40 Days of Peace Day Sixteen
The Eternal Optimist
The Eternal Optimist
I’m a glass half full kinda gal. Not to say worry and fear don’t show up sometimes, because they do, of coarse. But, my friends Faith and Hope keep me on the road of possibilities and big dreams! I choose to keep them with me at all times, and they take care of ol’ worry and fear.
I have some really big dreams, some might even say, I dream “impossible dreams”. I like to say, I am a “hopeful optimistic” and I kinda think the world needs more hope and more optimism.
I know that hope is the magic fire that must continue to burn in our hearts in order for us to put on our britches and our boots every morning and face the world.
All things are possible…
I don’t just believe this, I know it. I’ve seen miracles and magic. Just like I know that our words are powerful. I know that our words have the power to make miracles. I’ve experienced a lifetime of miracles!
When Monet was born I experienced the kind of joy that I have no words for. It was as if my heart just exploded into a billion hearts and a veil between this world and wonderland was ripped away. I never knew this kind of love before and it changed me overnight.
I just wanted to lock myself in her room and stare at her to make sure she was real. In her first few weeks, Monet got very sick. She cried a lot and her belly became so bloated that it looked like she may pop. I did everything I could but her crying got worse and the more she cried and I couldn’t fix it, the more I cried. I started having a tape player in my head that was telling me lots of scary things AND blamed me for most of them.
Finally, one afternoon my doctor sent us to the ER. Over the next week, Monet would be poked and tested and retested. She was eventually diagnosed with hirschsprung disease, which is a rare illness where babies are born without ganglion cells in the intestines. These cells help move the waste along the intestine to exit the body. Monet was born without them over a large portion of her intestines. These cells don’t grow back (they say), so a surgery takes place to remove the diseased intestines and attach a colostomy bag.
I was devastated to say the least. I had already been experiencing a lot of postpartum depression symptoms and I was exhausted from not sleeping, as most new moms are. I did not want them to cut open my baby and so I did the only thing I knew to do… I prayed. I prayed and prayed and prayed. I also had a hard time believing it was real. Even though we did the test over and over, I just wasn’t accepting it.
On the morning of the surgery, sobbing hysterically, I begged her surgeon to go in one more time with the scope to check her intestines before they proceeded. He reassured me that these cells do not grow back and that a large portion of her intestine was diseased. We looked over the images again… And I asked him again. And so, he respected this insane mothers request and they did the scope one more time.
In the lobby, my grandparents, parents, brothers, Monet’s dad and other friends and family all sat in prayer with us.
I can’t remember how long we waited, but it seemed like forever. And then, I saw our surgeon, and another doctor who was a dear friend of ours, walking towards me. Dylap (our friend) was crying. They began to explain that there were 1,000’s of ganglion cells all along Monet’s intestines where there were none the day before.
A miracle. A GIFT. A MIRACLE!!! I will never forget that moment. I had always been a dreamer, but this moment woke me up… and the Eternal Optimist in Sarah came to life! The gratitude I felt at that moment brought me to my knees. And it opened my eyes to not only believe in miracles but to see them EVERY DAY in ALL of nature!
Less than a week later my whole family packed up the car and headed to the ocean.
Monet was 5 weeks old and we celebrated her miracle with Mama ocean and our beautiful family.
We choose to believe in miracles
I believe in the impossible. I believe ALL THINGS are possible.
And Hope is the spirit that keeps our dreams alive.
Fear is the only thing that will steal our possibilities, our hopes.. our dreams. So we must hold strong to Hope and remind ourselves that we are all part of nature.. this divine miracle of creation! We are here TO CREATE!
This creative energy flows through us … if … we allow it, if… we are open to receive, if… we choose to believe.
What do dream of creating with this life?
We were created for far more that working 9-5, paying bills, shopping Amazon deals of the day and binging on the newest Netflix series. (though we can enjoy ALL of these things).
I believe we’re here for so much more that we can even imagine.
Have you forgotten your dream? If so, thats a great place to start. What fun it will be to explore all the possibilities that we have to dream.
No matter what I face in life, I look at it with these eternal optimistic eyes. I’m a hard pill to swallow for the cynical crowd, but that’s never stopped me from being me. I have a purpose and clearly optimism is one of strongest gifts.
How we experience this journey is all based on our perspective and how we see the world around us.
I choose to believe in miracles. I choose to have faith. I choose hope. I choose love. I choose to write down my dreams and believe they are already realized.
I know that I radiate from a place of joy and then I become a magnet for miracles! I become a magnet for possibility! I become a magnet for magic!
My dad and my second mama bought our family tickets to see Rob Bell this week. His tour is called “An introduction to JOY” and I can see that he radiates joy with his message of hope and humor. He reminded me once again, that the best is yet to come!
If you sit in fear of some apocalyptic future for yourself or for the world.. You are going to have a hard time creating your dreams. Our thoughts and our words are powerful! We are connected to ALL of nature, including all humans. If we think negative thoughts, what do you thing we will create?
What happens when we live from a place of joy and hope? We see someone at the grocery store having a bad day.. we choose to share a little magic and miracles with them, in the form of kindness, and they leave the store better than they came. Then they can go into the world and pass along the gift to someone else.
This is how we cultivate peace and create miracles in a world of fear.
We choose LOVE and FAITH and HOPE!
Miracle: a surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws.
Shams of Tabriz’s 40 Rules of Love
