Just as I thought spring would appear another storm arrived.

When I woke this morning, I was reminded of two things.

The view from my window this morning reminded me that there is beauty within a storm.

Secondly, Facebook reminded me that 5 years ago today, on March 8th, 2013, I released
“6 Minutes Wrestling with Life.” 

If you would have asked me when I was eight years old what I wanted to be when I grew up, without hesitation I would have replied “A sportswriter.”

If you would have asked me at thirteen how I was going to accomplish that I would have laid out my plan;  I was going to attend Syracuse University, where I would wrestle and get my degree in sports journalism.

And then spend my every waking moment thereafter writing about life, sports, and great people.

Well, it didn’t happen that way.

At least not the part of attending Syracuse University, wrestling and getting my sports journalism degree.

But somehow, through it all, one’s soul aligns itself with what it was meant to do.

Today, if you ask me what I am most passionate about I would say writing about life, sports, and great people.

So in a way my soul was right, I am aligned. 

Today is the 5th anniversary of “6 Minutes Wrestling with Life.”

A book I never saw coming but one which is somehow exactly what my soul whispered I would do.

And as I reflect on the last five years since Its release, I look out my window this morning and I marvel at the beauty within the storm.

I have often said the reward I have received for writing “6 Minutes Wrestling with Life” has been the people I have met.

The real-life circumstances they have shared with me.

The well wishes they have given me.

I have seen the best part of people and the human spirit.

I just want to say thank you to all the people I have met during my storm for you have added beauty to my life.

Thank you for silently picking me up.

Thank you for the 3 am emails that arrived at the exact time I needed them.

Thank you for the comments you left in an article.

Thank you for dropping a kindness pebble and rippling your kindness throughout the world.

Thank you for filling my soul.

Thank you for your encouragement and for making my soul beat louder.

Thank you for magnetically pulling me onto the right path and through each day.

Thank you.

I started writing because of a feeling, a feeling my soul was emanating that somehow it was going to take me on a journey of goodness.

And it has.

I have seen the good.

I have heard the good.

I have experienced the good.

I have met the good.

And that good is you.

With every person I meet,

With every story that is shared with me,

With every introduction of how a story has touched you,

With every email, text, and phone call, I am reminded of the beauty within a storm.

All I wanted when I wrote the book was to somehow have more good than bad come from my daughter’s situation.

To have more love than pain to be added to this world.

Hopefully, on a small scale, I have accomplished that.

I know you have added more love and reduced the pain in mine.

And for that, I thank you.

I may not have gone to Syracuse University to wrestle and become a sports journalist, but somehow I feel I am on my souls’ path.

In a weird way, I wound up doing exactly what my soul already knew I would do, just in a way I never imagined.

Yes, there always seems to be more storms than we expect.

Just remember to always notice the beauty within the storm.

Thank you for being the beauty within mine.