Mom, I'm really sick. I have Leukemia.

Okay. It's time to write my story. Nic's story and our whole family's story.

When the phone rang last May 31st at 11:00 PM, I had actually forgotten that my son Nic had called earlier that evening and told me he was going to urgent care. He had a temperature of 103. We had gone to my brother's house on Memorial Weekend - our whole extended family was there. Nic wasn't feeling well - coughing, cold, bronchitis-type symptoms. He had a pain in his chest. He was very tired and it was hard to wake him to come to the table. He had been 'doctoring' for a while - they kept giving him antibiotics and treating his symptoms, but he was busy trying to finish college, so he kept plugging along.

He graduated from the University of Minnesota on May 16th with a degree in Biochemistry. He started his college education thinking he might like to be a lawyer so he studied Political Science. After a year, he started thinking that if he didn't get a law degree, what would he do, so she switched to engineering. He was always very good in math and science, and that logical thinking suited him well. When he got ready to specialize, he decided Biomedical Engineering would be his choice - until he spoke with some engineers who described most of their work as being on a computer and doing design. Nic wanted to work with people so he switched once again to Biochemistry. He got a part-time job working in a lab on campus and enjoyed the work and the people there.

So he graduated. We were so proud of him. He was just starting his job search and was looking at options in-state and nationwide. I called him after that trip to Wisconsin and asked if he had gone back to the doctor, but he said he was feeling better. Until Sunday the 31st. He and his boyfriend Irael were going to go to a 3rd Eye Blind concert that evening, so he tried napping in the afternoon, but when his temp was up to 103, they decided he needed to go in. They went to Urgent Care, but there was a 2 hour wait, so they went to the emergency room at the University of Minnesota Medical Center on campus.

That's when he called me. Upon examination, they found that his white blood cell count was off the charts. His blood was so full of leukemic cells, it was starting to get thick. He told me "Mom, I'm really sick. I have Leukemia."

No, not Nic. Not my child. It was surreal. Micalie and I were visiting in the kitchen and I was getting ready to go to bed - I had to work in the morning. I couldn't believe what he was telling me and said that it wasn't fair, and Nic calmly said "Mom, life isn't fair." It hasn't been to Nic, anyway.

Notes from the Universe

Yesterday I watched a small bird, flying very fast, disappear into the canopy of an oak tree. So dense were its leaves that it was impossible to see what happened next, though I can tell you it remained inside.

I wondered how the little bird found its opening through the leaves at such a speed, and then managed to gently align its fragile body on the branch it chose to land upon, all within a fraction of a second. Not to mention the impossible to imagine flying maneuvers required: the banking, the curling, the vertical and horizontal stabilizations, the deceleration and landing.

Memory? Calculation? Not in that tiny brain. Instinct? Maybe, but how does instinct know which way the branches of a tree have grown when no two are the same?

Terry, that little bird just knew. It had faith, in spite of not being able to see how things would work out, that if (and only if) it stayed the course the details would be taken care of; that an opening would appear and a twig would be found. In fact, had she slowed down enough to carefully and logically inspect the tree first, the prudent thing to do, she would have lost her lift and fallen to the ground.

Kind of like reaching for your dreams. Neither memory, nor calculating, nor instincts are the deciding factors, but faith coupled with action.

Tallyho,
The Universe

www.tut.com

I have to share a story today - enjoy.

This is Good

The story is told of a king in Africa who had a close friend with whom he grew up. The friend had a habit of looking at every situation that ever occurred in his life (positive or negative) and remarking, "This is good!"

One day the king and his friend were out on a hunting expedition. The friend would load and prepare the guns for the king. The friend had apparently done something wrong in preparing one of the guns, for after taking the gun from his friend, the king fired it and his thumb was blown off. Examining the situation, the friend remarked as usual, "This is good!"

To which the king replied - "No, this is not good!" and proceeded to send his friend to jail.

About a year later, the king was hunting in an area that he should have known to stay clear of. Cannibals captured him and took him to their village. They tied his hands, stacked some wood, set up a stake and bound him to the stake.

As they came near to set fire to the wood, they noticed that the king was missing a thumb. Being superstitio

us, they never ate anyone who was less than whole. So untying the king, they sent him on his way.

As he returned home, he was reminded of the event that had taken his thumb and felt remorse for his treatment of his friend. He went immediately to the jail to speak with his friend.

"You were right," he said, "it was good that my thumb was blown off." And he proceeded to tell the friend all that had just happened." And so, I am very sorry for sending you to jail for so long. It was bad for me to do this."

"No," his friend replied, "This is good!"

"What do you mean, 'This is good'? How could it be good that I sent my friend to jail for a year?"

"If I had not been in jail, I would have been with you, and not here with you right now."

In a very unusual way, the message here unfolds into exposing the following principle about life.

"Absolutely everything happens for a purpose; and out of what seems like adversity at the time; always comes good".

I'm sure that if any of us care to reflect back on the tragedy's, the heartaches, the 'bad times' in our lives, that we discover that we have really grown or developed during that period of time:even though the reflection may still cause us discomfort in some way.

It is in this way that we slowly gather experience and wisdom, and even though we may think or feel that it is unfair, that's the way it is.

"This is good". Many of our life's experiences have saved us from some form of cannibals; it's just that we often don't know that they have at the time.

So, for a simple example to help with awareness: next time you may begin to feel you are being 'wronged' by being stuck in a traffic jam, think about the cannibals that could be lurking down the road a bit,but will be gone by the time you get there.

Now that's a bit different, but worth trying: "this is good" - despite the circumstances.

Remember: "What others do or say is their stuff; how we react, or not, is our stuff"!
And: "True Happiness in life isn't having what you want, but wanting what you have"!

© Phil Evans

www.peoplestuff.com.au

This little message helped me today - I hope you can apply it to your life as well.

Terry