{"id":1371,"date":"2013-06-15T06:35:43","date_gmt":"2013-06-15T11:35:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.garyroe.com\/?p=1371"},"modified":"2013-06-15T06:35:43","modified_gmt":"2013-06-15T11:35:43","slug":"leonards-story-just-show-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.garyroe.com\/2013\/06\/15\/leonards-story-just-show-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Leonard&#039;s Story: Just Show Up"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[dropcap2 variation=&#8221;coffee&#8221;]L[\/dropcap2]eonard\u2019s cancer was spreading rapidly. Once a scholarship athlete, a decorated veteran, and a very active man, he slowly lost control of his body. He went from a cane to a walker to a motorized scooter. He piloted that scooter with expert accuracy, a little American flag waving behind his head.<\/p>\n<p>One day I found him in his room, staring out the window. I laid a hand on his shoulder. Neither of us said anything for several minutes.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, Leonard broke the silence with a sigh. \u201cThanks for going through this with me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes another person\u2019s presence is enough.<\/p>\n<p>At my dad\u2019s memorial service, dozens of my high school classmates lined the walkway into the funeral home. No one said a word. No words needed. Message received, loud and clear.<\/p>\n<p>Our presence matters, far more than we know. Just showing up can turn the tide of battle. Vulnerable souls meet. Miracles happen.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s show up today.<\/p>\n<p>Say this with me:<b><i> Living courageously means showing up. When I do, I contribute to the healing of two parties: the other person and myself.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p>Your presence matters. You matter.<\/p>\n<p>(If you have an aging loved one with health issues, we wrote <b><i><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Saying Goodbye<\/span><\/i><\/b> to help. Consider checking it out. Click here: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.garyroe.com\/saying-goodbye\/\">http:\/\/www.garyroe.com\/saying-goodbye\/<\/a>)<\/p>\n<span class=\"et_bloom_bottom_trigger\"><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[dropcap2 variation=&#8221;coffee&#8221;]L[\/dropcap2]eonard\u2019s cancer was spreading rapidly. Once a scholarship athlete, a decorated veteran, and a very active man, he slowly lost control of his body. He went from a cane to a walker to a motorized scooter. He piloted that scooter with expert accuracy, a little American flag waving behind his head. One day I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,10,4,16,13,7,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-courageous-living","category-decision-making","category-grief-and-loss","category-hospice-stories","category-love","category-purpose-and-meaning","category-relationships"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garyroe.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garyroe.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garyroe.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garyroe.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garyroe.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.garyroe.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1371\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garyroe.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garyroe.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garyroe.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}