lessons from grandma

today, i want to celebrate the life of grandma mary, who passed away in her sleep this morning.grandma was a woman who: was a woman of faith embraced life did not fear death felt blessed was happy, positive, optimistic, gracious and proud was strong and wise was practical and down-to-earth had a lot of common sense was organized was grateful was compassionate and thoughtful respected and was respected admired mother nature and father time loved the colors of nature graduated from college at 61 saw the world and traveled until 81

you can grasp a bit of the beauty that grandma mary was, when reading her final requests and wishes:

She wanted to be treated with kindness and cheerfulness, not sadness. She asked that her time of dying and death be used as a time of personal growth, for the family as well as her. She wished to be forgiven, for any time she hurt or offended her family, friends, or others. If you must bury something, let it be her faults, weaknesses and all prejudices against her fellow man. Lastly, if you wish to remember her, do it with a kind word or deed to someone who needs it.

i feel that if everyone had just the tiniest bit of grandma mary in them, this world would be a better place.

i'm so grateful that we were able to visit grandma a few weeks ago. while we were there, i asked her what's the secret to a long, happy life and she replied, "always have a pleasant disposition".

so here's to embracing life with a pleasant disposition.  rest in peace grandma!