Thankful

Today marks the first week after our Nickolas Robert went to eternal rest with our Lord. We are grieving but also so thankful for our little boy. I can say that he was a true blessing in my life and will never be forgotten. 

As our family has been taking time to be together this week. I want to thank all of the wonderful people who have sent messages, called, sent cards filled with love for Nickolas, flowers, cherished items, and so many who have shared their stories with us. The great love from each of you have given us strength in this time. We are truly blessed and thankful to have you in our lives. 

Today I would like to share a precious reading that I have been reflecting on...I hope if any of you are missing someone who is with our Lord today, that it will bring you comfort. 

"This world is infinitely layered and mysterious. Everyday of our lives, we see far more than we can comprehend, and because the failure to comprehend disquiets us, we lie to ourselves about what we see. We want a simple world, but we live in one that is magnificently complex. Rather than acknowledge the exquisite roundness of creation, we take it in thin slices, and we view each slice through tinted, distorting lenses that further diminish its beauty and obscure truths that await recognition. Complexity implies meaning, and we are afraid of meaning. The life of a seamstress is no smaller than the life of a queen, the life of a child with Down syndrome no less filled with promise than the life of a philosopher, because the only significant measure of your life is the positive effect you have on others, either by conscious acts of will or by unconscious example. Every smallest act of kindness - even just words of hope when they are needed, the remembrance of a birthday, the compliment that engenders a smile - has the potential to change the recipient's life. If by the example of joy and innocence, one can change two lives for the better, then no life is little, and every life is big."

Dean Koontz, A Big Little Life (Bantam Books, New York, 2009)267. (slightly adapted for Nickolas)