Paths well worn

Sometimes paths are just this way or that

and look well worn as a result of many miles and tracks once forged from the courage to take them over and again.

Often pleasant, sometimes scary

many times requiring great effort to clear the way along the way,

removing debri and things that get in the way in order to make a way that is easier with each journey it seems.

But often once travelled we still don't know what is beyond the well worn path just down the lane,

there is a hairpin turn,

requiring us to use all we have to get to the next level ground,

or the next place!

We find there are always those who will encourage, will offer advice, will be our cheerleaders on the sidelines

and yet more often than not

it is a journey that is unique to the one who is making the trip.

Each with their own foot steps

each with their own eyes

and

moving through fears, tears, stages

and words that being processed in the heart and the brain and spirit.

Sometimes folks find they need to cross a river,

that it is time to transition

from here to there

to the next place

they feel and know

Creator is calling.

Folks may need to finish the business at hand here; need to let others know

it is time

yet don't want to disappoint, to show their mixed emotions or fears or pain of what "they are goin to miss".

In those times many want to be heard,

to know they will be missed and remembered,

that they and their time have left an impact that is more than now.

Times are so complicated

it seems.

Grief, loss, longing, missing

a river wide and old as time

often happening while we are alive

many who are well know this quite well,

they just don't know the names apply.

Rivers that flow North,

currents that rush and swirl

tides that change

and people that are not liking change.

Forgetting that everyone and everything changes

and yet beauty remains

if we but stop

take a breath and look around.

Choose wisely that which we say

to those walking a journey,

for those who are making a transition

to those who are traveling up river

down stream

and those who are in the transition

from here to the next place.

So many gifts to receive and give

that will last a lifetime

when we allow them and give them freely.

We are richly blessed when we give freely to others from the heart.

And the heart remembers

all that is given with honor, truth and integrity.

...

Thomas O'Brien gave all a message yesterday,

He said that he thinks he is getting close and he thanked his 5,000 guardians that have been loving him and their care, most of which he never met, but wanted all to know he would be watching over them, and hoped everyone was ok.

His mom Debbie, is posting a photo extravaganza of on her facebook page, of she and her son, their lives together.

I can't imagine that she sleeps at all!

I'm thinking that Thomas O'Brien

has lived large for one of 21 years,

as I've seen him in photos as a kid

who was in karate, one in the pilot seat of a plane, driving a boat, geared up to fight a war, as a detention officer, a sheriff in Texas, as a great trickster in his youth, in a tricked out car, on the dance floor with hot chicks, and all manner of photos that will tickle you and break your heart at the same time.

I've seen a Mom with a smile as big as Texas

and wonder why is it she does NOT age?

Must be the water in Texas?

I've been allowed in on a journey that has blessed me, has bent my heart, and that has now made me go out and replinish my candle supply three times over and they are still burning brightly.

I have cussed and wept and hollered and continue to stand strong in my stance and stomp

CANCER SUCKS

as I now see our strong young warrior

let all inside his journey on paths that are hard to bear and to witness

yet

we are not the ones who have been subjected to them.

So how dare us say that they are hard.

He is a combat warrior of the finest as he has been prodded, poked, punctured, invaded

and yet continued to be kind, honorable, honest and go go go with pain and with strain.

He has posted pictures of him at his best, his good, his awful;

scans of Cancer attacking his precious body,

bleeding from his lung into a basin,

of fears and tears

and

still manages in the end of his life

to send a message

to what he calls his

"guardians" to thank them, to let them know, I'll be lookin at you, and hope you are all ok"

and on top of all this, I have to remind myself he is 21 years old, with a brain that is still developing.

Yet his soul has to be that of an old wisdom keeper and the Creator sent him here as a true and beautiful gift to all that he has touched if only for a short time.

I only hope he has been able to fuss/cuss/hoop and holler

during all of this; to drink a beer or twenty

and to do all the things a 21 year old male wants to do along the journey!

I have a feeling that he has,

and I know there are more, many more

than 5,000 people that now know the magic and the grace

of that young man known as Thomas O'Brien

that his Mom Debbie Koenig gave birth and a foundation to.

And for that I am grateful.

It takes a real man,

a warrior

to nap and to rest under the same very blanket he had as a child

and to feel peace!

What a great photo

and

what an even greater gentle spirit

that we have all been blessed to know

...

The candles are lit,

the tobacco and sage are here,

the fire is burning

and we are

STANDING FOR THOMAS O'BRIEN

as he prepares for heaven's gate

and all the angels are surrounding him here and in the next place to welcome him

and to let him know:

"Job well done son, welcome home"

..

I heard this song in my dreams all night and I swear I think it was Thomas talking

so here YOU go!

Walk in BEauty

DRSES

www.sherryeshowalter.com