Today I Will Make a Difference

Today I will make a difference. I will begin by controlling my thoughts. A person is the product of his thoughts. I want to be happy and hopeful. Therefore, I will have thoughts that are happy and hopeful. I refuse to be victimized by my circumstances. I will not let petty inconveniences such as stoplights, long lines, and traffic jams be my masters. I will avoid negativism and gossip. Optimism will be my companion, and victory will be my hallmark. Today I will make a difference.

I will be grateful for the twenty-four hours that are before me. Time is a precious commodity. I refuse to allow what little time I have to be contaminated by self-pity, anxiety, or boredom. I will face this day with the joy of a child and the courage of a giant. I will drink each minute as though it is my last. When tomorrow comes, today will be gone forever. While it is here, I will use it for loving and giving. Today I will make a difference.

I will not let past failures haunt me. Even though my life is scarred with mistakes, I refuse to rummage through my trash heap of failures. I will admit them. I will correct them. I will press on. Victoriously. No failure is fatal. It's OK to stumble … I will get up. It's OK to fail … I will rise again. Today I will make a difference.

I will spend time with those I love. My spouse, my children, my family. A man can own the world but be poor for the lack of love. A man can own nothing and yet be wealthy in relationships. Today I will spend at least five minutes with the significant people in my world. Five quality minutes of talking or hugging or thanking or listening. Five undiluted minutes with my mate, children, and friends.

Today I will make a difference.

Even though my life is scarred with mistakes, I refuse to rummage through my trash heap of failure. I will admit them. I will correct them. I will press on.

Written by Max Lucado

I know my blog should be about my words, but I couldn’t resist posting this today. I wanted to share this with my readers. I read this for the very first time in February 2005. Six years later, it still inspires me and I still love reading this. I hope this blesses you, and encourages you and I hope it inspires you to make a difference. Love well my friends … lets all love well. ~Ruthie

One person can make a difference and everyone should try. ~ JFK

A Heart Full of Gratitude

Today I'd like to share with you how grateful I am to be feeling so well. The sun is shining gloriously this morning in Chicago and when the sun shines, I'm happiest. There is definitely something about the sun that lifts my spirits. I absolutely love sunny days! Today makes day 9 since surgery. I’m feeling stronger every day. And I hurt less too each day. So grateful! Last night my cousin Lilly came over to visit and brought me so many fun and thoughtful gifts. She brought me flowers, an iTunes gift card (she knows how much I love music) and CHOCOLATE COVERED STRAWBERRIES! OMG! Love her to death for her sweetness. I think what I loved most though was our time together. We spent hours talking and laughing. It had been a while since we both had an opportunity to sit and really visit and connect. Last night we spent some time recalling some of our childhood memories and oh my gosh, at one point, we laughed so hard we could hardly breathe. I hadn’t laughed that hard in a few weeks and it felt so-o good. I have to say, we were quite adventurous little girls to say the least and I loved recalling those days of yesterday. She reminded me last night that it was my sister Alicia and I who taught her how to do cart wheels ON MY FULL SIZE BED when we were teeny tiny creatures. Oh my gosh, on the bed? Seriously???  How dangerous is that??? I can’t even imagine, thankfully we survived it.  I have to admit that I loved recalling days when I was tiny enough to pull off something like that. I absolutely love the vision! I totally remember that season in my life (when my sister and I learned how to do cart wheels). We would watch each other do cart wheels endlessly and as we practiced, we would critique each other on our form. Yes, our little perfectionistic tendencies began very early in life. I''m convinced its an incurable disease. ; )  Cartwheels were so fun and we wanted the world to learn how to do them too. Those are such sweet memories. 

Sometimes, its fun to break the rules. And in true kid fashion, I had a chocolate covered strawberry for breakfast. They were a mouth full of joy! Thank you Lilly! Grateful for such a glorious morning indeed!

In this post, I’m including photos of the chocolate covered strawberries (yum!), cards, flowers and some of the other feel better gifts I received recently. Grateful beyond what words can express for all the love, calls, cards, e-mails, text messages, support, gifts and visits I have received this week. My cup runneth over ...

Yes!

At 2:35pm today I got the call, yes "the call.” The call I had been thinking about, praying for, hoping for and waiting for.  And when I got the call, it made me smile and scream: Yes! I had been hoping and praying and pleading with God for good news. Lately, most of my prayers have felt big, some were silent filled with tears and felt desperate most days for sure. My friends and family prayed too. Gosh, I love them for that and for so much more. I'm thankful for having such an amazing core group of loved ones in my corner who have been there for me.

Today I learned that the cyst that was attached to my right ovary and removed last week Thursday was benign and not cancerous. That news was like sweet music to my ears. I couldn't stop smiling when I got the news and I could seriously feel my soul smiling too. Something deep inside of me felt really, really good and incredibly thankful. In that moment, everything felt perfect and right again. I felt so relieved and so grateful for such fantastic news! It truly made my day. Fighting cancer once was tough enough and today I'm grateful for an answer to prayer, for being spared. Moments after I hung up, the most amazing thing happened. The biggest and most beautiful snowflakes began to fall from the sky and then big tears began to fall from my eyes. I felt so incredibly happy. It felt as if God was sprinkling joy in my world again and suddenly I felt like I could exhale and breathe, I mean really breathe again. What an amazing moment, what a fantastic day.

Healing is coming along quite well. I'm feeling better than expected and that feels good. I'm still quite sore and pretty tender and have learned that sneezing and coughing and getting in and out of bed are the worst! Oh how I take that for granted. So many muscles contract when we sneeze, cough and crawl in or out of bed. I get tired easily. I'm sure the pain medication has alot to do with this but I'm grateful for all the support I'm getting at home and for great pain medication and a sweet answer to prayer. Thank you God. Today, as my little corner of the world over flows with snow flakes falling from the sky, my heart over flows with gratitude.

Until next time, 

xx, Ruthie