Friends

I haven't felt much like writing on this blog lately.  Two weeks ago my very dear friend of ten years lost her struggle with Inflammatory breast cancer and I am missing her dearly.  I think that if we are very lucky we will be blessed with some amazing friends throughout our lifetimes and I feel very lucky to have been blessed with this friend. I am heartbroken to lose her.  She was eight years older than I am and also a mom to two homelearning boys.  She had been there for me since the start of our homelearning years and was always a source of quiet wisdom - not just on learning at home and respectful parenting but on living life with grace, patience, consideration and zest.  Her calm, her steady pace and the way she never felt the need to rush were qualities I admired even though they were (and are) not natural to me.

I always felt that she was a person from whom I could learn much and in the last years, when she had been doing her utmost to beat her illness, she was even more of an incredible inspiration to me.  If I can live my life with even a portion of her grace, if I can face my difficulties with just a fraction of the positive attitude with which she faced hers, if I can move through life (even the challenging parts) with a sliver of her delightful sense of humour and if I can be as kind, considerate and joyful as she was throughout the years I've known her, then I will feel that I have lived my best life - well and truly.

I know she would want me to start trying to move forward now - past the sadness - and I'm going to make my best effort.  Whenever I start feeling sad I'm going to stop and think about her gorgeous laugh - the one that would literally burst out of her so that sometimes she would put her hand to her mouth as if to stop it - and her delightful giggle (yes, an actual "hee, hee" giggle!) which was joyful music to my ears and always made me smile.  She was an absolute treasure and I feel so very blessed to have known her, loved her and learned from her.  She has taught me so much about choosing joy and not sweating the small stuff  that I will be forever grateful to her.  And I'm sure for the rest of my days I'll be listening for her laugh...that beautiful, joyous laugh.