There is only one success~ to be able to spend your life in your own way.
~Charles Marley
We re-entered our “normal” life late last night after an amazing ten days away in California. The trip, spanning the area outside of Los Angeles for the first half of the trip in hotel luxury, changed scenery to hilly San Francisco and then up farther into the hills to a campsite of rugged beauty and log cabins for a Memorial Day weekend of volunteering for a family camp for families with children who have cancer.
There is so much to say. So much to process. My heart is full. Overflowing actually. Beautiful little faces are still smiling up at me when I close my eyes, bittersweet pain still reaches out and grabs at my heart when I remember the daily challenges these families face. The fear. The bravery. The strength. I felt small in my ability to wipe away the terror. Huge in my ability to love and give little hugs and kisses to babies and three year olds looking up to me for a sign of hope. We all did what we could. Sometimes my *could* was wiping down counters, serving food, washing dishes. One day it was helping on the zip line and cheering on tiny tots and their parents who faced this new fear just as bravely as they tackled cancer. Head on and with passion.
This was not a sad place. It was a valley of hope. A treasure chest of inspirations. It was a festival of dance parties, camp fires, marshmellow roasts, hugs and laughter. It was a waterfall of courage, washing over you, bathing you in new priorities, reminding you of the important battles, releasing you of the small unimportant ones. Sometimes we forget that all we really have to do is just let go.
So many things just don’t matter. You can really choose what is important when you are reminded of what is worth fighting for. Family, life, loved ones. Hope…
Home now to laundry and meetings with the end of the school year and a broken down ice machine and oh by the way…the dogs need a bath. And the new month is here and the bills need to be paid and the grocery list will need to be done and Michael is graduating and they still need to be signed up for swimming and ……..
yes….I’m home. And I do need to do all that, and I do need to answer my e-mails and I do need to re-enter my life. But I don’t want to forget. The lessons of this vacation and the peace of unplugging and the importance of priorities and family and hope and love.
There will be much more to say. So much more. Right now, I have only a question.
If You could live your life the way you wanted it with absolutely NO FEAR OF FAILURE, what would your life look like? What would it take for you to get there?
