the circle of life

This has been an interesting month--one that makes me consider the circle of life.

One of my best friends Margaret had her second kid, a baby girl, two weeks early. Linden was born on August 6th weighing in at a petite 6lbs and 8oz. All are doing well.

August 13th also brought the 6 month mark of my mom's passing--can't believe it's been that long, but in other ways it feels like a lifetime. And as if that day wasn't tough enough, I also learned that after MUCH hassling to get my Aunt to a colonoscopy, she had two polyps removed and one tested positive for Cancer. It's VERY early and the good news is we caught it. So she's now in the midst of follow up tests and dr appts but we are all very positive. It does bring a lot of emotions--mainly that thought of 'if only my mom went when she was suppose to' b/c I'm sure we could've caught her Cancer early enough that she'd live many more years as a healthy vibrant woman. And to top it off, she and my Aunt always talked about going together, b/c just like her brother, they all hate Drs! But there's no sense in saying what if, so instead, I'm just so glad that God has given my Aunt that chance and that we all can watch someone push Cancer to the curb and prove that it doesn't always win.

And soon, later this month, will be my mom's birthday, she would've been 66. It's going to be a strange day, how do you honor someone's birthday when you're also mourning having just lost them 6 months before?! I'm not sure. But I have an idea of how I can honor her... we'll see what the day brings.

Birthdays, illness, death, it's all part of life. People go and new people are born. As much as we all know and understand this to be life, it never ceases to amaze me, still.