Nate and Elizabeth

I don't have a lot of time to watch TV. So, I record the shows I like and try to watch a few at night before I fall asleep. The two that I ALWAYS make sure I watch is the Ellen Show and Nate Berkus' new show. Last night Nate's featured guest was Elizabeth Edwards. The strength and resilience of this woman and what she has been through is incredible. Fighting a terminal illness, her husband having public affair, then having a child with her, would make most of us not even want to get out of bed in the mornings. I also remember Nate being on the Oprah show a few years back after his own personal devastation of losing his partner and telling Oprah about what happened during that Christmas holiday as tears streamed down his face. It was so wonderful to see both Elizabeth and Nate talking about "paying it forward" instead of just wallowing in self pity or grief! I believe if we take our hardships in life and use them to help others then we really walk away as bettter people. The one thing I didn't know about Elizabeth Edwards was her passion for antiques and vintage items. And she is a pretty good bargain shopper as well saying, "I don't consider 10 percent off a deal"! On yesterdays show they also featured another young woman that recently lost her daughter but continued working hard to help other families that were going through what she had been through. Elizabeth Edwards has opened a little antique shop. Her mom use to have one called the "Red Door", and she named hers the "Red Window". Nate had decorated the set of his show for the woman that lost her daughter. Everything on the set was gift for this woman and although I'm rambling, I was just so happy to see such a generous and kind random act of kindness. This woman continued to give to sick children even though her daughter was no longer with her. Nate had asked Elizabeth, who is terminally ill, if she had one thing to wish for, what would it be? Her reply was, "to live long enough to see my first born grandchild"! It's the little things in life that mean the most, or "should" mean the most. I never, ever forget how full my life is, how I am lucky to be able to see not only my own grown kids all the time, but my grandchildren as well, as in daily! I guess the moral to this long, rambling blog post is this: choose your battles. When someone cuts you off on the freeway, is it really worth the anger? And I do have to say, each time I watch Nate's show, I think about that day this past summer when he randomly showed up at Country Roads and put his arm around me. A very special person indeed!