Having my Birthday coinciding with 9/11 means more people than I realize remember this date! Every year since 2001 my Birthday emails, texts and phone calls have tripled! I'm hoping it's not that 'Deb' and 'Disaster' couple together in people's minds but that the simple answer is just a memory trigger!!
We watched sadly those who 10 years on remembered the escape, the loss, the fear and the continual consequence of that impact. Then we celebrated me!
Without sounding fickle, I learned many years ago through my own personal crises to never let the weight of tragedy blanket the joys of life that are everywhere if we want to see them! So then - I learned to give myself permission to laugh and look for the life I wanted knowing that in no way did it diminish what I had experienced. I practiced words of trust like "I believe", "I can", "I am not afraid" and these built bridges across valleys of fear in my wounded heart - it also made a path for others to come to places that otherwise would be a closed door.
Each of us must take on our own suffering head first! We can weep with the world around us, give a hand to the world around us, mentor, love, assist, facilitate and help build (and we should) - but we cannot take on their suffering - if we do, we fall short of the capacity to do any of the above!
It's been in learning to affirm life that I can now love unrestrained, celebrate each year with joy and look forward with hope! It's also in acknowledging suffering that joy can be fully recognized and embraced. This week I choose to thank God for my family, for my life, for my health and for my friends - how about you?
So thanks to all those who not only remembered my Birthday but thought to action it with kind words!
Mwah to all of you!
In kindness - Deb
