A Gift from God

At the end of seven years thou shalt make a Release...

Deuteronomy 15:1

Though this verse is referring to debt, in practical terms remission of debt aims to re-establish economic equilibrium within a society.

Would it not also be beneficial to see the end of seven years as a remission of all burdens, an opportunity to restore emotional and spiritual equilibrium?

Most of our tissues are continually being turned over, renewed in a balance between the constant death of old cells (likely through the process of apoptosis; a form of cell death in which a programmed sequence of events leads to the elimination of cells) and the constant birth of new cells.

It will be seven years (May 12th, 2007) since Taylor's accident. Seven years. That means that the cells that made me, me at the time of Tay's accident have gone through programmed cell death or cell suicide.

I am not the same person now that I was then. I have figuratively and perhaps literally gone through a death of my own.

It is only now, that I realize that I lived. To "suddenly" wake up and recognize that I am still breathing, surviving. Not the Myra of seven years ago. A very different person. A subdued shadow of my former self. But still... here.

Perhaps it is time to be released from this heavy burden. To find peace and joy once again. To know that the only constant in life is change. To embrace that concept rather than to fear it.

Should we not take a lesson from our tabernacle? Should we not shed the painful experiences that life brings us and "rise from the ashes" a new and glorious self? Stronger, wiser, more compassionate? Should we not hold on to everything good and let go of the rest?

"We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the life that is waiting for us."

Joseph Campbell

I never planned on losing a child. I thought he would always be here, a presence in my life. Now

I know he was simply a

"present".

A gift from God.