November 21, 2011

APPRECIATION
When someone you love is gone, you begin to realize, sometimes too late, how much you miss and appreciate them. On October 12th, 2008, Marylin Frances Boughton Evers, my wife, died. That year was the 50th year of our marriage. She had been ill for several years with a terminal illness and her death was just a matter of time. Yet on her death, as ready as I thought I was for it, a deep and very raw emptiness hit me.
Fortunately we had 50 wonderful years together and so the happy memories of those years have begun to soften the raw emptiness. Eventually, I sensed how much I appreciate her: her love, her wisdom, her exceptional love for her children, her many talents, her beauty, and so much more. For a long time in my work in understanding myself, I had known the value of appreciation, but it was in Marylin's death that I became even more aware of the empowerment of appreciating; it was healing me. Though I deeply miss her and she will always live in my heart, I've learned to appreciate her even more. I'm am also appreciative of my children and grandchildren who also deeply miss Marylin and carry a deep love and appreciation for her in their hearts.

APPRECIATION MONDAY
Shortly after Marylin's death, I read a blog by Seth Godin in which he said that if you have a passion for something why not start a holiday for it. I said, okay, I have a passion for appreciation - everyone wants to be appreciated - so I initiated on my Twitter and FaceBook pages Appreciation Monday. Why Monday? Mondays are the most difficult day of the week for most people because it means going back to work, often to a disliked but necessary job. What better day than Monday to begin with appreciation as a way to help me and help others? It works! So Appreciation Monday comes from Marylin's life and death, and how I've learned to be more appreciative.

STORYBRIGHT.COM
As to StoryBright.com, I appreciate Mike Mase who did all of the work on putting this site together. A few years ago, I suggested to Mike the idea of a story sharing web site, and said I'd love to have a place where people could share their stories, especially stories of appreciation. We put some $ into registering a domain, and now I'm so pleased to say that after a few slips and false starts, Mike, with his super computer skills, got the site up and running. Please share your stories, and tell everyone about the site, storybright.com Mike, I appreciate you!