Writings of Recovery

My Eulogy

If you were to write your own eulogy, what would you write?

I have known Leigh my whole life. I am pretty sure I have known her longer than anyone else, except maybe her mom. I have been given the incredible opportunity to witness all the different stages of her journey, all of her peaks and valleys, her interests, disinterests, and everything in between.

And thinking back over Leigh’s life, I was trying to decide whether I wanted to share different parts from all of the different stages. But what kept coming back to me were the common threads that tied all these stages together. The parts of Leigh that stayed constant and while she was someone with diverse interests that took her down a variety of paths and trails, here are a few things that stayed with her along the way….

Leigh loved to dance. When she was young, she would make up dances, sometimes alone, sometimes with a friend, and then would perform them, sometimes in front of her stuffed animals sometimes in front of family.

During her young adult years, she enjoyed going to clubs for the music and dancing, not the drinking. In her mid 40s, she picked up line dancing, and learned all the moves. Well, not all of them. Do you have any idea how many line dances exist?

Leigh loved reading and getting lost in books. She also enjoyed writing and has saved some of her short stories and poetry she has written through her younger years.

Leigh loved animals and always had pets, whether her parents knew about them or not. She was known to sneak rodents and the occasional kitten in the house to be discovered at a later time. She became a licensed veterinary technician and continued to love and serve animals as one of her many careers.

Leigh loved doing her part to heal and help others. She was a licensed massage practitioner for about 10 years before her career path went a different route. She then dedicated many years to recover from compulsive overeating disorder and then serve others to help them recover as well.

Leigh was a perfectly imperfect person whose life mission was to love others well and to leave this life a little brighter, with a little more sparkle , a little more whimsy, a little more joy filled, a little more aware of the blessing and privilege we get to exist For Today.