Inspire

Two very close friends of mine are getting married this fall. Today, I was at her bridal shower. I remember being so excited about going, because I am of course so thrilled about them getting married. The thought never crossed my mind that at a bridal shower, there are women. Women often come with babies, either pregnant or infants. Both of which were there, and both are a ‘trigger’ for me, meaning they can throw me into a tailspin of emotion without warning. As I leave this shower, I did tear up a tiny bit on my way to my car, but I managed to pull it back together. As I did, a glimmer of pride snuck in, I made it. I had only made it through this because of one reason. Compassion.

At this shower, the mother of the bride was there, and she is a saint. Generally in this kind of setting, things can get a bit awkward. Often, you find yourself sitting alone for a moment, while everyone socializes. Luckily, the mother of the bride, who should have been soaking up the experience of her only daughters first bridal shower, instead stuck to me like glue. It was obvious she could see my struggles, and she cared. She cared enough to have concern for me, on a day she should have been nothing but happy. I now find myself feeling bad about bringing darkness into a day that should have been so happy for her and her daughter.

As we talked a bit about my recent experience with loosing my baby boy, she complimented my strength, as so many have recently. She also mentioned she admired my writing, and said I’ve inspired her. That’s a word I hadn’t yet heard, inspired.

To inspire is to ‘fill someone with the urge to feel or do something, especially something creative’.

If I’ve inspired this wonderful woman, with whom I’m not all that close with, who else have I inspired?

Since I’ve been home from the hospital, I’ve been thinking I wanted to do something, something in honor of our sweet boy. If I’ve inspired anyone, I ask that they do a random act of kindness in memory of this sweet boy of mine. Long before my life was stricken with tragedy, I always wished there were more compassion in the world, more people doing nice things for one another, more people that care.

If you choose to do something in his memory, please let me know about it. Rather than my days being filled with sadness, as so many are. It would be wonderful to hear stories about how nice things are being done to make life on this earth a little brighter.

What if my wish, in memory of my sweet Skylar, managed to brighten the world around me. That, would be the only thing that could really make all of this any better.