Matters Of Life And Death

Today, I was asked to assign the name of someone I knew to various colors.  It was an exercise meant to stimulate conversation.  The first color was Yellow.  Immediately, I thought of my daughter.  I thought of her, not just because her hair is a beautiful shade of blonde, but because she really is a ray of sunshine 🙂

When she came into the world, it was chaos.  She was born with barely a heartbeat, and I had none at all.

After having tubes and needles stuck into her and being placed in a plastic bassinet where oxygen could be blown in to keep her saturation up, she was taken away from everyone who loved her to another hospital where her medical emergency could be better treated.  It would be six days before I was well enough to hold her sweet little body in my arms, and the moment I did, I felt I’d known her forever.  

As she grew, her happy disposition inspired me on a daily basis to be more like her.  I was constantly reminded of how easy it can be to approach life in a way that involves as much laughter as possible, and to seek out opportunities to do just that.  Then, in middle school, everything changed.  Family problems overshadowed her bright light, dimming it for a while.  During that time, it was my turn to shine for her, and when the dark clouds finally disappeared, we shone together 🙂  

My daughter is my inspiration, my angel, my yellow.