Miracle

Years ago if someone would have asked me if I believe in miracles I would have said yes, but that I had never seen one. Life soon taught me to see things differently. If I were to tell you the story of how this occurred I would say my first miracle was when God saved my life. You see at the age of 21 I developed a serious infection that landed me in critical care for seven days and took over a year to heal from. I remember before I lost consciousness I asked God to please keep me here so that I could raise my two beautiful children. Several days later when I began to heal a priest came every day and  he read to me my favorite scriptures in the bible. Now I was not catholic and I did not know this priest, but he told me his name was Father David. Since I was in critical care anyone who came had to sign in at the nurses station and sign out when they left as they would only let two in at a time and visiting time was limited. When I finally was strong enough to be sent home to continue healing I was sad becasue Father David did not come that day and so I was not able to tell him bye. Before I left I asked the nurse to please tell Father David how much I appreciated him coming to read to me everyday and that I was sorry that I would not get to tell him bye. My nurse looked at me confused and asked me who Father David was. I said "you know, that sweet priest that came to see me everyday and read to me for 30 minutes scriptures from the bible." My nurse looked confused and she said "Trish, you did not have any visitors named Father David." I said "hmmm maybe he did not have to sign in becasue he is a priest." She then responded "Trish, we have not had any priest come the entire time that you were here." As I tell this story tears still come to my eyes. This was my miracle. My favorite stories in the bible to give me hope, faith, and strength. Yes, I can go on and on now about miracles. How God healed my sweet baby Samantha from her seizure disorder, gave my beautiful son Ben success in the face of adversity, saved my beautiful son Anthony's life, and swept my beautiful baby Ashley into hope and love. The miracle of my mama and her battle with cancer, the miracle of life in general. Yes everyday is a miracle. We are miracles, and so I now live as though everything is a miracle<3

Learning to Dance

I woke up this morning hearing in my head "two steps forward, one step back...two steps forward, one step back" and I began to think of how upset I used to get at the set backs in life. Like when my marriage of 16 years ended, when I had to sell my beautiful home and all of my belongings becasue I had become to ill to work, and there are many more but those are the most significant. I used to focus so hard on my set backs that I failed to see my successes. In all things in life there will always be set backs becasue that is simply a part of living, the real magic is how we deal with the set backs. As I pondered this I was taking back to a time when my sister Pammy taught me ballroom dancing. Now folks I am much taller and simply a bigger girl than Pammy and to boot I can be pretty clumsy and uncoordinated but that did not stop Pammy from teaching me to dance. She was patient with me and I can still here her say "two steps forward, one step back, two step forward, one step back" (I believe she was teaching me the three step). This is a memory that I shall always cherish. So I now focus on my two steps forward and I now that when my step backwards comes it is simply becasue I am learning to dance<3

The Gift

As I begin this blog journal, my first ever, I am taken back to a Christmas many years ago when my sweet daughter Samantha gave me a beautiful gift that took me many years to fully comprehend. She gave me this lovely zebra notebook, or so I thought it was a notebook. I said "thank you Sami," and she said "mama, do you know what it is?" I said "yes, of course sweetheart, it is a zebra notebook. I love zebras." She responded "no mama, it is not a notebook, it is a journal. I want you to write in it everyday." I apologized for my error of thinking it was a notebook and thanked her for this special journal. Had it not come from her I would have never even wrote in the journal but I love her so much that I forced myself to do so. As time went by I began to enjoy writing in my journal, but I am not sure it was for the right reasons becasue it seemed that all I was doing was writing down what made me sad, more like a drama diary. I am happy to say that although it took me 14 years I finally understand the importance of writing daily in a journal. But wait, maybe I understood more than I thought. I looked up the word journal. Journal-a daily record, as of occurrences, experiences, or observations. I believe that is what I was doing all along. As I looked back now at that journal I am grateful that she gave me this precious gift, and that I can look back and see how far I have come. That in the face of adversity I did not give up, I persevered. Through prayer, faith, hope, and love I found a new beginning. Even though  we had nothing we still had each other, we had a roof over our head, food on the table, clothes on our backs, and love to hold us together. When I started writing in my journal I was a single mom. I did not have any education other than a high school diploma and I was working three jobs but I never gave up. I am now married to a beautiful man, my wonderful children are successful adults, I have a bachelors in psychology and am currently pursuing a masters in acupuncture. As I read the journal she gave me I a so happy that I wrote in it as I can see now that no matter what life brings me, I can always find my happy place. If you can fake it you can make it! I recently watched Unbroken (which by the way I highly recommend, such a beautiful movie). The movie touched me so because in the face of so much adversity he never gave up, he persevered, and he stayed true to himself. I have learned that if there is one thing I am exceptional at it is perseverance to continue my pursuit to happiness!