A Blessed Life
Happy Day! Hope your day is going well. Mine has gotten much better. Starting my 5th week of finished chemo. Hallelujah, Praise God!!!!
I say that for many reasons. When chemo started over 12 months ago, I did not believe I would be around to celebrate 12 months of chemo. All in all I am feeling better and excited to have some quality life with no chemo. I honestly got busy to quick and that has given me some bad days. I am trying to get realistic about a little time to get back to living a quality life.
Yesterday I did my little exercise and them mowed, trimmed, edged and cleaned up my lawn. ended up going to bed at 8:15pm, got up today at 8am with a horrible headache. I have gotten much better at convincing my self that I am not dying soon. I have dealt with this process for the last 12 months. Too much activity, usually bothers my head. Trying to slowly add things back into my life that require my energy.
As much as I honestly enjoy doing these post, it has been a very real challenge since that surgery over a year ago. This one is late but is very important. This women has been amazing taking care of and loving me through this process. I wanted to be on the other side of these kind of deals but this time it has not been my choice.
Natalie Mead has been my best friend and wife for over 34 years. We have had a wonderful marriage. She blessed us with 3 amazing children, who now are amazing adults. She and I continued to develop our professional lives. We both earned graduate degrees. She became a principal in elementary education and I became a licensed counselor.
I use to tell Natalie, “she was stuck with me until we celebrated 50 years of marriage, then she could do whatever she wants.” That has literally been our plan, the 50 years of marriage, :) . I was very focused on being healthy and the major reason was to celebrate life with Natalie.
The idea of death has honestly never been that uncomfortable to me. I have said many times, “we are each born and we each die,” the norm is those are not our decision. None of use know exactly when our time is up. I believed mine would be long and healthy life to love my wife. That is my one discomfort with dying. I don’t want to leave this amazing wife and friend alone.
In our lives and marriage Natalie has always been quiet and often a little behind the scenes. There was a time I wondered how she took that personality and lead her school as a principal. I was way off in that area for years.
As a principal her leadership is amazing. Once I was able to actually understand what she did and how she lead as a principal I was honestly, “blown away.” Natalie cares deeply for her students and the teachers that lead those students every day. She steps into that role and commits her time and energy to caring for and providing a safe environment for her students to grow and be successful. She also cares deeply for her staff. She has their back and gives them every opportunity she can provide for them to be successful.
I have said for years, “there are many opportunities for men and women to do ministry.” Some of that is working on staff with a church and much of it is, day to day life in the work force we are a part of. Natalie has had an amazing ministry working in education and making a huge difference in the lives of many.
This is not why I “Love Her.” I love her because over 34 years ago she chose to do life with me. We have had some challenges and bumps along the way. Never have we had a perfect marriage. We have been a “man and women” who chose to do life together, fully committed to one another.
I don’t want her to have to deal with my death. Again, I know we don’t always get that choice. The choice I have is to, “love her well as long as I have.” I am working on that and so grateful for each day with her.
Let me encourage you. Don’t buy into that idea that, “ I have to get stuff done and then I will have more time to love other key people in my life well.” If you are married, love your spouse well. If you have children, love your children well. Family and friends, let them know they are loved.
That matters, none of us truly know when we will be gone!
Remember, “You are Loved and of Great Value.”