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Showing posts with label live life well. Show all posts
Showing posts with label live life well. Show all posts
Friday, August 26, 2022
Monday, February 28, 2022
Sunday, July 11, 2021
Sunday, June 27, 2021
Sunday, February 28, 2021
Friday, October 30, 2020
October Happenings
There's just something about the crisp, chilly days of autumn...And we have filled them up to overflowing this year (there might be a pic or two!)
Traveling the back roads of America's heartland with good friends, a surprise and cherished family photo shoot, and a fabulous, much-needed girls getaway to Waco...
We have been loved well by our family and friends!!
In a world
where you can be anything,
Be
Kind...
My Love,
Always,
Jane
Always,
Jane
Wednesday, September 30, 2020
How to Live Life Well in the Midst of the Storm
Bad news... we all will get our share.
A friend's cancer diagnosis would be bad... yours would be worse.
And finding out it's pancreatic cancer might top the list. We have been there. Those moments, the dark days, are forever etched in our minds and hearts. A legacy we would never have chosen...
Bad news. It might be a financial disaster, a messy divorce, a devastating diagnosis, a lost child... it's the news that shutters a heart... It can color your days and stall your steps.
But what if it doesn't have to? What if there's a way to live life best even in the midst of the bad?
He has been handed some bad news in his life.
In 2008, Neil's world fell apart, as he spiraled from a sudden divorce to the unexpected death of a close friend.
Dark colored his days and nights.
He found a way to turn his gaze from the grief he was experiencing to the joys, however small, he encountered in each day.
Out of his intentionality a movement of sorts was born. Neil began recording his experience at 1000 Awesome Things... finding joy and hope in sweet moments, such as
snow days
sleeping in new bedsheets
roasting the perfect marshmallow
hanging your hand out the window of a car
the smell of rain on a hot sidewalk
... for 1,000 days, Neil jotted down 1 awesome thing every day, no matter how big or small... as a way to jog the heart into seeing the good, the sweet and the hope even in the midst of the bad.
In 2010, Neil gave his first TED talk. It's only 17 minutes long, but it sure struck a chord for me. Perhaps you might find the hope in his story too...
The 3 A's of Awesome... A new way to approach living life well with intentionality.
If you're here, my guess is that you've had bad news at some point. You're looking for hope, for life, for joy... for a way out of the dark.
Neil offers a little encouragement as we travel these sometimes dark and stormy roads.
Change how you think... Determine to see the small pleasures in life... Choose to find the blessing intentionally...
Live right now...this moment... Make it count.
After all, it might be all we have.
Graced to Love you,
Always,
Jane
Thursday, May 31, 2012
A Splendid Torch
It occurs to me that my last 3 posts have somehow dealt more with death and remembrance than usual... In the last week or so, we have mourned with a sweet family on the sudden loss of their mom, we have "run the race" with Travis as he honored the memory of 2 firefighters who gave their lives fighting a church blaze, and on Memorial Day, we thanked the many military families who gave their all protecting this great country.
Death. It comes in many ways. Some know their fate and meet it head on. To some, it comes unexpectedly and suddenly. To all, it comes eventually. And we mourn. Grieve for the one we miss so desparately. For lost moments. For what could have been. Always, we mourn.
And yet, my heart still beats with the message that Death for the Believer is one of Glorious Homecoming, a moment immeasurably Beautiful and Holy. Not to be feared, nor grieved. A blessing to the soul gaining Paradise, a Comfort and Peace to the loved ones left behind.
This would be the flip side of our mourning. It is the conversation I want to have with my family. An intentional discussion to let them know that just as I have embraced Life, so will I embrace Death. I want them to remember the words I have spoken, that I am in a place of incomparable Magnificence, a place I have been journeying to all my life...
And today, I found a kindred spirit in George Bernard Shaw. He speaks to this message so much more eloquently than I:
"This is the true joy in life, being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one. Being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no brief candle to me: it is sort of a splendid torch which I've got to hold up for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations."
May your torch burn brightly as you journey this life!
Finding Grace in every Moment, Jane
Death. It comes in many ways. Some know their fate and meet it head on. To some, it comes unexpectedly and suddenly. To all, it comes eventually. And we mourn. Grieve for the one we miss so desparately. For lost moments. For what could have been. Always, we mourn.
And yet, my heart still beats with the message that Death for the Believer is one of Glorious Homecoming, a moment immeasurably Beautiful and Holy. Not to be feared, nor grieved. A blessing to the soul gaining Paradise, a Comfort and Peace to the loved ones left behind.
