Dear Reader:

I have read several of Marianne Williamson’s book or excerpts from them and they never cease to give me an “Aha” moment. When I came across this quote I thought to myself it was just what my brother, Ben, and I had talked about on the phone Friday.

It started with a text from my cousin, Marcia. We grew up together for part of my childhood in North Carolina and shared experiences of life together from those young ages. She texted to let me know that her mother had died. Myrtle was in her late nineties…and had been out of touch with reality for quite a long time. She was in a full-time care facility but Marcia was over there constantly checking on her and talking to her.

I called Marcia back and we started reminiscing about the days our families spent together and sharing some laughs.. It felt good to talk to her again. I told her I would let Ben know and pass the information on to others.

Soon Ben and I were caught up in some of  those same memories Marcia and I had just shared. Since Ben was older at the time of daddy’s death and has more memories of mother and daddy together than David or I ever did …he now talked about how different our lives would have been if daddy hadn’t died so early and we had grown up with more financial advantages like our cousins had.

After conversing on the “what if’s” in life… if tragedy hadn’t struck so early…I told Ben that this was true…but then we wouldn’t be the people we are today if our paths had gone in a different direction.

It was the hardships that we went through that began molding us into the final sculpture of our being. I told him that the only part I wish I could change was the Vietnam War and its long-lasting impact on him.

Ben agreed but then re-countered that as difficult as that time in his life was and the aftermath leading to his life-long struggle with depression…he is who he is. It was his on-going battle with depression himself, that made him a good counselor to parents and children with special needs….an area he excelled in all his life. He understood the parents’ anger and frustration over a child who struggled to fit into a school system geared more for normalcy than special requirements.

Like Williamson’s quote conveys: Ben’s life experiences geared him up to write his memoirs of his Vietnam experiences and his life in the after-math…a book which is helping hundreds of others.

Ben has started sending his book to other veterans, fellow combat veterans in the Veterans counseling classes he attends regularly in Myrtle Beach. To date he has, also, heard back from former President George Bush, officers and men from his unit in Vietnam…and even some well-known military names from that period of history.

He said that these days just going to the mailbox is exciting because he never knows who he will hear from…all thanking him for his candor and hope in his re-telling of his personal experiences. Ben has “burst forth with his greatness that could not have been achieved “without going through exactly the things he has gone through.”

I felt like I finally “came of age” when I visited St. Jude’s Chapel of Hope for the first time with Honey in July of 2010. Today it is my constant wellspring of love and hope…the impetus that lead me to the blog. For this…I will always be eternally grateful. My blog has given me a special  purpose in life.

THE PATH OF BEFRIENDING OUR EXPERIENCE REQUIRES GREAT GENTLENESS AND PATIENCE. –Tara Brach

So until tomorrow…Let us not dwell in the past…lamenting over what might have been and blaming fate for our trials and tribulations but see them for what they are… spiritual stepping stones to greatness.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” (Marianne Williamson)

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh