It is the 16th of November, but, this day, it is the year 2010. A gentle breeze comes in our bedroom window. The melodious sounds of Oklahoma\u2019s many bird varieties capture our attention. They are singing with Louis Armstrong “And I think to myself, ‘what a wonderful world'”. In the near distance, we see the fish showing off their back-flip stunts in our little lake — tempting and beckoning us to come get them! If only we could. Who knew that all of creation was getting their party hats on and preparing for a grand celebration later this day? God did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Creation was right because later this day, my best friend, husband, lover, and my kids\u2019 beloved father and papa was celebrating in heaven. I celebrate this day and his life by living mine. It is my legacy to a man who loved and lived life in his God-given purpose on purpose. At 11 years post his graduation, I know I\u2019m carrying on his and my legacy. If one person decides to live a beautiful life because I share my\/our journey, then my Ron lives on. That\u2019s our collective gift to this world.
I write this blog in the first person as it seems like today is just yesterday. These years have flown by. I\u2019m not sad because there is no sadness where he is. I\u2019m not in denial or forgetful. I haven\u2019t \u201cmoved on\u201d because the man I have loved for nearly 84% of my life, is still very present in my life.
When I say \u201cRon is; your dad is; your papa is\u201d \u2013 it\u2019s because he still IS. He\u2019s present with me in my daily musings and in my blogs; in my ministry to others; in our children and grandchildren and their lives of abundance and blessing. Together, we \u201ccollaborated\u201d and got this Wuerch-clan party started. I\u2019ve not moved on FROM Ron. Rather, I\u2019ve moved forward WITH him. As a matter of fact, we\u2019ll be having another Wuerch party tomorrow for our youngest grand, Bryson — #15! Papa will be present at the party because he lives big in each one of us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This attitude of mine started with his. This optimistic, hope and faith-filled man made me into this hope and faith-filled woman. This woman is diligently running her race to finish her assignment strong on this earth. I\u2019m not mourning and living in death with him. No way! I\u2019m living in the land of the living with him!
If it were the other way around and he was here and I was there, he would be carrying on \u2013 living, loving, and encouraging those around him. He would be mentoring old AND young people. He would be a beacon of light to this generation \u2013 all the while modeling for widows and widowers how to carry on with their assignment and to live strong with no regrets. And guess what! Because he lives on in me, I AM doing what he would do. I purpose to continue to carry on strong to my finish line.
I know this beautiful man is leaning over heaven\u2019s grandstands cheering me AND you on! Happy homegoing day to my sweetheart and happy living-and-finishing-strong day to you and me!
\u201cTherefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith\u2026\u201d Hebrews 12:1-2<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It is the 16th of November, but, this day, it is the year 2010. A gentle breeze comes in our bedroom window. The melodious sounds of Oklahoma\u2019s many bird varieties capture our attention. They are singing with Louis Armstrong “And I think to myself, ‘what a wonderful world’”. In the near distance, we see the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15139,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22100,18212,15611,22101,1],"tags":[1210,22093,1769,19147,1957,22094,4210,11599,22097,22096,19145,40,1812,5404,22099,714,895,43,1606,22098,578],"class_list":["post-15138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homegoing-day","category-land-of-the-living","category-remembering","category-run-the-race","category-uncategorized","tag-blog","tag-celebration-day","tag-christian","tag-cloud-of-witnesses","tag-faith-filled","tag-going-home-day","tag-heaven","tag-heavens-grandstands","tag-hebrews-121-2","tag-homegoing-day","tag-hope-filled","tag-inspiration","tag-journey","tag-land-of-the-living","tag-lay-aside-weights","tag-legacy","tag-mid-wife","tag-optimistic","tag-remembering","tag-run-the-race","tag-widow"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15138"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15141,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15138\/revisions\/15141"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}