One Person

Our week with Uncle Tony has come to an end. Thanksgiving went better than better. It seems like we cooked all day long (except for finding time to break for a quick Mexican lunch before returning back to finish preparing the fixings) and ate for two days straight! It honestly didn't feel like Thanksgiving....it felt better...because it was not something we were taking for granted. Tradition is good, but tradition has a way of numbing sort to say.

I now know that celebrating Thanksgiving because the calendar says so, and celebrating Thanksgiving in order to live like you are dying, are totally different things. And honestly, I vote for the latter any day.

This week held a lot of thought for me. Thoughts of the way things really should be. It was amazing to watch my uncle smile at my two young boys as they were engaging in play next to him. To see how the eyes of children hold no prejudice or judgements against people. To look at someone as they looked out into the horizon, realizing that they would not get too many more of those views. To witness love flow from a touch of tender hand to the arm of a tired (but thankful) man. Or to realize that wisdom, that a lot of 6 year olds don't have, was working in the mind of my own, telling him that this will be the last time he will see his Uncle Tony again. I'm astonished at that wisdom; it's something that is so eerily real.

For Nathan, his highlights were playing catch, football, and watching the Liitle Mermaid with Uncle Tony. And hide and seek with Aunt Clare. For Ryan, I assume it was having them here in general. For me it was being able to make such a difference in someones life, as well as having both of my moms siblings together in my home.
From what my aunt said, Tony felt like he had dreams come true by being here again. And that nobody could have been able to do that for him except for us. That makes me incredibly proud and honored that our little family could mean that much to one person.

I know there have been people like that in my life. When I think upon those people there is no way that I believe I add up to them. But when I refocus my outlook a little and realize that we are all here for different reasons, I see the meaning of the quote - "to the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world."

If there was one message I'd like for this post to bring it is just that. Think upon those that you are incredibly grateful for and love with all of your heart - the ones who you look up to and admire. Now put yourself in that spot and realize that to somebody you are that person. No matter how small we think ourselves at times, we are actually much bigger and much more important.

Thank you Dave, Clare, Ryan and Nathan for following in the instruments that made such a difference in Tony's and my life. I hope that you have your own "refocus changes" as well. We will only be better people because of it.

And also thank you to those who are brave enough to realize that you, yes you, mean the world to someone out there!

And a big thank you to the ones who have been my world throughout my almost 34 years on earth.