Lucky Penny

I hate that I spend so much time lately contemplating metaphors for life. I’m really not that serious a thinker, or I’d rather not be anyhow. But, I’ve had some news from a friend that made me go through it all again and writing helps put all the pieces back together very neatly. So, I write.

I made this friend a few months ago that I’ve never met. She was a friend of my mother’s from high school and they reconnected in that happy land of facebook (or myface as my mom called it for the first month she was a member). Through facebook, Mary (new/old friend), learned that my sister and I were raising money for breast cancer research and awareness in preparation for the Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk in D.C. Mary had a niece currently undergoing treatment for cancer and felt compelled to help. Lucky for me, my sister had already met her goal so my mom suggested Mary donate to me. Sometimes it pays to be the slacker – in this case, I met Mary.

Luckily for me, Mary enjoyed my blogs and she and I began exchanging emails. She would read a blog and would respond and since I like to talk (in writing anyway), I’d write back and the rest is friendship. Mary faithfully kept me updated on her niece Penny’s battles. Two days ago, she wrote that Penny had passed away, having fought until the end despite the pain. Penny was young, had a husband and two handsome sons. The love and admiration Mary felt for her screamed from every word she ever wrote to me about her. I never knew Penny, but know she was fabulous.

In thinking about Penny’s passing, I traced back the threads that brought her into my life. Strange, twisted threads of varying hues that I never expected to find in my path. Thing is that I’m kind of like a magpie in that I like to collect strange, twisted pieces of threads in varying hues. So now I’ve got these beautiful threads that I’d have never expected to have and what is so brilliant about them is that they look gorgeous woven in with all the other strange, twisted, colorful threads I’ve collected too. Life as a giant loom with all the threads woven together into spectacular patterns and breathtaking figures, now that’s a metaphor I can love. So, those threads right there, the lovely pink and gold ones, those are Penny and Mary’s threads all tangled up with mine. We look quite cozy like that. Very lucky to have picked up those threads. Lucky, indeed.