Happy Birthday to Me!

For through wisdom your days will be many and years will be added to your life. Proverbs 9:11

March 8th is my birthday! I like to think of it as my second birthday. It's not often that we can start our birthdays over.Two years ago I received a stem cell bone marrow transplant. By the grace of God my brother Bobby was a match and it was through his stem cells that I was given new life. Hence I started counting the anniversary date as my new birthday.

This year as I look back the whole experience; chemo, radiation, the transplant, and my healing process. the whole experience seems almost surreal. It's like a dream, until I start to remember how difficult it was not just for me but for all of my loved ones that cared for and supported me. I remember the neuropathy which made it so difficult for me to walk, and all of the pain I felt in my legs and feet when the bed sheets touched them. I remember shaking so much that it was even difficult to eat a bowl of soup, or not being able to dress myself. There were so many challenges. They were some very tough times for all of us. In spite of those difficult times we found so much joy during those times. We learned to appreciate each day we were blessed with.

Two years later I am almost like I was before I got leukemia. I am strong and joyful and ever so normal. I recently joined a gym. I am seriously working out for the first time in well over two years.  I did something totally out of character for me, I am working with a personal trainer. The workouts are challenging and I am learning new ways to exercise that I would not have done on my own. It's funny but I have only worked out with him for a week and already I feel better. I hope that I will regain strength and rebuild the muscle that I lost.

I have been back to my old job teaching for two months now and that has been quite an adjustment. It to has added to my sense of normalcy. I am finally feeling like I am in a groove and being productive. 

Life is good! It's great! I am so thankful to be 2! I give thanks and praise to Our Lord for my new healthy life. For all of the love and joy that I have in my life. I am so blessed to have gained two beautiful grandsons in the last year. I have the most supportive and caring family that got me to where I am now. They did it with grace and so lovingly. Now that I am back to a new kind of normal I pray that I will hear God's voice, and respond eagerly to his command. Praise be to God for every blessing that I have been given! Praise be to God for the years that have been added to my life! Oh yeah, and Happy Birthday to Me!

Once Again it's Lent!

Like obedient children, do not act in compliance with the desires of your former ignorance but, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in every aspect of your conduct, for it is written, "Be holy because I am holy."     Peter 1:14-16

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday. I always look forward to lent. It is a time when I focus more intently on Our Lord and His suffering. A time when I focus on His love for me. Me, so unworthy, so pitiful a human being! I tend to look at myself in the worst way, very aware of my sinful nature. I don't know if that is a bad thing to do. All I know is that I am painfully aware of my shortcomings. Aware of how much I want to be better for My Lord. I want so much to please Him.

Lent allows me to cleanse myself once again and to start anew. I am going to do all of the things that good Catholics do. I will fast, pray, and do alms giving. I pray that Christ Our Lord will lead me where he will, and that I will follow no matter what the cost. I love Him passionately and want to be the most faithful servant. That is a tall order, one which I fail at regularly. Yet, I know that no matter what He loves me, so much, that He carried my sins with him upon the cross. He gives me hope for forgiveness and everlasting life with Him.

These days society has such as focus on career, money, and success, yet we do not seek to live the holy life that God calls us to live. I know that I have had my head turned throughout my life. The deceiver knows just how to get us to turn away from holiness in moments of weakness. But, the good news is we have an opportunity to start fresh this Lent. We have a chance to turn back to Our Lord. He is calling us to love, forgive, to do corporal and spiritual works of mercy; to live the beatitudes. He desires us and wants us to desire Him!

I pray that you all have the most blessed Lent. I pray that you seek Our Lord's love and presence in your life, and that it might transform you. Seek not the fleeting pleasures of this world, but those of that which is to come. This world will pass away ever so quickly and we will stand before Our Lord to give an account for our life. Let it be a life lived for Him not for worldly pleasures! I want to start anew this Lent, to become the best Christian that I can be. I hope that you do too! Please pray for me this Lenten season, I will be praying for you!