ELIZABETH EDWARDS, "RESILIENCE"

By -
"Resilience," is a great read...and I can't help but wonder what the TV commentators and reviewers read. This book, written by Elizabeth Edwards, was not a tell all, let's get back at the man who betrayed me kind of book...It is deeply honest, intimately revealing and instantly inspiring in ways I had not expected.

I felt her pain-mostly-from the sudden death of her beloved son...who died in a car accident. A mother's Love runs deep...and neither time nor distance seems to seal the heartache of loss. Her pain, permeated the pages and put into perspective how deeply and completely she Loves.

Struggling with cancer and then the cancer of infidelity...is almost too overwhelming to even think about...But Elizabeth writes about it with such clarity of purpose and a conscious wisdom of wanting to walk this perilous path with an arsenal of honesty and integrity and God inspired wisdom.

I can't tell you how many times I've heard people-especially women-conclude that the reason this bright woman stayed with her unfaithful husband and his "indiscretion" is because of her "cancer." I don't believe it for a minute-after reading this book. Not even cancer-the threat of dying-could lead her to such a superficial decision. She stayed-apparently one day at a time-for many reasons...Her reasons...because in Love and in life...stuff happens...and good people-resilient people, trade the rash choices...for the tough choices-and for the right reasons.

I was thinking about the book Saturday, as I sat waiting for 4pm Mass to begin. Ironically, another politician-with his own indiscretion-walked down the aisle into the pew with his wife and children. I smiled. His wife, like Elizabeth Edwards, is also a lawyer...and just as resilient. She could have bolted...and who would have blamed her...But-again- she did what good people do...she stayed-and together-husband and wife are making it work---their way...not the way of the world...but one day at a time.

Resiliency is something we have to dig deep within ourselves to find...It is there...amid the fear and the failures, the pain and the betrayal...Everyone has it...But we have to want it..and be willing to work hard at developing it.

Our dreams are often broken, by the ones we Love the most. The shattered remains often ruins our resolve to build new dreams...But dream anyway...and dream big...and often and define your own dreams-rather than letting the old ones define you...and destroy you-and everything you've worked so hard to build.

That's what I learned from Elizabeth Edwards...to do our very best...and when adversity smacks us into submission-to rise to the challenge...and keep rising...standing tall...and adjusting our sails to face each storm with courage, grace and the dignity that comes from the God inspired gift-of resiliency!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

SUBLIME AUDACITY!

By -
Image
I have all the signs and symptoms of something I just learned about today...Sublime Audacity. That's right...I have the audacity to believe-that anything is possible-anything at all-with God. In fact, I believe that there is one cure for all the world's ills...and that cure rests with -and in God. In a world of material wealth, individual desires and carefully orchestrated managed care...When people search the world over for the answers that never come, the healings that rarely happen and the hope that always gets dashed by the next person...I believe that there is only one steady stream of consciousness that always gets it right...and that is God. I've personally experienced it time and again and every time I look elsewhere or seek some other solution, I always come crawling back to the staying power of my higher power...Because let's face it...Once we have the audacity to tell anyone-anyone at all that God is responsible for all the good in our lives or the Love that
Read more

OUR LADY OF JOY, HANCEVILLE ALABAMA

By -
Image
High atop a hill in Hanceville Alabama, broken hearts are being healed and hope is being restored. Our Lady of Joyful Hope is a community of young men who are finding new freedom through a life of authentic truth. Once lost in the darkness of addiction they are now living in the light of Christ who is transforming them from the inside out...And their families, if they are open and willing, are being transformed right alongside them. Recently, I spent three days with this community, listening to the young men, their parents and to the foundress, Mother Elvira, who flew in from Italy for the anointing of the new community house and the celebration that followed. Mother Elvira's life story is on par with Mother Teresa. She is an Italian nun who heard the call from God to snatch souls from Satan by delivering young men and women from the demonic grip of addiction. She gave up everything familiar, walked straight into the wilderness and wound up becoming a living legacy for desperate fa
Read more

HRUSHIV UKRAINE: APPARITIONS OF THE BLESSED MOTHER

By -
Image
Twenty four years ago today, April 27, 1987 the Blessed Mother allegedly appeared in Hrushiv Ukraine with a warning and words of consolation. She came on the Feast of the Ascension, exactly one year after the nuclear reactor disaster at Chernobyl saying "Do not forget those who have died...Chernobyl is a reminder and a sign for the whole world." In 1990 while producing a television documentary in Ukraine, I visited Hrushi and interviewed a handful of people who had witnessed the apparition above the church of the Holy Trinity. In all, some five hundred thousand witnesses claimed to have seen the Virgin Mary over a four month period. Mary apparently told them she came to thank the Ukrainian people because they had suffered so much at the hands of a raging lion who had been prowling around seeking whom he could devour. She said their suffering would come to an end and one day Ukraine would become an independent state. She then urged disciplined, Christian fortitude, "
Read more