SECOND BITE AT THE CHERRY

Welcome to my Thursday evening where the storm is raging and the winter wind blowing and rain falling heavily at the moment and the days when cherries are available in abundance are yet to come for us.   Our northern hemisphere friends have the sweet pleasures of summer fruit at the moment and I know they enjoy it.

Cherries are my favourite fruit (although there are others close by) and I enjoy the summer days with a bowl of cherries, some shade and a good book.   Turning the pages slowly as I read and spitting the pits into a bowl.  To have the sweet sweet taste of cherries, I must also have the pits and how I handle them is up to me.

I can moan about them or I can just spit them out and go on enjoying the beautiful cherry flavour and that's what I do and intend to go on doing.

I can't have the cherries without the pits, the sunshine without the shadow,

the rainbow without the rain but I can spit the pits out, turn my face to the sun so that the shadows are behind me and I can put up an umbrella in the rain.

Life is very tough for many people at the moment with severe illness, family members who are in the last days of their life, those who are ill in the grip of an illness that only a transplant will save them from and those with children who will always be children and linger in the shadows of childhood.

There is little I can do to ease the pain of these dear people, but I can be supportive, prayerful and encouraging.

I can be an advocate for the things I believe in and as a living, breathing example of the success of organ transplantation that's my intention to be part of a team to educate and inform members of the community about the very special wonder that organ transplantation is.

I have friends who are actively involved in this all over the world and next week a dear friend is stepping up to the first meeting post transplant. 

It is rather like going to AA - when asked who you are and what is your connection to transplant  my response is "I am Linda and I am the very fortunate recipient of a new liver".   It is wonderful to share with people the difference that transplant has made in my life and the lives of many I know.  I have contact with many people in various stages of their recovery - one back to work almost full time, planning trips, gardening and living each day present to the moment.    Another walking daily, riding a bike, walking the dog and celebrating life with a thankful heart.

As a group we are very blessed to have been the recipient of an organ because someone made the decision that when their time came they wanted to "donate life" and they did the most important thing of all

THEY DISCUSSED IT WITH THEIR FAMILY - so that there was no doubt in the minds of family members as to what their wishes were.

Wherever you are in this beautiful world - if summer is your companion and summer fruits on your menu, or if you are relishing winter soups, breads and casseroles, sometime over dinner - bring the subject up and make sure that those who love you KNOW and UNDERSTAND what your wishes are ~ it will help them very much at a time of immense sadness and stress.

Have the conversation, register, talk to friends and give others like me the chance for a second bite at the cherry of life.   Yes there are the pits of medication, fatigue and constant blood tests and check ups ~ but they are nothing at all to pay for the price of life itself.

Life for me is definitely A BOWL OF CHERRIES.

Thank you for visiting and sharing the musings of my heart - one which is constantly aware of how blessed I am to be alive, living well and loved.

A heart that is thankful for my bite at the cherry and for the lives of those I love that have been saved by organ donation.

Love and hugs,

Linda.