Back to the Operating Room
Kathleen requires minor surgery. There are areas of her skin on the breast that aren't healing well and in order to speed up the recovery process, the will need to remove these areas. I never imagined all the things that could potentially go astray or slow matters down before commencing chemotherapy. Kathleen is taking this all in stride and with optimism, for she knows it will lead her to the outcome: full recovery.
How true this is in life; so much can go wrong and yet so much can go right. It's a matter of how we look at it. My dear friend, Kathleen Marcove, wrote an article just before Christmas 2005 that addresses this very subject. I was so moved that I want to share it with you.
The Perfect Gift
As I was putting together my Christmas shopping list I began to think about the many gifts I have received in my life. Not the material gifts, but the treasured experiences that have shaped me. There are the obvious ones—my first true love, my wedding day, the birth of my children. I received these with an open heart and will always attach great meaning and significance to them. But perhaps the most valuable gifts were the ones I did not want—the sudden death of my mother, the big job I did not get, the feeling of rejection by a friend. These were things I found difficult to accept as gifts. I have had a hard time finding the proper place they hold in my life. At times these experiences have seemed to completely define me, at other times it is as if they never happened at all.
I realize it is a kin to the Christmas morning when you asked for a diamond-studded watch, but Santa brought a food processor instead. You feel disappointed because it was not the beautiful thing you wanted. Eventually, when you get over the shock, you try to use the food processor but make mistakes with it. You even cut yourself on the blade at times. But over the years you begin to understand how to use it to make things better, and eventually you find a comfortable and appropriate place to store it in your life—not in the middle of the dining room, and not in the garage. But in a place ready to strengthen you when you need it and to give you comfort knowing that if you can see that unwanted gift of your life as a blessing to create passion and beauty for yourself and others, you can do anything.
In his classic work Man’s Search For Meaning, Victor Frankel, reflecting on his experience in a Nazi concentration camp, writes that “everything can be taken from a man but the last of the human freedoms: to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.” We all have that freedom of choice every moment of our lives. Be conscious of the attitude you choose to adopt towards all that life gives you—the thing you don’t want may just be the most meaningful experience of your life, the perfect gift.
love and blessings, xp
Kathleen requires minor surgery. There are areas of her skin on the breast that aren't healing well and in order to speed up the recovery process, the will need to remove these areas. I never imagined all the things that could potentially go astray or slow matters down before commencing chemotherapy. Kathleen is taking this all in stride and with optimism, for she knows it will lead her to the outcome: full recovery.
How true this is in life; so much can go wrong and yet so much can go right. It's a matter of how we look at it. My dear friend, Kathleen Marcove, wrote an article just before Christmas 2005 that addresses this very subject. I was so moved that I want to share it with you.
The Perfect Gift
As I was putting together my Christmas shopping list I began to think about the many gifts I have received in my life. Not the material gifts, but the treasured experiences that have shaped me. There are the obvious ones—my first true love, my wedding day, the birth of my children. I received these with an open heart and will always attach great meaning and significance to them. But perhaps the most valuable gifts were the ones I did not want—the sudden death of my mother, the big job I did not get, the feeling of rejection by a friend. These were things I found difficult to accept as gifts. I have had a hard time finding the proper place they hold in my life. At times these experiences have seemed to completely define me, at other times it is as if they never happened at all.
I realize it is a kin to the Christmas morning when you asked for a diamond-studded watch, but Santa brought a food processor instead. You feel disappointed because it was not the beautiful thing you wanted. Eventually, when you get over the shock, you try to use the food processor but make mistakes with it. You even cut yourself on the blade at times. But over the years you begin to understand how to use it to make things better, and eventually you find a comfortable and appropriate place to store it in your life—not in the middle of the dining room, and not in the garage. But in a place ready to strengthen you when you need it and to give you comfort knowing that if you can see that unwanted gift of your life as a blessing to create passion and beauty for yourself and others, you can do anything.
In his classic work Man’s Search For Meaning, Victor Frankel, reflecting on his experience in a Nazi concentration camp, writes that “everything can be taken from a man but the last of the human freedoms: to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.” We all have that freedom of choice every moment of our lives. Be conscious of the attitude you choose to adopt towards all that life gives you—the thing you don’t want may just be the most meaningful experience of your life, the perfect gift.
love and blessings, xp
posted by Priscilla at 9:50 AM
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