Been a While AGAIN...a gift

Wow ..it's been a while since I wrote on this blog...been keeping the LAUGH clown ministry web site up to date though...
since there are too many pictures to post ..Thought I'd post one of the articles I wrote for MACA Big Top newsletter

 

A Gift….

     The older I get the less I get excited about getting any birthday gifts.  If I want something, I’ll go out to buy it. But there is something special when a person takes time out of their day to think what I might like to have WITH OUT asking me.  Those kinds of gifts I enjoy

 

    There are all sorts of gifts one can give to one another.  BeBop aka Aura Krause wrote an article in “Clowning Around” magazine about the “Gift of a smile” ( see article in the  Big  Top). At Kapo’s Gang, we have a dear member of the alley, who has gone through a lot in the past few years and she sent us an email entitled “ The gift of Time”:

 

 THE GIFT OF TIME

 

     When I was a little girl, I worried that I would never be important enough to ever be remembered...

and if given the gift of time to live to be 35 - well. certainly by that time, I would've lived a full life

and achieved some accomplishment to be in history books.  Well, that didn't happen.

 

BUT, I was given the gift of time to live another 35 years.  By then, I still didn't accomplish anything

memorable - but by that time I valued what I did have:  being married (twice) - having a darling

daughter - a rewarding teaching career - a caring son-in-law - fantastic grandkids - able to travel

the world --AND Cancer!

 

While suffering the ravages of chemo and radiation treatments, I chatted with a woman in the doctor's

office everyday.  To my surprise, she was an author, and wrote a book about ME!  "She Wears Her Bald 

Head Like a Warrior" never went to print; but it defined me.

 

My oncologist gave me the gift of time (some gift!).  If I survived 3 years, I might make it to 5 !!

So certain was he of my doom, that after just one year, he sent my family a card offering his

condolences on my death.  Hmm.

 

Once again the gift of time was on my side.  I'm happy to say, today, APRIL 6, 2015, I am exactly

5 years cancer free...and tomorrow I will shout from the rooftop, "I beat it"!!

 

I'm not foolish enough to think I have a guarantee forever...and I do take my gift of time seriously.

Not being religious myself, I have accepted prayers from at least 21 different cultures --

maybe they worked?

 

I rarely turn down an invitation and often live my life on the edge.  To quote Angelina Jolie-Pitt,

"cause a little trouble, it's good for you.  If I didn't take risks I would've missed out on meeting some

awesome people and some awesome experiences:  holding hands with Elizabeth Taylor, hugging

Raisa Gorbachev, rallying in Washington,DC for Womens' Rights, visiting St Jude's Hospital --

just to name a few.

 

Every person that you care for enriches your life and changes the way you see the world.  Every 

single one of you reading this has influenced my life in some way - over time memories become

more precious and in most cases more hilarious.

 

If YOU can always remember our life and laughter together, my time on Earth WILL have had a

purpose.       I wish you the gift of time      

                                                                                                       

   Part of the gift is the person receiving it. What good is a gift if no one accepts it?  A person I know, who has been going through some difficult times with her daughter, told me of a story that in the midst of all the drama, a complete stranger came up to her daughter and gave her 100 dollars.  That stranger told her the God told her that she needed it.  Some back story to this, this daughter had been homeless and estranged from the rest of the family. That “little” gift of generosity had a profound effect on the wayward daughter that she will never forget.

  A gift to someone does not also guarantee that you will get a reciprocal gift.  A gift should be just that…a gift.  If you give from your heart you will quickly find the more you give ..the more you get back.  Another friend of mine , who doesn’t have much, gave from her heart on Christmas.  Later on in the year, without her knowing, someone else did the same to her… two fold.

  Over the Easter season, a dear friend and founder of Kid’s alley lost her battle to cancer.  The gift she gave us by just living each day to the fullest, is a gift that keeps on giving.  Pastor Viv gave up a career as an accomplished clarinetists, to give of her time and talent to the kid’s of Camden. Her parents disowned her because their vision of her did not meet her deep commitment to her calling of  a mentor.  Her legacy of Love is felt by so many she will be dearly missed.  Every time I read her obituary my “eyes leak” and feel sadness for our loss.  But our loss, is certainly her gain in heaven and ours with her legacy.  She  lives on through her vision of reaching the kids of Camden. That vision has grown, and Kid’s alley is bigger and better than it’s been.

 

   The gift that God gave us to clown should be freely given,  We all know the gifts we receive from a child’s laughter or a smile from the parents of the handicapped child.  Each April a group of us clowns in the Philadelphia area are asked to donate our time for the Kelly Ann Doan Fund Family Boat ride on the Sprit of Philadelphia.  Each year we go we get blessed.  To get a smile, a laugh and to dance with a child bound by a wheelchair is priceless.

 

  Giving of a gift  should not be held to ones who you feel deserve it more than others.  You never know what that person’s circumstance may be.  As a clown, you are there for one reason, to brighten that person’s life for that one moment in time. They will never forget that gift.  By doing that, you too will be blessed twofold

 

Bump a nose,

Shobo