Perspective

The World English Dictionary describes this as:
A way of regarding situations, facts, etc. and judging their relative importance.
The proper way or accurate point of view or the ability to see it; objectivity.

Such as, “from my perspective, life hasn’t been very fair to them.”

This Blog could go a lot of different ways because I have a lot of different emotions running around in my head and normally I can pull them all together and make them have some sort of really profound meaning at the end, this one I am not sure of.  This scares me, so hang on you could be in for a bumpy ride. 

I am not the first nor will I be the last person to tell you that the things that happen to us in life are all dealt with by our attitude.  Our perception of said event.  Our perspective.  I mean, a person could lose their job for instance and they have a choice.  Am I going to feel sorry for myself, or am I going to go out and find a new one?  Is this the end of my world? What are my friends going to think?  What I am getting at is that no matter what life hands us, we have a choice on how we not only deal with it, but how we feel about it. 

Hero

The World English Dictionary describes this as:
A being of extraordinary strength and courage.

Honestly it mostly describes a man of great fortitude or exceptional courage, nobility etc.  I don’t know why a Hero has to be a man, but that can be dealt with in an entirely different Blog.

I am sure if you asked a random group of people from young to old who their Hero is, you would get a variety of different answers for different reasons.  From that persons PERSPECTIVE their hero could be their dad, a cartoon character, the guy who stepped in front of a bullet and saved a life, someone serving in the armed forces…the list goes on.  We all have a hero for different reasons.  If you use only the definition of the word Hero I gave you above, and based on MY PERSPECTIVE, you would be rather surprised to find out who my HERO (S) are.

6 beings of extraordinary strength and courage:

Her name was Rose O’Brien.  She was my Grandma, my mom’s mom.  She passed away when she was 67.  She had Breast Cancer.  This would be the first person I would lose that I was close to.  I was living in Minnesota and driving back almost every weekend to see her.  Whenever we asked her how she was doing she said “pretty good.”  She never complained.  Maybe, but not in my presence.  She had so much faith.  And at the time I was extremely confused as to why God could take away someone that literally sat at his altar praying every single day.  I took her passing very hard.  She was one of my heroes because she was entirely too young for this to happen to.  One of the most profound moments of my life was when she had come out her coma and was awake, alert, and hungry.  Hospice told us it was close.  But she wanted all of us there at the house, even her siblings who were still alive at the time.  After she had gathered us all, she asked for the priest, she said it was time.  You could have heard a pin drop.  There were about 40 of us in her tiny living room and we bowed our heads as the Priest prayed.  After the prayer her head remained down.  We thought she had passed.  How magical, yet how awful?  Complete silence…Tears starting…and she lifts her head and says  “nope, Mom says it’s not time.  My Christmas is in 7 days.”  We told her Christmas was NOT in 7 days and she said, oh but mine is.  7 days later she passed away.   At best a miracle. Extraordinary strength and courage.

Her name was Angie Sheldon.  She was my cousin.  She was 21.  She had Lung Cancer.  No she didn’t smoke.  She was one of the most gracious people you would ever, ever meet in your lifetime and she was always smiling.  I will never forget when I had been called and told she had taken a turn for the worse.  I literally got in my car and drove 9 hours to the hospital.  When I walked in, she looked at me, laughed out loud and said “what in the heck are you doing here, THIS, isn’t bad at all.”  “This” being her condition at the time.  I didn’t get to spend much time with Angie, but Angie brought me closer to Bill, Becky, Andy, Rhetta and Lori and for all intents and purposes they are my second family.  I even had Christmas Day Dinner with them.  She is one of my heroes because I know what I was doing when I was 21 years old, graduating from college, not figuring out how to say good-bye to my friends and family forever.  She was a brave soul, who’s heart was bigger than any room she was ever in…she loved Rainbows and Penguins…of course when I run into them I feel as if she is saying hello…I don’t run into penguins much, but you get it.  Extraordinary strength and courage.

Her name was Molly O’Brien.  She was my cousin.  She was 10 weeks old.  She had Brain Cancer.  A Teratoma Tumor.  I wrote a book about it.  It’s on my blog.  Feel free to read it.  She never said a word, but spoke volumes.  She had the strongest will to live of any other creature I have witnessed in my life.  Her conviction and her strength, I have never seen in any other human being.  I didn’t get to spend much time with Molly either but she taught us so many lessons.  The one that sticks out the most for me is when her mom resigned to the fact that there was nothing more they could do for her and decided that God gave them Molly so that she could be loved more in the short amount of time she was with us, then some children get to experience in a lifetime.  She forever changed my life.  She is one of my heroes because as morbid as it might sound, I got to watch her leave our world but most importantly leaving our world as painless as possible.  For all intents and purposes, she was having a very painful death, but we had some amazing Dr.’s and Nurses there making sure she didn’t have to go that way.  Extraordinary strength and courage.

