Joy's a Choice. I Choose it.

I immediately loved Sara when I landed on her blog a year or so ago.  We've never met, and never will meet this side of Heaven, and I've only "spoken" to her a handful of times via blog commenting...but I love her :)  

The first time I visited her bloggy home I was smitten by her humor and her focused perspective.  She is exhibit A that we are not defined by our circumstances, but by our reactions to them.  Sara has been in pain for so long, and confined inside the walls of her home for so long, that she dreams of the yummy scent of freshly cut grass with the wind in her face.

Not so terribly long ago she had a body that was healthy and strong.  She lived a busy life with friends and work and errands and dinners and singing...and then lost it all bit by precious bit.  

What makes Sara remarkable to me, though, isn't what she has lost or the angst that could have followed, but the beautiful life she has chosen to live in spite of it.  Her mantra, Choose Joy speaks to my heart all the way to the core, and as soon as I found her I knew I'd found a kindred spirit. 

Sara's dying this week.  Any time now she will be with Jesus and completely free of pain and loss.  

Things are looking up for her!

Yet there are many of us who are mourning the loss of her lovely encouragement and delicious sense of humor. 

I'm just gonna say it.  I'm going to miss her.

Last night I discovered this post she wrote for (in)Courage back in March.  Please, please take two minutes and read it.  It really is one of the loveliest things I've read online, and how beautiful it was to read now...as she finishes so well.

In honor of making a choice, Sara, I am spending these days plopped in the floor with my grandchildren, right in the midst of the mess and the clutter...and delighting in the smell of their hair, and the banana smashed under his nose, and the hair falling in her eyes.  As I type Audrey is playing in the rain in her socks and I'm smiling.  I'm ignoring all the stuff that doesn't matter and just breathing. them. in.

Today I'm walking to the mailbox in the rain, and I'm skipping the umbrella.  

As a matter of fact, I think I might just trot down the street until I get that stitch in my side that I dislike but am oh-so-very fortunate to suffer ;)

Thank you, gitzengirl, for encouraging me to love Jesus better and to love people better...and to love my very own life better.

Godspeed, sweet girl!