Bravo LoveJoy ! and also to the rest of your family.

Congratulations LoveJoy on all your achievements and to the future success of your daughter.

Even though I am blessed with good health I agree with your philosophy, live today as if it was the last and make the most of the moment. 

LB

Spend the afternoon.  You can't take it with you. 

Annie Dillard

**twirling lovejoy in a happydance**

Greetings!

Oh happy  day, Lovejoy!  And may there be many more wonderful days you live to see!

Hope, peace, joy, love, . . .

I hope I have one of these days soon or at least open my eyes and heart to see it.

Aw c'mon folks...don't you have a list? Really? I bet you do if you think about it!

Shucks, LoveJoy, it's too personal to post, really. 

There are times with my kids, when they do something, not necessarily something that anyone else recognizes but something I recognize as what makes them wonderful people

• when my oldest was playing football with the other guys, at Five Oaks with a polka-dot dress on, and he pulled some "slinky, sexy" moves...i saw his spirit and sense of fun/play
• when on his 18th birthday, playing under the lights, he caught a pass and ran it for the touchdown...and i saw his face beamin
• when youngest was ribbing his dad one day, and got it right....the correct nuance, knowing how far to push, and I laughed as i knew he had it
• when my youngest gave me a hug one day, out of the blue, and said "i love you, mom" in front of his peers

There are times in the church

• when our affirming vote passed
• when we called our minister and it was a celebration of sooo much healing
• when my oldest spoke of his trip to ElSalvador, sharing the stories of the people he met
• when my youngest sang his first solo on a christmas eve service

Thanks for starting this LoveJoy. Right now, I am sitting here with a purring cat on my lap. All is right with the world.

These last two weeks have reminded me of the wonderful church community that I am in. Our minister has been going through a personal crisis. He has received a lot of support, and also the congregation has stepped up to the plate to look after some duties he is not performing just now.  I am very thankful for this community. I am also thankful that he has been able to sort it out and is now on the upswing.

I have a lot to be thankful for. For that, I am also thankful.

In 1999 my mother at aged 59 had a brain aneurysm that ruptured while she was sleeping.  The weeks that followed were a nightmare for our family.  10 years later she has celebrated her 65th birthday, travelled to italy, Scotland and Ireland and countless other things that I am thankful that she lived to enjoy in really good health.

I believe experiences like this do move us to a more profound appreciation of life and thankful living.

What a wonderful post.  Thanks for sharing that lovejoy. I would need to take a few moments to figure out what my list was. 

Thanks for sharing Lovejoy!

I also had a brain aneurysm in 1998, same time my daughter was to

be married.  I have no recollection, but what my husband has told me.

He walked me out of the hospital, in a wheelchair.  Took me to the outside

gazebo and informed me that our daughter wanted to cancel her wedding, until i was well.  I apparently told him "NO" that won't do, i want her to be

married soon.  Not to worry that i would go to her wedding, and not in a

wheelchair.  I went to the wedding out of town, took a wheelchair with us, in case i had difficulty.  But i'm proud to say, i made it to the wedding, walked on my own, never used the wheelchair, and even had a dance with my husband.

How proud i was of my oldest daughter at that moment in my life.  I even

ended up with a son-in-law who's good to her.  We are both fortunate.

Thanks Lovejoy, your articles are terrific.

i 

Congratulations - I know how proud I felt when my daughter walked across the stage last October to get her diploma. 

When I saw this thread resurrected, I thought...aaah, yes....

"i may not live forever..but I lived to see the inauguration of President  Obama"

pray that the hope we have is able to be transformed by the good works of people into real change

Issy - good to meet you!  Thanks for your story and I'm glad you're here to share with us!

 Pinga- my thoughts exactly.  And there is a lot of love & hope in this thread that all of us need one way or another, including thinking about LJ too.

I celebrated yesterday that my sweetheart has a 5-year all clear for melanoma, and that means no more (well not much) worrying about what might have happened.  What might have happened that would prevented us seeing things together.  

That, and a sense of HOPE & CHALLENGE like I've never ever seen in the US in all my life.  A Generation X style rejection of racial prejudice, world domination, cowboy arrogance.  

heh issy, what a celebration for everyone at that wedding, and what joy..that you were with them.

sometimes it is when we come so close to losing that which is most important to us (typically...what is "who"), then we realize how blessed we are...

gratz on living "this day"

My reaction too pinga!  You may appreciate this - At work today we got a message mid-morning from the IT dept to STOP with all the internet activity - seems everyone was trying to watch or listen to the innauguration & we were exceeding bandwidth, hence slowing down or blocking other essential work from getting done! 

And welcome Issy - sounds like you've just celebrated a 10 year anniversary - that's really something! 

they put it on in the training centre (which is a tiered centre (like a high-end university lecture hall)).  People could go & work from there and watch it.

i just worked from home.

Absolutely! What an amazing day. Unfortunately, I was in class so I didn't get to watch the inauguration live, but I've been hooked on CNN since I got home and have seen some clips.

I may not live forever, but today I witnessed history being made. And I witnessed an event that I had dreamed of, but never thought I'd actually see in my lifetime.

Hi LoveJoy,

I don't have a list.  The whole "never living to see the day" way of thinking just isn't at all part of who I am.

I have days that I had "hoped never to live to see" heartbreaking moments that only this vocation opened the door for me to experience.  Days that I would never, ever want to repeat but know, that the possibility of doing it all over again is very real and very present.

There are days that I hope to see and do not doubt that I will see, eventually.

Grace and peace to you.

John

Hey so somebody resurrected this thread on the very day I come back to lurk around!

Issy...what a beautiful story. Just the kind of thing I was talking about.

And ya...seeing the Obama inaguration yesterday was one of those moments too. If I had laid dying back there in 1996 I never would have guessed that there would be a black president of the USA. And now I hear he has an 82% approval/confidence rating. Unreal. I cried all over again when he took the oath. And I still kept saying to myself (alone in my house) "I can't BELIEVE it!"

LoveJoy!  I'm happy to see you again! 

Hey LoveJoy!! Great to see ya back!

 Missed you!!!

Hi Lovejoy

I drop into social once in a blue moon and here you are! I'd been thinking about you and wondering how you're doing. Nice to see you and I hope 2009 smiles up,down, and all around you