A Spring Tribute
Welcome to the new season, my friends. I'm feeling incredibly grateful to turn the metaphorical page of the calendar to a time of year that celebrates the longer days, the increased warmth, and the occasional bursts of splashy color, as flowers prepare to preen in the sunshine. Unlike historical "first days of spring," I find this one to be bittersweet.
Several years ago, I had the privilege to begin working with the sister of a former client. Although anxiety weighed heavily upon her chest, beneath, I could feel her essential energy as light. I'd describe it as the same kind of light we revere as winter fades. She glowed with a generous spirit, offering a warmth and humor one might associate with spring.
Like all of us, she had rainy days, and blustering winds occasionally buffeted her to and fro, and still, the flame within could not be dimmed - it could not be hidden - and while she is no longer a part of my life, I feel the connection to her, still. Ironically, if it weren't for the anvil on her chest, or gusts that teetered her balance on those four inch heels, I would have missed knowing and working with her. Such is the nature of my vocation. While I love to celebrate the moments of success, typically it is the storms that blow clients to my door. And then, it is my honor to serve.
One evening, we sat in my office, working with a brewing squall. At the end of our session, my client received a call from a doctor she'd been waiting to hear from. Rarely do folks I work with accept calls during our time together; however, we'd just finished up, and because she anxiously awaited some test results, she accepted the call.
The very kind doctor suggested she might want one of her parents patched in for the call, because it can be helpful to have another set of ears, and some support, when listening to medical information. The fates decided that wasn't how this call was meant to go down, so my client clicked the speaker setting on her phone, and invited me to listen with her. This doctor, with a bed-side manner one longs for, delivered devastating news. The woman beside me - that light being - learned that her test results evidenced a diagnosis of a rare, and highly aggressive lung cancer.
Over the next ten months, my beautiful client learned the power of receiving. People came out of the woodwork to support her with prayers, through actions, and financially (thousands and thousands of dollars were raised to allow space for healing). Her most stalwart cheerleader, the sister I'd known years before, stepped up to the plate - far exceeding any expectations my client (or I) could have imagined. And this sister was one of many, in the family and beyond, who found a way to add fuel to the internal fire, as brutality rained upon her beautiful and vulnerable body.
During this journey, my client applied every lesson she'd learned in our work together - as well as teachings integrated from other compassionate sources - allowing life to continue stretching her in new and challenging ways. I don't mean she enjoyed the freaking challenges! Yet, she kept finding her way back to her own center, inviting any action to arise from the most grounded space she could find within. Combining external help with inner wisdom, she blended a cocktail of holistic practices with Western medicine. The bevy of instructions and protocols required her to use the voice, she'd so recently been experimenting with, to say "yes" or "no" as her gut dictated.
The typical life span for those hosting this tenacious brand of cancer is nine months. No cure exists, and so far, there are no long-term survivors. This brilliant light I knew and loved, shone about a month longer than the norm. Still, on September 4th, no more air could reach those tortured lungs, and her soul traveled on.
Today would have been her 30th birthday. In January, I received a beautiful email from her beloved sister - the one who extended the referral. With creativity in bloom, she asked all who knew the recently deceased to jot down a memory, impression, or some way that this luminescent being had touched those receiving the email. The idea - to create a literary flash mob! Extraordinary, right? All prose collected would be crafted and bound into a book to be given today, this birthing day, to the parents who brought her into the world.
In ways that are hard to wrap language around, I am so incredibly grateful for the opportunity to have known this child of spring. May this tribute give you a taste of her warmth and generosity, and support you in finding and delighting in the spark within you. We never know how much time we'll get, and each of us is here to uniquely contribute what can only come from us. I invite you to consider opening your heart to yourself sooner, rather than later, allowing the giving-receiving loop of love to be a part of your every day. It matters. You matter. She mattered.
With love, and in honor,
Joanne Lutz