(This is part of an ongoing series of highlights from past Listen to Life newsletters.  Many readers and subscribers were not following when this came out.  Enjoy.)

Her name was Vicki.  She passed away this weekend, after a too-long battle against cancer, well before her midlife.  I won’t pretend after her passing to know her better than I really did, but one could learn a lot from her by what she did not say, as well as what she did.

Vicki had a difficult adult life, most of which will not be referenced here.  Included in her list of challenges were breast cancer, near remission, and reoccurrence of cancer throughout her body.  Despite those circumstances over the past several years, people did not hear her complain, place blame, or curse fate. In her silence, one could hear her faith, poise, peace and resolve.

We often can say much more when we don’t speak; we can teach about reacting by our lack of actions.  Life is neither easy nor fair; it is neither logical nor just; and, we can have few true expectations from it.  In tribute to Vicki, I shall say little here tonight, other than that sometimes the most important lessons we can teach are those of our silence over speech, calm over rage, peace over fighting, and acceptance over blame.

God bless you, Vicki.