This would be the flip side of our mourning. It is the conversation I want to have with my family. An intentional discussion to let them know that just as I have embraced Life, so will I embrace Death. I want them to remember the words I have spoken, that I am in a place of incomparable Magnificence, a place I have been journeying to all my life...
And today, I found a kindred spirit in George Bernard Shaw. He speaks to this message so much more eloquently than I:
"This is the true joy in life, being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one. Being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no brief candle to me: it is sort of a splendid torch which I've got to hold up for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations."
May your torch burn brightly as you journey this life!
Finding Grace in every Moment, Jane
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Friendship in the Fire
Just a few years ago I may have scoffed at the idea of making friends across the country through the internet. Actually I never even thought about it. But today, through this pancreatic cancer journey, online, I have met some amazing people. Men and women from all walks of life, joined by a common cord.
Cancer.
They are strong, funny, sensitive, caring, struggling, overcoming, surviving souls. They're called cyber friends. Who knew that I could come to care so deeply for someone I've never met? And yet it has happened time and time again. It is a blessing I didn't see coming... Friendship in the Fire.
One of those friends has been a huge inspiration. Her name is Jeanne and we "met" several months ago after she had been recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Jeanne and mom had so much in common. Both were nurses. Both had lived healthy lifestyles, no risk factors. Both were diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer. Both were given just 4-6 months to live. Both have given their doctors a run for their money! Mom survived over 12 months. Jeanne is passing her 6 month mark this week. Both have chosen to live life well.
And that brings me to my Shout-Out today. Jeanne this is for you!
Jeanne has made some remarkable decisions along this journey and one of them was to continue working out at her local fitness center. She is working with a trainer to increase her endurance and to retain muscle mass, two big problem areas for pancreatic cancer patients. Jeanne knows that there may come a time when her body weakens to a point that going to the gym is impossible, but until then she strengthens her body, and tells cancer that he picked the wrong girl for this fight! She has so inspired the trainer and manager that they shared her story with the CEO, who asked her permission to share her story on his blog! Here's the link:
One Year to Live
Jeanne has chosen to live life well. In the beginning she said she was "feeling robbed by the cancer." It's so true. What the cancer and the chemo does to the physical body can be devastating. Jeanne choose to help her body help herself - at the gym.
The way I see it, when you receive a terminal diagnosis there are two things you can do:
1) Lay down and get on with dying,
or
2) Get up and get on with living.
So many of the pancreatic cancer patients I've met have the same Live Life Well motto. And that deserves a Big Bravo! The example you set is a path for all who follow. I for one am deeply grateful for the legacy of strength and hope you are living.
Continuing in Grace, Jane
Cancer.
They are strong, funny, sensitive, caring, struggling, overcoming, surviving souls. They're called cyber friends. Who knew that I could come to care so deeply for someone I've never met? And yet it has happened time and time again. It is a blessing I didn't see coming... Friendship in the Fire.
One of those friends has been a huge inspiration. Her name is Jeanne and we "met" several months ago after she had been recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Jeanne and mom had so much in common. Both were nurses. Both had lived healthy lifestyles, no risk factors. Both were diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer. Both were given just 4-6 months to live. Both have given their doctors a run for their money! Mom survived over 12 months. Jeanne is passing her 6 month mark this week. Both have chosen to live life well.
And that brings me to my Shout-Out today. Jeanne this is for you!
Jeanne has made some remarkable decisions along this journey and one of them was to continue working out at her local fitness center. She is working with a trainer to increase her endurance and to retain muscle mass, two big problem areas for pancreatic cancer patients. Jeanne knows that there may come a time when her body weakens to a point that going to the gym is impossible, but until then she strengthens her body, and tells cancer that he picked the wrong girl for this fight! She has so inspired the trainer and manager that they shared her story with the CEO, who asked her permission to share her story on his blog! Here's the link:
One Year to Live
Jeanne has chosen to live life well. In the beginning she said she was "feeling robbed by the cancer." It's so true. What the cancer and the chemo does to the physical body can be devastating. Jeanne choose to help her body help herself - at the gym.
The way I see it, when you receive a terminal diagnosis there are two things you can do:
1) Lay down and get on with dying,
or
2) Get up and get on with living.
So many of the pancreatic cancer patients I've met have the same Live Life Well motto. And that deserves a Big Bravo! The example you set is a path for all who follow. I for one am deeply grateful for the legacy of strength and hope you are living.
Continuing in Grace, Jane
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