I have written about my friend Elizabeth on a couple of occasions, one post about a trip we took together seven months before she died (Why Miss the Moment) and another which was a reminiscence after her memorial service (Where the Angels Live | Lullaby for a Friend). But today, I am reblogging a post from OK Everybody Let’s Get Organized, the website that serves as a memorial to her life and legacy, because today I want you to hear from her in her own words. [Photo credit: Elizabeth Alling Sewall © 2008]
In some respects, the talk she gave at a Sunday community chapel service on Martha’s Vineyard almost 12 years ago seems suspended in time. It captures the freshness of the assault on our collective sense of security in the first year after the 9/11 attacks and the freshness of the trauma to her personal sense of security as she underwent treatment for breast cancer for the first time. And yet, the essence of her talk is a timeless message of wisdom and truth that is worthy of listening to again and again.