Dear Reader:

At a certain point in our lives…don’t we finally recognize that we have grown closer to whom we have been deep down inside… all our lives? It has just taken us enough life experiences to identify it?

Crises have a way of bringing about this personal “awakening.” When I would share with someone the seemingly absurd idea that I like “Living with Breast Cancer Becky” more than “Pre-Breast Cancer Becky” I got the oddest looks. But I bet if a poll was done for the millions of Americans living with cancers of all types today…many would say that their cancer was not just life-altering physically but spiritually… in the way they perceive and appreciate life more now than prior to the diagnosis.

Nothing is taken for granted in life after hearing a medical professional tell you the odds of the amount of time still probably left in your life. Suddenly the birds sing more beautifully, the sun shines more glowingly, the flowers and nature delight you beyond earlier experiences…it is like your life goes into instant technicolor…bigger, brighter.

And the longer one goes past an original diagnosis prediction…the greater the intensity of life envelopes you.

It is the same now…the predictions when this pandemic might end are varied in “extremes” depending on the individual predictor’s idea of what the ending should look like. In the meantime it is up to us to live life to the fullest daily and look on the time we have in quarantine as an opportunity to slow down, look around, and discover what makes our own happiness and passion abound.

Years ago, when the Betty Crocker Company first began selling their cake mixes, they offered a product which only needed water. All you had to do was add water to the mix which came in the box, and you would get a perfect, delicious cake every time.

It bombed. No one bought it and the company couldn’t understand why, so they commissioned a study which brought back a surprising answer. It seemed that people weren’t buying the cake mix because it was too easy. They didn’t want to be totally excluded from the work of preparing a cake; they wanted to feel that they were contributing something to it.

So, Betty Crocker changed the formula and required the customer to add an egg in addition to water. Immediately, the new cake mix was a huge success.

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Isn’t that what most of us want to do now…to be a part of the solution by helping others who need us the most during these difficult days?

Aren’t our own lives brightened when we can lend a helping hand to a friend, neighbor, or stranger during this pandemic? A few years down the road don’t we want to remember the positive changes that came about during this time…especially the ones we got involved in?

So until tomorrow…a mantra to live by:

“We believe it’s the little things that mean the most, that kindness really does matter, you should always be yourself, do what you love, and try to make the world a better place. (Live Happy/Natural Life)

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Mollie posted some pictures of their bright little ray of sunshine who in all her childhood innocence just plays, kisses on her family and Poogie, and loves life. Miss Eloise.

Today’s “funny”…a coronavirus  spoof of the famous painting of Michelangelo’s The Creation of Adam in the Sistine Chapel. *(Thought of you Joan Semle 🙂