Capturing the Essence

My last blog post was named "Before the Forward" but in googling how to write a "foreword" I discovered I had misspelled the word. But how perfect the word "forward" was for that particular post because I needed to spit out the venom inside me regarding Huntington's Disease in order to move ahead, to focus on the learning and inspiration that hardship brings.

And so I am propelled forward to writing my chapter for Michelle's book.

Paragraph 1--DRAFT

I see a skinny smiling girl with long blonde hair rolling around in the shiny grass. She is laughing and flirting with me and I think she is probably the same as me--three or four years old. I wonder if she has words because she won't say anything back to me no matter what I say--she just keeps rolling around in my neighbor's dewy yard laughing and smiling like she has the best secret in the world.

That is my first memory of my best friend. It is imprinted in my mind like a really peaceful dream-hazy and happy. I can't help but think of the irony of me writing a Foreword for her book. At the young age at which I met her, we didn't have the language, the words, to communicate fully. And here we are as adults, conveying finally in this book, those precious secrets of a giggling girl rolling in the grass.

Looking back, I believe the author was gifted with wisdom from the beginning. Perhaps the universe blesses those who will carry heavy burdens down the road with illumination on living. On getting the most from our lives.

39 years later, I am drinking coffee with a beautiful woman with shiny blonde and silver hair. She is in the moderate stage of Huntington's disease which means difficulty walking, talking, and uncontrolled movements. She is throwing her head back laughing although she has lost the words to fully express her joy or her sorrow. She has asked me write the foreword for the book she wrote years ago when she had the language to capture her wisdom; her learning from living with a terminal illness that slowly strips away your life until only your essence remains. Hers is beautiful.

This book teaches how to dig into the essence of who we are and live authentically--taught by someone who knew no other way to live.