Each day is a new adventure for us to live through. Each day brings trials and tributes into our lives. It is up to us to look at each day and find the good and bad lessons. To be open enough to take the good with the bad. To know there has to be a balance that needs to be maintained in the world for all to flourish on this planet we call home.

There are days where the lessons are easy to take. To live through ups and downs. Other days you wonder how you will get through another minute of your time on Earth.

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This is life.

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How we deal with the tasks sent to us determines how our lives will play out. What will you regret when you die? We all know death is coming to us at some point but not when. Some, like my younger cousin Tom is not so lucky.

Eight years ago he was in the Hospital having a biopsy of his liver when his Wife passed away in their home. She had been very sick for a very long time but the timing of it all could not have been worse.

He buried his Wife and found out he had cancer. Tom went in for the treatments and his cancer went into remission. Over the next eight years, cancer kept coming back. Always to his liver.

Knowing his lifespan was not indefinite anymore he proceeded to retired very early. Lucky for him he had had a good job and he was thrifty. He took his savings and decided to live his life to the fullest between remissions.

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Yesterday the phone rang at my Mom's house and it was my Aunt calling. My cousin Tom has been given two months to live. My Aunt, as you can imagine is a basket case. No parent should lose their child before they die.

I spent over an hour on the phone with my Aunt yesterday. I gave her the only gift I could. Laughter. I talked about some fun times we had at their house on Thanksgiving Days. Thanksgiving being 'their' Holiday to host each year.

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My family was brought up very Roman Catholic. My Mother prays to St. Anthony of Padua (1195-1231) to help her find things. I hear tell she use to yell at her Guardian Angels to make sure my brother and I got home safe when we went out. My Mom even buried a statue of a Saint in the front garden of their house to help sell the house. Yes, I was surprised too!

The patron Saints are called helpers. They are not seen as above the Father, Son or HolyGhost. In this post, this is not up for debate, please.

We all find strength and comfort from different places. It is not up to any of us to judge who is right or wrong as long as you are not hurting anyone.

_{St. Anthony's Church}

My Mother is missing going to church. Missing the place that has given her strength for her entire life. Long ago I wrote a post about her life. The Roman Catholic Church has always been where she has pulled her strength from. Seeing her break down in tears the other day from missing what gives her strength breaks my heart but she knows it will be a while before she will be able to handle going to a whole mass again.

In our family, the running joke has always been that we don't need to go to church because Mom has gone so much we are all 'grandfathered in' under her 'church umbrella'. She even had a friend tell her she was more Catholic than the Pope. I don't happen to know the Pope personally but my guess is he would be hard pressed to find fault with that statement.

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Today I received a text from my Aunt. It was a prayer to Saint Peregrine, who is the Patron Saint of cancer patients, AIDS victims and others suffering from serious illnesses. Attached to this text was the note asking to give my Mom the prayer.

My Aunt's family are praying for a miracle for their son, my cousin Tom.

Whether you believe in prayers to Saints or not is really not the point here. Religion, as I know it and have seen it played out around me and my family, brings peace, strength and the feeling that you are not helpless.

With those three things in your life, there is always HOPE.

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