Blog 3104 – 04.29.2024

The Gift

There are at least two ways to view life or what comes to us, one is as a curse and the other is as a gift. Rhonda Byrne in her famous book and movie, The Secret, shares that she believes that maintaining and attitude of gratitude is the secret to a rewarding, successful, and happy life.

Seeing the gift in everything that comes to us though sometimes challenging opens us up for all the Universe to flow in and through us. Today’s song is one man giving thanks for the gift of love which many believe is the greatest gift of all, the pearl of great price.

In another of my favorite love songs, Broken Vow, sung by Gosh Groban, he sings about the pain of a betrayed and broken heart, yet of being able to find something more than a broken vow, the gift, that though taken away forever was once his to know and to enjoy fully. Unfortunately most gifts do not come with lifetime guarantees. Promised made are as often as not promises broken for reasons sometimes beyond us. I recall my mother being angry with my dad for leaving her after forty-seven years of marriage. He died, it was beyond his control. Most of my life she had threatened to leave him. He never threatened to leave her but leave her he did. She followed him in death three years later by her own hand.

Mom had trouble seeing the gift in things, in people, and even in herself. I saw the gift in her. I long believed that I would never find anyone to love me as much as my mother did. And I looked, even marrying three lovely women before I married my lovely and loving wife Linda Lee almost thirty five years ago this August tenth. My mother said shortly after meeting Linda, “David, this woman is never going to let you go.” There were times that I thought my mom, who was jealous of any woman that I ever cared about, used those words to warn me of a curse, still I have come to believe that she saw in Linda the gift that I had been looking for so long and that she had herself also been hoping that I would find – someone who would indeed love me as she did, warts and all, someone who would never let me go.

It has become clear to me over the last couple of years especially, that Linda will probably precede me in death. I have come to see every day as a special gift. There are challenges watching her struggle with the demons of early onset dementia, arguing with voices that only she can hear, being accused of saying things that I have never said and never would, but I remind myself especially during the difficult moments how glad and grateful that I am for the love she has spent on me over these many years.

Thank you, Universe, for this unspeakable gift.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1k8dxQmBk6mABg73L1lf_LdpiUXU4W8yy/view?usp=drivesdk