I'm Back

Hi all,
I am back.  I am excited to be writing again.  I will try to post twice a week.  I have been thinking about life quite a bit lately.  My beautiful wife recently passed her one year mark of being cancer free.  The whole experience was very surreal.  I never imagined I would hear the words you have cancer.  I know that is a very naive thought to have, nevertheless it was a surprise to me that she was sick.

I have not written my feelings until now.  I think the first feeling I had was surprise.  I know I felt some fear, especially when the Surgeon wanted to do her biopsy the same day as the consultation.  I remember I met her at the doctors office, and had to drive home alone after the biopsy was taken.  I know I had some fear at that point, but it was very quickly replaced with peace.

I do not remember if I have posted this before, but I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  We are more commonly known as Mormons, but that is a nickname.  The name comes from a book of scripture, The Book of Mormon.  I will talk about the Book of Mormon at a later date.  As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, I believe that the family is the unit of eternity.  I know that God is my Heavenly Father, and that I am his son.  I know that through the Priesthood restored to the earth I will be with my wife for all eternity.  I also know that I will be with my children for all eternity as well.  That knowledge alone brought such peace to me it was incredible.  I knew that irregardless of what the outcome would be, I would be with her again.

Thrive not just survive

Often times in life it seems we get so busy with work, school, kids, grand kids, church, friends, etc. that we don't take time to enjoy the simple things in life.  The other day I was riding in the car with my wife and she was reading a book and she would periodically share parts of the book with me.  One sentence she read to me was, The key to happiness in life is learning to thrive not just survive.  I am quoting from memory but that was essentially it.

I really had to stop and think about that for a minute.  There are so many things in life that are beyond our control.  We never know from day to day or minute to minute if something bad will happen to us or some one we know.  We never know when tragedy will strike or hardship will reign supreme in our lives.  The only thing that is certain is that we will all experience tragedy and hardship.

So how do we thrive instead of just survive when the bad times come?  I am not 100% sure I have the answer.  But I often think that it is all about how we look at it.  When events in life come we have the choice to be angry or be happy.  Let me give you an example.  When I was a kid I would ask my dad to tell me a story at bed time.  I used to say if he could make me laugh the story was over.  Well as you can imagine I would do my best to not laugh, and I was quite good at it.  I was taking a happy event and nullifying it.  Now I know this is very different from a tragic event in life but I believe that the same principal applies.  We choose how we feel.  It isn't always an easy choice but I truly believe we choose how we feel.

That is all