On CBS This Morning, during the headline section, we're told that this precious jewel died yesterday. She is most recently known for writing an article in the New York Times called "You May Want to Marry My Husband" where she wrote, in her last days, of the love she shared with her husband and children.
Of course, I look up the article. Which led me to her obituary. Which led me to a few inspirations.
She created a video called 17 Things I Made (a bed, a book, a vow, a sandwich, etc). That's a fun idea.
She loved Einstein's quote: "There are only two ways to live your life; as though nothing is a miracle, or as though everything is a miracle." Ordinary things happen, but it's how we perceive them that make them miracles. Maybe they seem miraculous because we don't believe magic can be true. Or maybe we don't believe we deserve these amazing things to happen to us so it feels like a miracle. Or maybe we like to believe we are being taken care of by a higher power so when strange and wonderful things happen we attribute it to a miracle rather than a statistical event.
She wrote a book called "Encyclopedia of a Normal Life". I have not idea what this book is about other than I believe it's a memoir, but I like this idea...everyone should have an encyclopedia of their life.
What if everything in the world that happens and is happening is about me? What if I really AM the center of the universe, as my friend LJB would often say?
Everything in the world is for my benefit and my edification and my inspiration?
What if that is true?
And, then...what if MY life is also part of someone else's universe where they are the center of the universe and I am here to inspire them...either by being part of the multitudes they never know personally, or the person I smile at in the street?
What if the universe is all about US and us believing in ourselves and magic and the beauty in this world and the people of this world?
We are ALL the center of the universe. One big center and we're creating all this beauty and love and sharing and caring - it's all for us...and I am one of US, so it's all for ME and my most precious self, the same way it's all for you and YOUR most precious self, and it was for Amy Krouse Rosenthal and HER better self. We give, we take, we share, we make.
A section from her obituary:
...even before her diagnosis, she suggested that her energy and imagination were not boundless. Her favorite line from literature, she once said, was in Thornton Wilder's play "Our Town," as spoken by the character Emily as she bids the world goodbye: "Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it?"
When she turned 40, Ms. Rosenthal began calculating how many days she had left until she turned 80.
"How many more times, then, do I get to look at a tree?" she asked. "Let's just say it's 12,395. Absolutely that's a lot, but it's not infinite, and I'm thinking anything less than infinite is too small a number and not satisfactory. At the very least, I want to look at trees a million more times. Is that too much to ask?"
Just like JLB, I hope she was alive every day until she died.
Check out her website here
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