Life is Beautiful

August 2016 and into the first week of September has been probably the worst month+ of my life...in some ways, but through it all I've been reminded that life is beautiful. It started when I sprained my ankle immediately before an out of town trip for my grandmother's memorial service. She died earlier this year, just a week and half after my youngest child was born. Life comes and goes, and it's beautiful.

My grandmother was a positive, can-do person. She never let her age and accompanying issues keep her down. Instead, she picked up boxing. And she never complained such that unless you saw her, you had no idea how bad off she was. She saw the good, the beauty, in the cards she was dealt.

A couple days after returning home from her memorial service, my father went to the doctor and found out he had what they called a widowmaker - a 99% blockage in his heart in a critical area. Three days later he had open heart surgery. Literally at any moment up to that point his life could have ended. If something throws and makes that blockage 100% there is no recovering. Once again we were reminded of the fragility and the beauty of life.

Not even two days after my dad is released from the hospital, my grandfather dies. He had been given no more than 3 months to live, and he didn't even last another half week. He was a man who loved his family, who served as a medic - preserving life - in Korea. He didn't talk about it much. He was an honest man who did a good job, and everyone knew he was reliable. He worked hard to provide for his family. One of his and my grandmother's favorite things to do was go to the beach and soak in the beauty. Having young ones around the last few years of his life was the absolute highlight for him. Young life is beautiful, but so is old life, and seeing the young life and old life interact and intermingle is truly precious, and a great gift.

Just a couple days after my parent's returned from my grandfather's funeral my dad was readmitted to the hospital for complications from his open heart surgery. Thankfully, he is fine now. But once again, we are reminded that life is precious, life is sweet, life is grand, and its an adventure as we never know what each day brings. Sometimes life is tough, but we are too. And all those things meld together and are facets in the diamond that is life. And life is beautiful.

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Which statement do you think sums up life the best? I'd love to hear!


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