This week I learned…
Christmas eve, 2013, I flew to Seattle to help move my dearest friend, Lexy, into hospice. As I helped care for her through the end of her life, we shared stories, dreams, jokes, and simply spent as much time with each other as possible. I learned to do things I never thought I’d be capable of doing. Jokingly, I told her that I didn’t mind, since I learn something new every day and that day was the day I would learn to change a catheter without leaking on a hardwood floor. Right before the new year, she offered up this challenge: “You learn something every day? Prove it.”
Thus was born the 365 Lessons of Hope project.
Lexy almost made it to March, and I read my daily lesson to her every day until we lost her forever. My mother had passed just two years before at only 60, and now the one person closer than my sister at only 40. I was pretty mad at the world.
Writing 365 Lessons of Hope was a challenge that I held fast to – both in Lexy’s memory, and because I am one stubborn broad (much like her, which would explain our near 30-year friendship). Losing her, I lost the best friend a person could hope for. She was challenging, frustrating, and wise beyond her years. I don’t know if she did it on purpose, but in looking for not only a lesson each day, but how to put a positive spin on what I learned, I was saved from going stark, raving mad with grief.
Lessons from Lexy graced many days that year, and has become a book project.
The 2018 edition of Lessons of Hope will be monthly, not daily, but I promise that each will contain a story, news, something positive, and something fun!
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