Saturday, July 30, 2011

The One With The Explanation

(WARNING: This post has almost nothing to do with writing!)

When I started this blog I was all, "I'm going to update this every day!" That didn't happen. I'll be better this upcoming week, though.
You see, life gets in the way sometimes. We all know this. But there are certain times that life super sucks and to say that it "gets in the way" is an enormous understatement.
On Sunday, July 24, 2011, one of my best friend's daughters passed away. Abigail Marie Jensen was five and half years old and took her last breath in her father's arms. We all knew the end was quickly approaching; Abby was diagnosed just about a year ago with a Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG). Although such a little girl, she showed incredible dignity and grace throughout her journey. The only thing I wrote for the week (except Twitter posts to take my mind off things) was on her father's facebook account after she had passed to tell him that Abby had passed from one father's arms to another father's arms and probably never felt safer. I really believe this is true.
Although my faith wasn't wavering or faltering, Princess Abby certainly strengthened it forever. She was very excited to be going to meet Jesus. Her mom and dad believe that families are forever, and they're right.
So why do I write about it here? As an excuse why I wasn't blogging? Absolutely not.
I certainly wasn't inspired to write this last week; but that's change.
Abby's Make-A-Wish wish was to meet and get a kiss from a real prince; she got to do this when her family took a trip to Walt Disney World.
She also wanted to grow up and have babies.
Well, I won't address specifics in the second part of her wish. But I am going to interpret it.
Abby wished for a happy future she could look forward to.
[Please note she wanted BABIES not BABY. She didn't want an easy future! Abby was willing to work!]
But, stop a minute and think. Are you going through the motions of life? Or are you actually working toward a happy future? To that end, are you enjoying every day of your life?
Something to think about, huh?
One of the reasons I resigned from my job was that I going through the motions of life. One night I went to sleep and I was twenty-four; the next day I woke up and I was thirty!
Gross.
I was no longer creative and I couldn't come up with anything I actually liked doing anymore. Pair that with a slew of friends/acquaintances taking their own lives and I realized I had to make some major changes. Fast.
I am extremely fortunate that I can take a year or two off to try my hand at this writing "thing" and see if I can do anything with it. If I can't, I've got a lot of education behind me to do something else. But I'm not going to worry about it right now.
Right now I'm going to continue to pray for my friend's family and I'm going to find the old Kelly. She laughed a lot. She was always painting and gluing stuff to other stuff. The old Kelly (which is also the younger Kelly, hmm) read a lot, gardened, and was more active. She also did more laundry.
That Kelly was never much of a traveler, so she she's got to be around here somewhere!

3 comments:

  1. A really great post Kelly, and a lot of food for thought. Abby might not have been in this world long, but look at the impact her life has had, and now you're furthering that impact by blogging her story and your observations. That's just plain awesome. :)

    Nice to meet you on the chat tonight!

    Angela @ The Bookshelf Muse

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  2. You post is amazing, Kelly. Thank you so much for writing it and for sharing it. The older I get, the more I realize what is important in life and what just doesn't matter.

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  3. Kelly, moving post! I love it when people lay hold of their lives with both hands and say 'this is my life, my one chance, what do I want to do with it?' Abby knew what she wanted and I believe you do too. GO GIRL!

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