R.A.D.I.C.A.L. Thoughts for R.A.D.I.C.A.L. Women

I am almost ten years past my midlife divorce, and I am still discovering new joys every day. However, last night on my walk (just as it was getting dark) I had a kind of meltdown. I cried and prayed for the whole 30 minutes. We had had a gorgeous holiday weekend, and yesterday, Memorial Day was a special day, too. Two of my grandsons have Juvenile Diabetes. One is 11, the other is nine. They both have insulin pumps and they are handling things amazingly well. They never complain. They take it in stride. They are normal (way above normal actually ☺). Their cousins and their siblings started doing a “Hot Dogs for Henry and George” fund-raiser every year. They put up signs, call their friends at school, get help from parents and grandparents and they have raised several thousands of dollars for Diabetes Research. The fund-raiser was yesterday. But last night about 8:00 my son, Henry and George’s Dad called and said the oldest had had an “incident.” He started acting a little out of character and goofy, and when they checked his numbers he was way low. My daughter-in-law is a pediatrician and they gave him a glass and a half of juice with the numbers still going down. They squirted a tube of frosting into his mouth … with him getting incoherent and still nosediving. They called 911 and finally his system responded to the sugar and he became lucid and himself again. Hearing all of that made me acutely aware of how serious a disease it is and how grateful I am for the advances that have been made so far. (and also how far there is to go). But it also brought to mind that my brother, who also had diabetes, died during this same week two years ago. They think he went into a coma in his sleep and he never woke up. If you have read my book Radical Recovery, he wrote the two letters to me that are in the book. (I was blessed with amazing brothers and family). I miss him terribly. But yesterday, on top of all of the worry about my grandsons, and thinking about my brother, some of the women on my radicalwomennetwork.com are really struggling with very difficult issues. Lots of women are hurting, and it breaks my heart every time I think about it. Any holidays are harder for women in a divorce. Even fantastic things like new babies being born are tinged with sadness (like in one radical woman's weekend) because the father in the family has decided he wants some fleeting midlife fantasy. Anyway, I prayed and cried and walked and cried and talked to God some more. I want to make a difference in this world. To my children and grandchildren. To my extended family. To my husband. To women who are struggling through a very difficult time. To people I meet on the street every day. Life is too short. I feel as if I can never do enough. But this morning in my day’s Bible reading were these words from Christ himself: “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friend.” (John 15:12-13) I am going to keep trying to love each person God puts in my path today. I am going to shine God’s light of hope wherever I go. And when I do that, God promises that my joy will be complete. Any of us will find that joy comes to us on its own when we love like that. That’s a promise from the Eternal God of the universe. And with that, I cannot wait to get started on this new day and see who I can lay down my love for today.

“Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.” Proverbs 16:3.