Life Said No

Heaven. Today I have yet another reason to be excited about getting to heaven someday.

Her name is Ashli and yesterday Life said no, no more fighting. It's time to go.

She's been battling fourth stage, inoperable cancer for quite some time. I think she lives in Indiana. I don't know much about her family or if she has a brother. You see, I've never met Ashli and now she will never know me. I "met" her through her blog 1 1/2 years ago when my friend Danielle recommended that I check out her blog... a blog that took myself and many others through her battle with cancer. Lively, hilarious 33 year-old Ashli.

The last time Ashli blogged, she talked about being bed-ridden and what funny dreams she was having on the high dosage of pain medicine. That was a last week. Now it's entitled, "Gone Home."

Unaware of the news I would be receiving, chills immediately rose on my arms as I read the news this morning. I never knew Ashli, so why the chills, why the sadness deep inside, why the mellow feeling today? Two reasons. I am reminded that Life cannot be tamed. Ashli was someone's best friend. She was someone's foster mom. She was someone's favorite joker. She was someone's greatest summer memory. She was so much to so many people, and yet Life still said no. And secondly, I am yet again forced outside myself and my teeny world of Me. My smallness is small indeed with a little dose of perspective. Life is fragile. And heaven is only one breath away.

Here's to Ashli. Pain-free, hilarious, lively Ashli. The woman of a thousand-miled inspirations.