Blessing #85- Gitz

A year ago, I started Project Life, and soon after starting Project Life on The Mom Creative, I noticed the odd name of one of the other participants "Gitz Bitz." Wanting to find out the meaning behind that odd name, I clicked on the link to check out her Project Life. This was the post I found.

Many of the pictures were of her adorably cute dog, Riley, but the picture of the empty tissue box made me pause. The caption said...

I took this on Monday because this photo pretty much summed up my Sunday. Grief hits hard, people. And it sucks. And that’s all I have to say about that.

Gitz (a.k.a. Sara) had just lost her dad, and I loved the honesty that she spoke about it. After searching through more of her Project Life posts I realized most of the pictures were taken inside, and after more blog stalking...I mean searching, I learned that Gitz had a chronic illness that kept her in her condo.

Since that time I have read Sara's blog regularly and have been challenged by her purpose to Choose Joy. Yesterday, I read on her blog that Sara is not expected to live much longer.

Although, I have never met her in person, through her blog, I feel like I know her well. Gitz said in this (in)courage post, "That online friendships, born out of a common thread of Jesus, are as true in real life as they are on the screen because they start with the heart."

For her birthday this past May, Gitz posted this on (in)courage...

For my birthday, I want you to do something for you.

I want you to STOP. I want you to FEEL and SMELL and ACKNOWLEDGE the gifts that God puts out for you every single day when He makes the sun rise from it’s slumber and beat down on your skin. I want you to look up in the dark of night and see and feel the magnitude of the heavens and the stars and the full moon that I can’t see out my windows.

I want you to be fully awake to the blessings in your life and not miss a moment. Take them in and savor them in your senses as if you might lose them tomorrow.

Savor your life and blessings. And thank our God for the gift of it all.

That’s the best gift I could receive this year. To know that my life taught you something about your own.

For a year, every time I read her blog I sit in Sara's classroom where her life teaches me volumes about contentment, joy, and living life, whatever the circumstances, to the fullest. Tomorrow, I'm giving Gitz another birthday present and I'm taking a special moment to savor everything God has given me, especially the gift of Gitz.