Nothing is wasted in this life.  Grief, deep sorrow, and unspeakable pain enlarge our capacity for compassion, empathy, and perseverance in extraordinary ways.  We are always a part of each other and life, thus when we choose to give and invest in one another, our own life is touched and changed in inmeasureable steps.

We started off our Friday morning rally with my question:  “Where can you find helping hands?”  Floods of arms went up and clever answers were shared until one stopped the process:  “Just look at the end of Ethan’s arms ’cause he has two helping hands that have changed our world!”  Little did we know just precious hours later he would walk beyond this life into his greater reward…

As a dear friend reminded me today after learning the news:  “And as He spoke, He no longer looked to them like a lion, but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them.  And for us, this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after.  But for them it was only the beginning of the real story.  All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page; now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on Earth has read; which goes on forever; in which every chapter is better than the one before…”  C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle, The Chronicles of Narnia

As a brave cancer warrior these past four years, Ethan’s lessons, along with his open arms of hope and helping hands of love, have wrapped around multiple generations in our learning community and well beyond.  His faith never waned; his shy smile and gentle spirit never faltered.  May we never forget his precious legacy and may we always remember to hold those around us in comfort and unconditional love, just like those helping hands on Ethan’s arms that changed the world…