wednesday, November 12, 2025 Quote of the week

“Winning is great, sure, but if you are really going to do something in life, the secret is learning how to lose.”

Wilma Rudolph

Wilma Rudolph was stricken with polio as a young child leaving her left leg paralyzed. She also contracted scarlet fever as well as double pneumonia. However, even before her teen years, she had learned to walk again and had minimal effects from her illnesses. In the long run, Wilma’s Olympian achievements towered over her struggles. When I began running half marathons, this extraordinary woman inspired me with her tenacity and her grace. She taught me that winning is not crossing the finish line; winning is committing yourself to the race.

Life isn’t really a competition; the quality and longevity of life has to do with our spirit, which originates from within. Grief has no finish line because we will forever miss those who have been called home. We experience the pangs of loss because we have loved deeply. Their absence from our physical lives is incomprehensible, yet we do find a way, in time, to lace up our shoes again. “I still miss those I loved who are no longer with me, Rita Mae Brown writes, “but I find I am grateful for having loved them.”

Maybe you’re not yet there; you’re not ready to be at peace with the gift of what love bestowed upon you because it hurts too much to lose them. I never thought I would reach a time when I am more thankful and blessed rather than grieved either. Psychiatrist and author Elisabeth Kubler-Ross spent her life in research and studied the processes of dying and grieving. She once said, and we can most all agree, that we never get over a loss, but instead, “...you will learn to live with it. You will heal and you will rebuild yourself around the loss you have suffered. You will be whole again, but you’ll never be the same.”

Significant moments in life change us. Whether it be a college graduation, a new career path, a birth, or a death, each will ultimately transform our lives. But how our lives are transformed, well that is us to us and how we chose to proceed. Search out what restores hope and love in your life after loss. Loss empowered Wilma, and it can help the grieving as well.

It's difficult to be grateful for what you no longer have, and that's all right. Take your time.

wednesday, November 5, 2025 Quote of the week

Looking behind I am filled with gratitude. Looking forward I am filled with vision. Looking upwards I am filled with strength. Looking within I discover peace.
Quero Apache Prayer

November tends to be the month for recognizing gratitude. I have read people's Thirty Days of Gratitude posts on their favorite social media feed for the past few years, so I decided this was a path for me this month. With Thanksgiving arriving within the next few weeks, it is healthy to be mindful of all I have.

A steady rain continued throughout last weekend, and I was thankful for the quiet time. I listened to the drops ping from off my roof and watched the water puddle in the streets. Water can be as crushing as tidal waves or violent tsunamis, but water can also be as gentle as mist.

Outside my window, I noticed a tiny drop of rain clinging ever so delicately to a branch of my juniper bush. I felt incredibly blessed to witness such beauty. Simple beauty yet so magnificent.

Yes, it was a "gloomy" weekend, but it allowed me time to settle and absorb nature that I would have been too busy to see otherwise. Sunshine is inviting, but in the words of John Updike, he said that "Rain is grace; rain is the sky descending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life." We need the sun, and we need the rain; we need the waves, and we need the stillness.

I am grateful for the ordinary transforming into the majestic!

Storylight A transformational journey SHARON M WIBLE

wednesday, November 12, 2025 Quote of the week

wednesday, November 5, 2025 Quote of the week

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