Today I Say Thank You

Last night, this earth lost one of the most beautiful and inspiring women I ever had the fortune of knowing. She was one of those rare teachers who demanded excellence all while encouraging your unique talents. She was one of those rare mothers who managed to be there on every level for her children and remember that it was the memories that counted. She was one of those rare women who simply lit up a room, put warmth in your heart and radiated with God's love. And it always seems those rare women are the one's that leave us too soon.

Kris Ross leaves three children and a husband behind. She leaves her family here. She leaves countless friends here. And now she sits with her Father, watching and keeping peace and strength for those of us that mourn. She is the epitome of what a guardian angel should be. And what an amazing guardian angel those three children and her husband now have.

Deaths like these make anger a quick response. What a wretched disease breast cancer is. You want rail against the injustice of such a lovely life being ended before she got to see her children graduate high school, or get married, or have children of their own. What a fantastic grandmother she would have been! Deaths like this, make screaming at the heavens seem intelligent. The loss that this world feels, the mourning that is felt, just seems to large to cope with. But in the end the screaming only leaves you feeling hollow. The anger only leaves you feeling empty.

So I'll thank God today. For a woman who encouraged my 8th grade self when it was desperately needed. For a woman who saw something in my writing that until recently I had forgotten I possessed. I'll thank God she was placed in our community for that short period. For the lives she altered, for the paths she changed. I'll thank Him for the three lives she carried and nurtured. I'll say thank you that they knew their mother if only for a brief time. Thank you for allowing her to be Todd's wife. Thank you for allowing her to be a friend and an inspiration. Thank you for her life.

Today I will forget the laundry and the dishes and chores and endless tasks that always replicate and never end. And I will watch a movie with my boys and hold them. I will finger paint and make play dough sculptures and bake sugar cookies. I WILL be thankful for what I've been given. I will actually pay attention when I kiss my husband hello tonight and allow myself to be present. I will take moment and stop, and look around and be thankful. I've been given such a beautiful life. And am so lucky it was touched by Kris Ross. Her body may no longer be here but her spirit lives on forever. Thank you.