Now that I have your attention with this beautiful shot of a sunset in the far end of the meadow at Park Delta Bay — taken from my front porch — here’s what I want you to do.

Stand.  Walk over to a window.  Gaze on nature.  If you’re alone, wrap your arms around yourself and remind yourself that you are lovable and capable.  If you are with someone whom you love or who loves you (or both), enfold them in the circle of a completely unbridled embrace, and tell them how you feel about the gift of their presence.

This is my shameless pitch for joy.  I want you to close your eyes, and allow the tension to ease from your body.  Open your heart to the possibility of this moment, the only space of time which you know for absolute certain that you will have.  Savor every breath which follows the one you have just taken.  Let each inhale, each exhale, bring fresh air into your heart and excise venom from your mind.

If you have pain in your body, know that I understand.  If you dwell beyond my gaze, outside the reach of my voice, listen for the flutter of the angels’ wings.  Allow their softness to ease any ache, any twinge, any searing agony — wherever these plague you.

Joy can be yours.  I’ll tell you about one small, silly event from which I trace a decades-long journey to that stunning and simple realization.  Many years ago, my staff and I got involved in a distasteful piece of litigation.  I needed the money; I had a child to support and my health flagged.  We served as honorably as we could.  On one occasion, I managed a telephone call involving about ten plaintiffs’ attorneys, all out for the blood of my client.  One lawyer hollered that I stood between them and victory, and that I was, in the process, withholding information to which he thought himself entitled.  “I’ll file a motion for sanctions against you, PERSONALLY, Ms. Corley,” he bellowed.  I smiled over the speaker phone at my friend-and-assistant Alan White.  “Mr. Poland,” I replied.  “I’ve been shot at, run over, raped, robbed, and given up for dead.  I think I can handle a motion for sanctions.”

You can handle what life brings to you.  Find the angels, in every manifestation — human or animal, or the celestial souls who hover over you as night falls.  Find the strength inside you.  Remember:  I am here.  Send me an email if you need a few words of empathy or support.  I’ll answer.  You can message me at: ccorleyjd@gmail.com.  I’m not going anywhere but forward, one foot at a time.  I can pause to give you whatever time you need.

It’s the twenty-eighth day of the sixty-eighth month of My Year Without Complaining.  Life continues.

Don’t forget, KC folks: 

I’ll be in town next week for my Birthday Bash & Benefit for Rose Brooks Center.  Check it out on Facebook HERE.  05 September 2019, 6pm to 9pm, at Prospero’s upstairs venue,  on 39th Street in Kansas City, Missouri.  If you can’t make the event, but want to donate to the cause, you can find Rose Brooks Center HERE.  Tell them it’s in honor of my birthday.  Our contact is Katy McCoy.  Or give to an agency of your choice which helps survivors of family violence. 

If you or someone you know needs help dealing with family violence, you can get it HERE.  There’s always a way.