If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did
not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome. Charlotte Bronte
Did you ever notice how when you buy a different "new to you" car, all of a sudden you see that same type, even color car everywhere you go? You could say I'm having a similar experience with COPD. It seems like everywhere I go I run into people who have the illness whereas before I just didn't notice them! I don't know, maybe it's an adjustment to accepting the fact that I have a chronic, progressive, incurable illness. I went through the denial, the bargaining, the anger, and most recently the depression. I must now be stepping into the final hardest stage - acceptance! This last week was the culmination of my depression as I attended, yes, seven funerals! My goodness, I used to go a whole year without ever attending a funeral! It's time to LIVE with abundance and JOY of the gift of LIFE! It's time to let the Easter of my Soul blssom and trust in the Lord to have my best interests at heart! It's time to go beyond survive - to actually thrive with the crispness of the reality that right now, today I am alive - to embrace that reality with GRATITUDE and ENTHUSIASM! The fallacy of depression is it wastes what time and energy we have been granted! I'm not saying that to bash myself but to move on to a better place!
Folks, if you have a sickerette in your hand at this moment and you wonder if that one smoke will be half as marvelous as you imagine - look long and hard at it! The very cigarette in your hand could very well be your killerette and you'll never know it! Do you REALLY want to smoke it?
