Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

Yesterday we attended a wedding of our friend's daughter.  It was joyful and poignant, as these things are.  My friend has been a widow for decades, and raised her two daughters by herself after her husband suddenly died, when the girls were 10 and 13.  She's a champ.  I know she would have liked to have found a new partner, but it hasn't happened yet.  But she lives a full, meaningful life, and has two amazing daughters to prove it.  Her husband's brother gave the speech the proud father would have given, and did a great job.  Her speech was touching and wise.  She can laugh at herself, a quality I find almost more important than any other.  She is the definition of courage, and she has given back so much to others.  First to her mother, disabled with polio, then memory loss, then to her clients when she was a social worker helping families with special needs kids.  Now she is working with another friend of ours to talk about gun violence in the schools and do trainings that up the awareness of what guns do in our culture.  She's Bodhisatva, and she was beautiful and calm and gracious and everywhere checking in with people throughout the event.  I hope someone is taking care of her today.