Today's topic is not meant to be morbid at all. It's just that these issues arise when you have been diagnosed with a life threatening disease. It doesn't help that I recently read a book narrated by Death himself. A great read, by the way. It's called The Book Thief, for those of you that might be interested.
For most of my life, I always thought that I'd live to a ripe old age. Not that I still won't or can't. Matter of fact, I think most people imagine themselves living until pretty much forever. Then something like cancer enters their life, and boom, they realize that they are mortal. TOO mortal. Here is a story I'd like to share:
Matthew has been learning about bats at school as part of an October unit. His class read the story Stellaluna, which is about a bat that lost his mom. One of the questions he had to answer was, "What would you have done if you were Stellaluna and had been separated from your mom?" His written reply, "I would have tried to find a new mom." I wanted to cry at my son's innocent response to such a simple question. Because, of course, to me, that answer holds a much deeper meaning. Kids are resilient, yes, I know that. But how much would my children remember me, at 4 and 6, if they were "separated" from me? I would want them to remember me, but I'd also want their lives to continue normally. I would want them to find a new mom. Matthew recently said that you don't need the person to physically be there because they will always be in your heart and in your brain. Spoken from the true mind of a six year old.
We are all mortal. Every single one of us. Knowing that is the easy part. Accepting that is the hard part.
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