Kalen,
My condolences to the family. Lani was a marvelously entertaining and thoughtful person. Her responses and encouragement showed a great concern and love for everyone. She certainly was proud of you.
This was her response to my inquiry about her signature line "A bend in the road is not the end of the road, unless you fail to make the turn"
I wish I knew the author so I could give him/her credit, but it's "author unknown". When I first read it, I was deeply affected, as though it had been written specifically for me, and I took it on as my Mantra.
It's from a poster on the wall at the Therapeutic Center where I first went to speech/swallow therapy this last January. I had gone through a long period of mourning my "old normal" and was in the process of accepting - even embracing - my "new normal". Of course in that acceptance, there are still some things than can improve, and I will work and strive for whatever can bring me even closer to my "old normal" - or maybe that's a "new and improved new normal", like the surgery I'm in preparation for so that I can have teeth.
Acceptance isn't giving up on what can be changed for the better, but not wasting the energy, time, your life itself on self-pity and bitterness for things that can't be changed. I have SO MUCH to be grateful for. That's not to say that I don't have my occasional foot-stomping moments, but they're not often and short-lived.
And then I always go back to my Mantra.....