Her name was Marguerite.  She was my cousin.  She was 58.  She had Uterine Cancer.  She was one of the most beautiful women I have ever laid eyes on.  I am not kidding.  She had an aura around her that would light up a room even if it was pitch black.  I did not get to see her very often and didn’t get to see her either when things got really bad.  She had an extremely painful journey, of which made me quite angry.  Of all the people in the world who should have to suffer anything, she was not anywhere near the top of that list.  She always, always, always wanted to know how my life was going.  She always asked about me if I wasn’t at a function.  She had a way of making you feel as if you were the most important person in the world.  Her embrace was angelic.  Everything about her was.  I have never met another human being like her.  And probably never will.  She was the concept of Heaven.  She was an amazing wife, mother, sister, aunt, daughter, and friend.  Knowing what she had to endure in spite of the very fact that she represented the very essence of faith and hope makes her one of my heroes.  Extraordinary strength and courage.

Before I finish, Cancer has played a huge role in my life.  I have lost Aunts and Uncles, friends, other cousins, and friends of friends.  Hate is a strong word.  But I HATE CANCER.  With every ounce of air I breathe.   I have friends dealing with Cancer right now.  Hate it.  And very, very rarely do you find a cancer patient who is walking around saying, why me?  They are the most humble people you will ever meet.  We currently have a machine roaming around Mars to complete very important data for our future, but we can’t cure this damn disease.  From my PERSPECTIVE, someone has their priorities screwed up.

My last heroes have not, and WILL not pass away.

His name is Jett Fauser.  He is my cousin.  He is 4 years old and he has Leukemia.  His parents have a caringbridge website, which allows all of us to keep up to speed on his care.  This entire blog was created because he has taken a turn for the worse.  I have only got to be around Jett a couple times.  The first time he was a vibrant little boy with lots and lots of thick blonde/brown hair.  The next time I met him was after several rounds of chemo and he was puffy from the steroids, had no hair, but still was this vibrant little boy.  Hearing Jett’s battle puts a lot into PERSPECTIVE.  There is nothing normal (whoever determines what that is) about their lives right now.  They are truly living their lives moment to moment, minute by minute.  I cannot wrap my hands around how or what that would be like.  Let alone watching your 4 year old child endure this.  There are times he is a trooper and times he just flat out doesn’t want to see another needle.  Why is he a hero?  He didn’t get a choice.  Grandma, Angie, Molly, Marg…none of them were given a choice.  They were dealt this hand and asked what are you going to do with it?  How are you going to deal with this?  Well obviously his parents make those choices for him, but he doesn’t know any different.  He can remember when he felt good and had hair.  He can remember not having all these tubes and wires.  It’s the times when his mom posts about how brave he is when they access his port, or have to put him under for more scans…it’s those moments where my life is put in PERSPECTIVE.  To top it off, Jetty’s older sister Jaden has her own battles to conquer, so basically they are tag team heroes.  The best part is that they are one another’s biggest fans.  I don’t know enough about Jaden’s health battles to speak of them publicly, but I know enough to know that Jaden took her hand of cards and played them.  She is one of the most lovable, happiest children you will ever meet.  She doesn’t know she has special needs, she doesn’t know anything other than that she is special.  Everything about both of them is.  And I am in awe of their parent’s ability to deal with this.  There has to be days where they cannot possibly imagine which end is up.  But if it means anything to them at all to know that they are an inspiration to others and that their children are little heroes to a very grown adult, then I would like them to know that they are mine.  I am proud of them, but I am mostly grateful that no matter how much I cannot understand life and God and Cancer, that he gave Jett and Jaden to them because he knew they would be loved more in their lifetimes than some kids ever get to feel.  Extraordinary strength and courage.

I don’t know what your PERSPECTIVE is but I know when I need a wake-up call I think of my heroes and I can pretty quickly reign things back in.  Heroes come in all shapes and sizes…some can stop a speeding bullet and some just simply take a pill.  It doesn’t matter who yours is, all that matters is that you keep things in PERSPECTIVE.