Dear Reader:

Just a few years after my initial cancer diagnosis I tuned in to one of Oprah Winfrey’s last shows.

A little toddler sitting between his parents – a boy-was stealing everyone’s hearts in the audience but rather strangely there also wasn’t a dry eye in the audience. I was puzzled as I watched the child exit with a grandparent to the loud clapping within the auditorium.

An interview was taking place between a young family and Oprah.

I kept staring at this young fresh-faced couple who could have been models for a family commercial.

The young wife was talking and within seconds I realized the bittersweet situation taking place. The young husband was holding tightly to his wife’s hand and never let go. The young woman had cancer and only months to live but you would not have known it…except for the tight clasp of her husband’s hand and his adoring eyes.

The young woman’s face was shining with an indescribable light… glowing in happiness and serenity. She was also hilarious and everything coming out of her mouth made each listener smile and even just plain belly laugh!

I stared in amazement at this woman’s ability to look death in the eye with her whole life before her and thank God for everything she had been given.

She admitted when you get gut-punched by the universe it hurts but we are still co/creators of our lives and she wasn’t wasting anytime feeling sorry for herself-that was a luxury she had no time for…

I remember her comparing life to a River…she admitted that it is just human nature to try to steer the River instead of just going with the flow and allowing the current to take us along for the ride. She continued that once we learn there is so much in our lives that are completely out of our control… we then realize God has an even greater plan than what we originally planned.

Before she left that day she winked and said she had left one last surprise that even her husband didn’t know about and he would share it with Oprah.

Several months passed and then one day Oprah had a live interview with the young mother and wife’s husband following her death.

The cameras followed him to a beautiful shady spot on an embankment at the bend of a charming river-her favorite spot.

The husband knew about this part of the funeral plan but what he wasn’t told was what she had picked out as her inscription on the headstone.

Oprah first saw it and burst out laughing along with her husband and the audience… amid tears.

The inscription said:

Excuse me… but please move. You are blocking my view.

So until tomorrow… Don’t we all need to let go of mundane obstacles that block our view of the sheer splendor and beauty of this world and the time in it…God gave us?

” Today is my favorite day” Winnie the Pooh

Yesterday I attended Jake’s ballgame-it was a ” Take me out to the ball game… take me out in the rain…” day!

Rain or not the game was on-Eva Cate and I shared an umbrella while Jake and the team delighted in the rare opportunity to ” play ball” in a steady but soft rain!

Poor Winnie is home from surgery and must wear an obstacle ( cone) that blocks her vision of delight… dog food!