Here we are setting up for my cousin, Jason’s, Celebration of Life, who recently passed away at 52 years young - suddenly and unexpectedly from colon cancer…
While we place the orange, silver and black table clothes to match the theme of Harley Davidson that was so close to Jason’s heart, my mom gets a call about her brother’s emergency surgery… the third one since he was hospitalized 3 weeks ago after a vehicular/bicycle accident where he was laid out on a casual Sunday bike ride… we didn’t know if he was going to survive. We are now waiting for some positive news that he will be able to move from the hospital to a rehab center… but they are seemingly still putting his body back together, like a jigsaw puzzle.
All the while, I am not much help as I’m checking my phone every 15 seconds to see if we’ve received any messages from our Texas specialist about my son’s cancer rescans which will dictate what our chemo treatments will look like for the next 6 months.
THIS is a tornado.
I remember when I thought I was in a tornado…looking back now, that was a dust devil… or hell, maybe just a gust:
Quitting my day job to become an entrepreneur…
Losing our careers and businesses in the 2008 recession…
Bankrupting multiple properties and losing our home…
FBI showing up on our door step…
18 hour workdays building a new business…
Having my business model attacked and shut down…
Ankle surgery, wrist surgery, year-long, concussion…
Not to mention daily growth challenges of friendships, patience, parenting, marriage, finances and plain ol daily struggles of life…
I’m not trying to minimize these events because they did occur… And they were challenging…
Instead, I want to acknowledge these dust devils, and what they did for us. How they prepared us to cope with the good and the bad. How they supported us in learning to thrive throughout challenges. And what’s even more - how to understand that in the long run, challenges really do create growth and happiness in the most wild and unknown ways that you couldn’t possibly understand while you’re going through it.
And who knows… I may look back at this “tornado” someday and consider it a dust devil… because life is full of twist and turns and surprises.
So what are we going to do about all of it in THIS moment?
We’re gonna say thank you for each blessing. We’re gonna play hide and seek with the boys for a couple hours… we’re gonna turn the music up and dance a bit… we’re gonna cheers a cocktail in acknowledgment that we are blessed in a million and one ways.
And we’re gonna forge on through the storm knowing another beautiful rainbow will appear.