My friend

I have a friend.  I have a friend who inspires me.  She is not perfect.  She is not superwoman (much as she may like to think she is).  And life has not been kind to her along her path.  My friend has defied the odds by having some really really crap stuff happen in her life.  The kind of crap that you tell yourself just should not all happen to one person... its just not fair.  The reason my friend inspires me though, is because somehow she keeps on going.  Because she can tell me about the latest massive crisis in her life, one which once again threatens every part of her life, and in the next breath tell me about the fabulous tomato soup she made from her veggie garden.  My friend inspires me to try to be a better person, a stronger, more together person.  When I feel sorry for myself, when I feel a bit "why me-ish", I remember her and I pick myself up, slap myself gently about the ears and remind my petulant self that life could be harder, much harder.  Knowing my friend has given me an incredible appreciation for how incredibly fortunate I am every day of my life.  Knowing my friend has given me the opportunity to let go of thinking about how things could be better, more, stronger, different... and to appreciate things just as they are.  Knowing my friend has helped me let go of excuses for why my life is not different, and to focus on the awareness that I have chosen to make my life just as it is... it has not just happened to me, and nothing prevents me from making it different apart from my own choices.  My friend has faced the crap and chosen to make her life just as she wants it to be anyway.  My friend thinks she can, so she can.  My friend is on a constant drive to be better, do better, live better... even when the life's storms buffet her in their gales of misfortune.  My friend recycles, conserves water, makes her own food from scratch instead of buying processed products, grows her own fruit and veggies, runs a water-tight budget, has chickens, landscapes her property, works full time in a high powered job, studies, invests wisely, plans for the future, raises an adorable child single handedly, looks after her extended family, is always there for her friends, and excels at all she does.  All this while bravely facing the extremes of life's battles - battles which would fell we lesser folk in one blow.  My friend is slightly intimidatingly accomplished, yet human, humble and real.
I think back on my years as a counsellor and about the way that most of my clients brought in lives destroyed by much lesser obstacles than she has faced.  I think about people I know, and myself, and how we take our woes so seriously... yet my friend who faces such a multitude of them somehow keeps smiling, doesn't give in, lives in the moment and keeps on keeping on.
Thank you my friend - for being my friend, and for reminding me that the nature of our experiences are so much a product of perspective.  Thank you, my friend, for sharing your lion heart with me.