Rodrick Samuels on The Silent Work, Modern Beauty Education and Why Empathy Wins
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Choose To Be the Light
It seems like the whole world has gone crazy. Every day the news is jam packed with not just bad news, but with horrible tragedies you can’t even wrap your mind around.Then, there’s us. Our friends, family, loved ones, employees ...
by Heather R. Smith
May 1, 2016
2 min to read
It seems like the whole world has gone crazy. Every day the news is jam packed with not just bad news, but with horrible tragedies you can’t even wrap your mind around.
Then, there’s us. Our friends, family, loved ones, employees and peers battling illness, depression, job loss, heartbreak, poverty, homelessness, business failure, bankruptcy, foreclosure, repossessions, divorce, death and other immeasurable misfortunes.
Many have experienced frequent loss when despair’s winning hand confidently pushes all their chips to the center of the table and displays a better hand.
The lines on our faces and theirs are deep can be named.
Without question, the struggles of life sting, and if you allow them to occupy your mind, they can rip you to pieces.
But, these are our lives, and regardless of the circumstances; there are 2 options:
We can let the situations of life have control over us, or we can choose:
We can choose optimism.
We can choose kindness.
We can choose how we react to situations.
We can choose to rise when we’re broken.
We can choose to eliminate negativity.
We can choose how we treat others.
We can choose our words.
We can choose to not look back.
We can choose to move forward.
We can choose to try harder.
We can choose self-discipline.
We can choose to take control.
We can choose to separate ourselves from the daily drama.
We can choose to be the light.
This time 4 years ago, I knew in my heart we would win, my Dad would live, and that the cancer would fly away. He was incredibly sick. He couldn’t control it. So he chose.
He chose in dying to be positive, to encourage us, and to share his love with us.
He chose to spend his days planning with my Mom for her future.
He chose to accept the imminent reality of dying.
He chose to carry us.
The day before I left to go to Grand Rapids he told me, “This whole thing could go away tomorrow so go do good.”
Hospice came 2 days later.
At 4:00pm October 15th, he flew away to heaven.
Reading his eulogy at the funeral was is the hardest thing I’ve ever done.
Writing it was easy because of the choices he had made during his life to be my light.
Choose to be the light.
Will it be challenging? Yes.
Will it be worth it? Absolutely.
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