Believe!
(When You Wish Upon a Star)
Today is the first day of the rest of my life…and yours!
As a cancer patient, I am more aware of the measure of time than ever before. It’s been nearly three years since I was diagnosed, and six years since the symptoms began to disrupt my life. I have nearly doubled the eighteen months of the original solemn prediction of my prognosis, having survived six surgeries, including four very challenging ones, during the past couple of years.
I have just spent a Christmas of joy in Disneyland with my beloved nieces, Christina and Zoe. Withstanding the crowds (80,000 enthusiastic Disney fans!), the exhaustion was worthwhile to witness the spectacular parade of Santa and the Disney characters as seen through the sparkling eyes of the younger generation.
As a three year old pre-schooler, Zoe was wide eyed and too amazed for words, while dimpled, five year old Christina waved and called out to each and every character as the floats proceeded down Disney Boulevard.
“Hello Snow White! It’s me, Christina!”
“Hello Cinderella! I love you!”
Thrilled at seeing all their favorites, my young nieces recognized and called out to more than thirty Disney characters until Santa himself floated by, the recipient of even more waves and little kisses drifting towards him in the balmy Southern California breeze.
Throughout the Disneyland park, displayed and printed everywhere on banners, tee shirts and signs, the Disney theme is “Believe!”
And the nieces truly do!
They believe, they love, they trust!
As the parade continued and the childrens’ delight increased, I silently thanked the dear Lord, and my surgeons, for keeping me on this planet another holiday season.
Limited in the rides I could participate in, we selected It’s a Small World, Peter Pan, Pirates of the Caribbean, the Jungle Cruise and more. On every ride my little nieces tugged for me to sit between them.
We held sticky hands and sang our way through each ride. Our favorite songs were “Jingle Bells”, “It’s a Small World After All”, and the politically incorrect, “Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum” (okay, it may not exactly be an appropriate song for little girls, but we were pirates girls, after all, and, as wide eyed three year Zoe old kept reassuring me, “the pirates aren’t real; they are only puppets!”)
So there!
We laughed, giggled and misbehaved with a joy that I was never allowed to experience during my strict childhood. Now, as the calendar moves forward, I am amazed to move backward in time, creating a new childhood for myself as I experience it through the joy of my nieces.
They freely share with me their crumbled cookies, their chubby cheeks and kisses, their runny noses, and daycare contagions.
“I love you forebber and ebber!” the three year old exclaims, while the five year old quotes, “even when we’re far apart, I keep your love here in my heart” from the story book I wrote for her last year.
Last week I experienced a Christmas I wasn’t supposed to live long enough to enjoy, and today is the New Year’s Day I was prognosed not to see. I write this story during a pastel hued sunrise that I was predicted not to witness. Yet, with the grace of God, the skills of my surgeons, and the joy of spending time with my precious little nieces, I am still here!
Believe!
An excerpt from “Hugs and Kisses for my Nieces”
Copyright (c)2001 by Gabriella Graham/Red Tailed Hawk Publishing
Visit Gabriella at www.wheretheredtailedhawkflies.com
Today is the first day of the rest of my life…and yours!
As a cancer patient, I am more aware of the measure of time than ever before. It’s been nearly three years since I was diagnosed, and six years since the symptoms began to disrupt my life. I have nearly doubled the eighteen months of the original solemn prediction of my prognosis, having survived six surgeries, including four very challenging ones, during the past couple of years.
I have just spent a Christmas of joy in Disneyland with my beloved nieces, Christina and Zoe. Withstanding the crowds (80,000 enthusiastic Disney fans!), the exhaustion was worthwhile to witness the spectacular parade of Santa and the Disney characters as seen through the sparkling eyes of the younger generation.
As a three year old pre-schooler, Zoe was wide eyed and too amazed for words, while dimpled, five year old Christina waved and called out to each and every character as the floats proceeded down Disney Boulevard.
“Hello Snow White! It’s me, Christina!”
“Hello Cinderella! I love you!”
Thrilled at seeing all their favorites, my young nieces recognized and called out to more than thirty Disney characters until Santa himself floated by, the recipient of even more waves and little kisses drifting towards him in the balmy Southern California breeze.
Throughout the Disneyland park, displayed and printed everywhere on banners, tee shirts and signs, the Disney theme is “Believe!”
And the nieces truly do!
They believe, they love, they trust!
As the parade continued and the childrens’ delight increased, I silently thanked the dear Lord, and my surgeons, for keeping me on this planet another holiday season.
Limited in the rides I could participate in, we selected It’s a Small World, Peter Pan, Pirates of the Caribbean, the Jungle Cruise and more. On every ride my little nieces tugged for me to sit between them.
We held sticky hands and sang our way through each ride. Our favorite songs were “Jingle Bells”, “It’s a Small World After All”, and the politically incorrect, “Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum” (okay, it may not exactly be an appropriate song for little girls, but we were pirates girls, after all, and, as wide eyed three year Zoe old kept reassuring me, “the pirates aren’t real; they are only puppets!”)
So there!
We laughed, giggled and misbehaved with a joy that I was never allowed to experience during my strict childhood. Now, as the calendar moves forward, I am amazed to move backward in time, creating a new childhood for myself as I experience it through the joy of my nieces.
They freely share with me their crumbled cookies, their chubby cheeks and kisses, their runny noses, and daycare contagions.
“I love you forebber and ebber!” the three year old exclaims, while the five year old quotes, “even when we’re far apart, I keep your love here in my heart” from the story book I wrote for her last year.
Last week I experienced a Christmas I wasn’t supposed to live long enough to enjoy, and today is the New Year’s Day I was prognosed not to see. I write this story during a pastel hued sunrise that I was predicted not to witness. Yet, with the grace of God, the skills of my surgeons, and the joy of spending time with my precious little nieces, I am still here!
Believe!
An excerpt from “Hugs and Kisses for my Nieces”
Copyright (c)2001 by Gabriella Graham/Red Tailed Hawk Publishing
Visit Gabriella at www.wheretheredtailedhawkflies.com
Three Pirate Girls!