Friend of Julie: The Gift

While searching for an old email this morning, I found a message from my California friend Mary, who I've known since I was six. Her message was in response to my blog post Live in the Moment (7/23/13), in which I expressed my frustration at how long my journey was taking while others passed me by and reached their goals. Inspired by her words of encouragement, I want to share the gift of her message with all of you.

December 2000 (my California friend on right)

Going through my email, I reread this piece which feels, to me, so honest. We do so often get discouraged in our journeys and we have to remind ourselves of our successes and remember to keep our eyes on the prize.

Think of it like attending college. Sure, lots of folks finished school before you... and perhaps even the people who started the same time as you finished sooner. Some semesters are better and easier than others—our grades higher, the work is more fluid and easier to learn.

It seems like a long process when you are in it, and like so many sacrifices have to be made. And they do. And you make them because the final goal is what is important to you—more important than being able to buy a new car and eat that big piece of cheesecake.

All you can do is live in the moment—get through that paper, study for that final, finish one semester and then the next, until one day, you’re standing there with that master’s degree in your hand thinking “WOW! I did it!”

You can’t waste time in the middle of it or cry “Boo hoo, I haven’t graduated yet,” because the important thing is that you’re there—focused—and intent upon the reward that you know awaits you at the end—a better life, deeper satisfaction, greater physical and mental health, stronger self-confidence and self—esteem.

So, you are right. Get into the moment and ENJOY every minute of it because it is your WONDERFUL life and you ARE on the right road and heading in the right direction.

Consider this. Yesterday I spoke with Jane. She weighs 77 pounds now. She has to walk with a walker. Last week she fell and broke a rib. Her MS and the complications from the chemo she did to fight her breast cancer have essentially made her disabled and she is barely 60 years old. She is having a hard time coming to terms with her own self-image; she is no longer the buff massage therapist she once was. But she is still Jane, regardless of her body’s strengths or weaknesses. She is trying to focus on that.

Think of what a blessing it is to have a healthy body. Appreciate it. Use it. It is a gift.

I agree with my friend—having a healthy body is a blessing. I only need to look back four years to remember how I unhealthy I was and how I could barely walk five minutes in my size 30/32. I appreciate that I have a choice to be healthy or not—many others do not have this choice. This choice is a gift that I proudly accept.

What about you? Will you accept your choice as a gift?


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