I had an inspiration. I began to imagine my life as if it were a play on a stage. Let’s pretend that you have decided to buy a ticket to a play titled, The Life and Times of Cindy Magee. As long as we are pretending, it will debut on Broadway because my life is better than a community theater play. Plus, you get to go to New York and get dressed up.
So in Act I, the characters Cindy and her fiance’, David, are making plans for their lives. They will get married, work hard, buy a house, and they are dreaming of a precious baby that they hope to add to their lives to make this couple a family. In the first act everything is going well. They struggle to make ends meet, but use their resources and slowly begin building a cozy and comfortable life. They find out that they are pregnant and they are over the moon. This little baby boy, wrapped in blue, is the most beautiful baby in the whole world in their eyes. Their whole existence is devoted to protecting and providing for this child. They are blessed with three more children over the next 8 years, two boys and a girl. Their family is complete. With three sons and their baby daughter, they bond together as a family. The children grow. Their gifts and talents reveal themselves. There is nothing but love. They have all they need or ever wanted.
Act II. Their children are now young adults making their way into the world. Then Cindy and David receive a phone call. Their oldest son has died in an accident. Devastated, Cindy and David’s world is turned upside down. They cling to each other. They try to make sense of it, but nothing makes sense. The family try to use all of the coping skills that they know to continue moving forward. At the end of Act II the family is gathered around the dining table at the first holiday after the loss. Although they laugh and talk, the Empty Chair is the main focus for Cindy and David. The curtain closes.
Intermission.
As the producer, writer, and star of this play, I have the choice at this point to decide where to take my audience in this story.
One scenario, has Cindy curled up in a ball in a bed. She can’t move forward. She is stuck. Her relationship with her husband is strained because he is grieving, too, but she won’t let him in. Soon, they become two people living beside each other, each in their own despair. They still have relationships with their other children and the future grandchildren down the road, but all they can focus on is the loss. In the end, well, I am not even going to finish this idea because it sounds too sad.
I decide to go with my second idea. Act III starts with Cindy searching for a support system. Some of the people who were in the first act have temporarily or permanently left the play. At first, this is hard to accept but she begins to realize that not everyone is supposed to be on this journey with her. She accepts all offers of graciousness by others. She meets people along the way that she would have never met before. Her world is bigger than before.
She begins to study what happens to us after we die using traditional and spiritual teachings. She still misses her son, but she decides that she will move forward. She begins to channel the love that she expended for her son while he was here in the physical to her family. She decides to use her gifts and talents to become more conscious of the world around her. She sees other people in pain and she does what she can to offer hope and comfort to others.
She sees that God was in control the whole time. When she and David were dreaming of that first baby who would make them a family, God already had the one He intended to entrust them with. She sees that plans and dreams are good but the ability to adjust to things out of her control are a must if she is to thrive. Her faith in the fact that heaven is a real place sustains her. The fact that she can feel her son’s presence in signs lets her know that he is still around her because energy never dies.
I am not sure how the rest of the story will end because that is as far as I have gotten. By the time you, as the audience, see the end of The Life and Times of Cindy Magee, I hope that you will be inspired to live your life fully despite adversity. Everyone is rooting for us all to be triumphant.
Peace and Love.
She writes about life, death, grief, and recovery.
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