Real, Relevant, and Required

The start of my post may seem a bit sad, but if you choose to read on, I believe you'll notice a brighter message. Also, I've been known to overshare. You've been forewarned. :)

My husband, the love of my life, had a stroke on Monday, August 9, 2021, at 10:30 a.m. This was absolutely a blindside tackle from the game of life. The day before, we played 18 holes of golf (our favorite outdoor activity). The week before we were doing the things we always do in a normal week with no thought of the tackle in our future. Then...out of nowhere...the blindside hit occurred.

I received this today from the inspiring quotes platform to which I subscribe. For me, now more than ever, this is?Real, Relevant, and Required. Hope you also find this to be true.

?On his 80th birthday, Robert Frost was asked, “In all your years and all your travels, what do you think is the most important thing you’ve learned about life?” You would think someone like Frost, who won the Pulitzer Prize four times, would give a colorful and poetic response, but his abridged reply was just as moving in its simplicity: “It goes on.” While Frost’s work is widely celebrated, his personal life was marked with tragedy. He lost both his parents at a young age, and outlived four of his six children before losing his wife. Yet still, life went on, and Frost found more opportunities for love and laughter. Regardless of the pain we may face, it is always possible that the best is yet to come. (InspiringQuotes.com, 2021)

REAL.?Here are a few of my own real-life events I have experienced while on this earth.

• 1995: My first husband (an only child and the 1994 TN Young Farmer of the Year) died in an unexpected farm vehicle crash - we had been married ten years at the time. All of a sudden what was a family of four became a family of three - me and my two children ages five and three. I had to do a hard reset to figure out our new direction. I felt like life had stopped but...Life goes on?with family who helped me carry my broken heart.
• 1996. I quit my job of almost ten years as part of my reset.?Life goes on?and I bought a new house in the city, ran a marathon, and spent time with my family after "falling off of the planet" for a while.
• 1997. My oldest child - my son - was diagnosed with a softball-sized brain tumor at the age of seven.?Life goes on?and my son was healed, I started a new dream job, and moved back to the farm.
• 2002. I lost my dream job due to downsizing from the horrific events of 9/11.?Life goes on?and I started my own company, met my soulmate, and landed my first huge contract.
• 2008. My father-in-law died from a battle with leukemia.?Life goes on?and I landed the largest client to date for my consulting agency, I married my new soulmate, and my children began calling him their bonus dad (their phrase not mine).
• 2009. My daughter was removed from her portion of her daddy's estate by her grandmother who didn't "like" whom my daughter dated (another story for another day).?Life goes on?and my daughter married her soulmate (in 2016), she received her master's in athletic training (2017), and gave birth to my first grandchild in 2021.
• 2011. My now 33-year-old son began having grand mal seizures due to the brain surgery he had when he was seven.?Life goes on?and my son received the farmer of the year award his daddy also received, he married his soulmate (2019), and gave me my second grandchild in January 2022.
• 2013. My bonus son was in a horrific vehicle accident at age of 24 and almost died.?Life goes on?and he recovered, became a master plumber (achieved in 2018), is with the love of his life, and has given us two grandbabies (3-year-old and 9-year-old) :)
• 2021. My first love, my daddy, unexpectedly passed away on June 1, 2021. My forever love, my husband had his stroke on August 9, 2021.?Life goes on.?My mother is adjusting to life without her soulmate of 60 years, I am working to navigate my current reality, and my husband is learning to overcome his fear of not being "there" for me.
• 2022. My former employer of seven years was part of a merger/acquisition. The first announcement of this news in September 2021 gave me much angst and an overall feeling of uncertainty [and sometimes anger].?Life goes on.?I now have my new dream job [big smile], I have a wonderful team surrounding me, and JMT is a wonderful place to call my work-home.

RELEVANT.??My story is not unique. We all have these "bumps in the road" or blindside events that occur. Sometimes more frequently than we would desire. The relevancy and significance of each event to our journey is the essence of how life goes on. One event spurs a chain of events we can not see at the time, but in time and with much perseverance, we should hopefully try to see the good of the outcome of the struggle.

REQUIRED. These events are required to live. Without an assortment of life-altering events, we can't be honed into who we are to become. The last two events -?my husband's stroke and a new employer - have given me more moments to pause and reset. My new theme for life in the coming days is?RISE ABOVE?and is a phrase my former marketing team began to use for our theme in 2021. Personally, I believe it to be extraordinarily providential.

Hopefully, this small view into my own personal story can inspire someone to not give up or to help someone who has experienced a blindsiding event.

Always moving forward [experiencing the fullness as?life goes on?while?rising above the challenges],

~Becky Rehorn

Passionate. Intentional. Creative. Trustworthy. Inspired.

Reference:

InspiringQuotes.com (2021). It Goes On. https://www.inspiringquotes.com/inspiration/6115a8083799de00079c53d3