#18 HMMMM...

Recently I announced to one of my classes that at 60 I was really "ready to go."

My classes as well as my friends are always aghast when I say that...but I have led a very full, glorious and at times--a very sorrowful life. I have loved many fine men with great passion and zest...lived La Vida Loca with a wonderfully lusty outlook on life, worked at jobs I adored, with clients who truly were and are 'God with skin on' for me. I held babies that I could not stop kissing. I found my soul mate. Had more than my share of wonderful women friends, (how could I have been sooooooooo lucky), was able to maintain a life filled with my own mental illness--holding on sometimes barely with my teeth, and, most importantly, found a glorious GOD of my understanding. A GOD I knew loved me for me. A GOD filled with great tenderness, and a gentle, loving heart--even for a little girl like me who grew up to be a woman like me. A woman I have grown to have both love and have deep compassion for the life I was--at times--forced to live. ANYWAY, I am digressing, I suspect that there are much better surprises on the "Otherside." For example, no fear, no depression, no second guessing oneself, no loneliness, no grief or loss and lots and lots and lots of CHOCOLATE AND BAKERY GOODIES--AND OF COURSE--NO EXTRA POUNDAGE!!! I will stick around as long as my Higher Power wants me too, and will try to bring as much mischief, chaos, and kindness into the world as I can. But when I look at our patients eyes who have such bravery and hope in them, and squeeze babies little cheeks...I look into the face of Heaven. And the view is sublime!

There is a story that goes something like this...a woman dies and goes to Heaven and meets GOD and as GOD is about to take her to her pink cloud GOD asks the individual if she would mind running an errand with HIM. The newly deceased woman not wanting to turn GOD down says "sure." GOD takes her to this GIGANTIC warehouse-miles wide and long--filled with beautiful packages wrapped with splendor. The woman asked GOD: "What are all these?" And GOD tenderly says: "These are all the gifts I tried to give to you when you were alive but you wouldn't take them. Won't you please take them now?"

My suggestion: Ask GOD each day to help you "not to miss a trick or a present. That way when you die they'll be no warehouse...just your beautiful pink cloud and CHOCOLATE!