Sacred Gifts ~

      When I woke this morning, I knew I was going to write a newsletter article about gifts. What I didn’t know is that I would encounter one that brought tears and hope to my eyes.  Tomorrow, Dec 14, marks the anniversary of a death that shook our household. My 24 year-old niece, Sarah, was on her way to work.  She was a respiratory therapist. She was newly engaged to be married. She was a treasured older cousin to our school-aged children.    She was beautiful inside and out.  She was ours.

      Sarah was also grieving the death of her father, who just six weeks earlier had succumbed after a decade-long battle with Lupus. She had been a central player and angel in his care and in his peaceful passing.

On that fateful day, a drunk driver ended her life.  The entire family, still actively mourning the death of her dad, gathered. There at the same funeral home, the same church, the same group gathered, wept and tried to make sense of a world in which this could happen. 

       In the midst of the sadness stood one little blonde girl with a soulful look in her eyes and a broken heart. You see, Sarah was also a central figure in the life of her own niece, Beanie. Within 6 weeks, this little girl had lost two people who were arguably the people who held her closest in all ways. With a complicated family situation, her grandfather played a strong role in her daily life and she lived with Sarah. Of all those shedding tears, hers were perhaps the most difficult for me to witness.

And yet …. And, yet.  These were the words that greeted me this morning:

"My aunt Sarah was killed at 24 years old by a drunk driver on Route 16 in Milton NH at the 30 mile marker December 14th 2000, she was on her way to work where she was a brilliant respiratory therapist.. I do not carry anger or hate in my heart, because no matter how much you hate someone for something so horrible.. It doesn't help you heal. It just breeds hate. Don't breed hate."

       Sometimes we receive gifts that aren’t necessarily intended for us specifically. They aren’t wrapped. They don’t have tags. They are offered into the universe for those who might see their value. 

Thank you, dear one for passing this one along to me.