Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Dear God,

Sixty years old. I just turned 60 years old. When I was growing up, I remember knowing people who were in their 60's. My grandmother. My mother and father. I recall thinking they were old, close to the time people die. But I also remember the life and energy they had at 60. They could still think and be fun people.

Sixty years old. I am today 60 years old. My life and health aren't what they used to be, even one year ago. My health is more precarious than it has ever been. I have to trust more and more in my doctor's care and in the meditative efforts of spiritual, emotional and physical healing. Without my medicine and careful attention I would be dead.

But I am not. My life is dramatically different than what it was twenty years ago, ten years ago, a year ago. My life in faith has soared to new heights. I have come to realize I am a woman of value. I spent decades trying to believe in myself. As God has taken hold of my life as I have given it, I have discovered the eternal spring of joy. I can laugh at almost anything. The joy of every day living is a wonder to me. God is in each day.

When I look at my health, my physical body, and my spirit, that life-giving source, I am amazed. The greater my health problems the more God has come close. My health issues have brought me to new levels of relationship with the God who made this flesh and bone 60 years ago.

My life experiences have been dramatic and many. My travels to foreign countries have taught me about the way of living simply, gratefully. Especially to the many places I visited where people have few worldy possessions and their perspective future is bleak. My discoveries in faith as I looked into the eyes of those who have so little, has been an act of faith. In Russia and the Ukraine, the Middle East and Africa, the spirit life is lived at the center, not on the periphery which is so apparent in America. They have been my teachers and I shall never know the extent of their influence.

Cancer taught me to love each day. To smell the roses, to stop and listen for God, to walk forward in spirit confidence. I am different because I had cancer. A good difference, not a bad one.

I live in abundance, both in the material and spiritual world. No, I am not a millionaire, far from it. But in comparison to most of the world, I am a rich woman. And those who are poor have been my life's greatest mentors. They know the value of each day's life. I don't want to discard even one moment without giving thanks to God.

I am sixty today, alive and joyous and grateful.

Love to my Creator, Andrea