Hope & Healing & Second Chances
April is National Donate Life Month, and I just finished recording a couple videos to be used in a social media campaign to promote organ donation. It’s the very least I could do, considering that I’m here today because of two separate organ donors.
Most days I try to live my life as a testament to gratitude, embracing the gift I have been given. But I am a human being, and as such, am prone to having some less-than-grateful days, downright grumpy days.
Sunday saw a weather system move through that flared my underlying pain to the surface, causing me to move like the Tin Man, hobbling stiffly through Monday until I was crushed on the couch for the last half of the day. Today I’m moderately better, although still a little stiff and a little sore. Better than yesterday.
That reminds me of the lyrics from an old rock song, I think it was Joe Walsh, “I can’t complain but sometimes I still do.” It’s part of human nature. Unless you’ve reached some elevated state of enlightenment, some days you’re gonna bitch.
The trick is learning how to bitch without becoming a bitch. When I’m in a lot of pain, or when I’m feeling stressed about resolving major issues like the current situation with my father’s hospice care, I can get a little prickly. Short-tempered. Sharp-tongued. Less than fun to be around.
That’s my cue to get outside and get some sunshine, if I can find any, and remember the why in my what.
Every day, I’m still happy to be here, filled with gratitude for another day of sunshine, cups of Earl Grey tea, and puppy cuddles. I’m overjoyed for every day I get to spend with my husband, even though I crab at him when I’m not feeling well.
Every day we get to feel the sun on our faces, hold our loved ones close or hear their voices from afar, enjoy the creature comforts of our homes, we are blessed beyond measure. So many people didn’t make it to today. We shouldn’t lose sight of how significant our existence is to those who matter to us, and theirs to us.
Go outside, weather permitting, and listen to the birds in the trees. They’re preparing for Spring, calling to attracts mates, building nests, gathering supplies to raise the next generation of birds. Listen to them sing with the joy of being alive today in this bright world. They don’t know how broken we humans have made it. They don’t care about the intricacies of our artificial culture. They care about what is real - the sun, the wind, a gentle summer rain.
These are the same things our souls yearn for. We live to know love, know peace, know joy. Everything else is made up.
Do you want to grant someone else the chance to know these things? Then register to be an organ donor. You might be the hero who give someone else the gift of a little more time to enjoy this thing called life.
I work in a hospital and I take care of surgical instruments. Sometimes they remove organs for donation.
This is wonderful and essential