made many mistakes in my search to heal from this loss.
One of the easiest ways for us to keep
life simple is to remember three G’s for a deeper and more solid faith: Grieve
fully, feel Gratitude profoundly, and be humble enough to do the Grunt work!
That is it, really. It is that simple and that hard. We need to stay open
enough to feel the grief of those who have died or left, we need to never
forget the gratitude for all the mercy we have been given, and we need to
always just do the grunt work and not complain about it! Sometimes when we try
to explain it more, we just dilute the message. And the message is simply Love
Heals.
Several years ago I chose to no longer be a victim
and to begin to live life with an attitude of forgiveness and gratitude. Many blessings have
come these last few years. But just when I think life will not be hard, I am
again reminded that life is hard. It always has been. It always will be. It is
my attitude that will make a difference in how I live my life.
“This is the day the
Lord hath made. Let me be glad and rejoice in it.”
