How do you capture the essence of someone through the memories they leave behind?

My Beacon Friend, Julaine, was not one to be easily defined by words.

Talking Possibility

She was an adventurer at heart, a thoughtful learner by mind, yet so much more.

As an adventuress, she traveled the world to experience other cultures, and to find her own place in it. More than this, Julaine lived every day as an adventure. She dove into everything as a lifelong learner, and she gave herself completely to every new encounter with life. Even her way of eating became an adventure, as she moved from vegetarian to paleo and back to vegan over the course of the time I knew her.

Her husband, Bill, gave roots to their relationship. Julaine was the wings.

She was a friend I could always count on to say YES.

She lived her life in the positivity zone, believing in unlimited possibility, and even designing a physical space she called, The Center of Unlimited Possibilities. She left the physical space when she and Bill moved to Idaho, but carried it with her everywhere she went.

Her belief in possibility was contagious.

For many years, Julaine held a weekly support group for women that she named simply, The Blessing. Every new book or program or adventure she was now experiencing would find its way to The Blessing to be enthusiastically shared.

Julaine was not one to keep her adventures to herself. She was a teacher who taught easily because she embodied whatever she was learning.

Her enthusiasm was also contagious.

So what do we take from one who lived fully, taught freely, loved fiercely, and created such an adventurous life? What lessons would she want to leave behind?

I’m sure I will think of more as the days of missing her go on, but here are a few words of wisdom I believe she would want to impart.

Let your moments count, don’t waste time counting the moments.

Your life matters, but your Love matters more.

Be grateful for who you are, more than for what you have.

Love never dies. It simply changes form.

When I think of Julaine, I will feel her as a golden thread of unlimited possibility entwined in my own beacon heart. Because of her presence here, I will expand my own belief in what is possible.

This is what we give one another as we move through life and let go into death: wings to lift one another higher.

Thank you, Julaine, for giving wings to so many during your well-lived life.

Now, YOU are The Blessing.

(Find more Everyday Beacon Notes on the SHINE.net BE-log.)