Warrior Princess

This is one of my favorite pics of McKenna ever.   I think she was about 8.  I saw her there and it was one of the burst-of-energy flashes where I just had to take her picture, no matter what!  She really didn't want to pose, so I just asked her to turn slightly.  She did, and then gave that incredible look.  The one that melted my heart.  Not mischievious, although it looks that way, more like.......yes, Coy.  Confidently bashful

When she was about 8 weeks old I gave her a special priesthood blessing as we are accustomed to doing in our Church.  It isn't a baptism, rather more of a "name giving" ordinance.  We typically give infants their official name and then say things that come to mind that we feel inspired to say that might be helpful for them to learn about themselves later.  It is a special kind of prayer that only happens once this way.  I have been able to do this for all 4 kids and they have become very special moments for me.   Since we do record and document these prayers, the kids can actually see and read what was said to them when they were babies.  It has been really interesting to see how they process what they read as they get older.  It is fascinating to see if some of the things that were said so many years ago have actually realized yet or not in their lives.

For example,  I remember distinctly one particular part of what I said in McKenna's prayer that left a powerful impression upon me.  I blessed her that she would be able to withstand the powerful temptations of life and be a "warrior against the adversary" if she stayed obedient and close to her Heavenly Father throughout her life.  I am not sure why the word "warrior" was the one that I felt inspired to say, but I did as I felt it was given to me by the Spirit.  I remember  thinking that I would have to really pay attention to this metaphor as she grew up to see how this particular promise would play out in her life.  

It has been a pleasure to see how she has developed over the years into someone that so clearly knows right from wrong.  She makes decisions daily that reinforce this principle.   She chooses to be positive almost always.  She chooses friends carefully and has the ability to see people in their best possible light.  She has enormous empathy that seems beyond her years. I have been so pleased to say that she has done an incredible job not only just enduring trials but passing through them with a lot of grace and beauty.  She isn't a whiner, never has been.  She is quietly determined and has a very deep spirituality that guides her life like a sound and sure rudder. 

This past week a new challenge entered her life.  She was playing soccer, as she always has, and went up for a ball, got bumped and then came down not quite right on her left leg and heard a "pop".  She went down with incredible pain and she knew something was wrong.  We hurried her to the Dr and shortly was diagnosed with a completely torn ACL and bruised MCL.  This is not an uncommon injury for an athlete playing at this competitive level.  What this represents is really more about timing than anything.  She was inviting college coaches to watch her play.  She was two weeks away from the Club Annual State Cup.  She had been visiting colleges as well.  To add insult to injury, she is now in jeapordy of not being able to come back in time for her Senior year of High School soccer which she has played since a freshman.  All of these plans, dreams and expectations deteriorated in just a few seconds and minutes.  Oh yeah... and prom was Friday on top of that.

The night she was hurt I was able to give her another kind of special priesthood blessing.  A healing blessing that invited the windows of Heaven to open and to invite a special healing power to come into McKenna's life and to help prepare her for the surgery, (Tomorrow) and for the very tough physical therapy to come afterwards.  Once again words came that were not my own...  Words that said to her that she would be blessed with the ability to not only heal from this injury but that there were some powerful lessons that the Lord wants her to learn during this time that will prepare her for other things that will come in her life.  That her well of empathy might be deepened and her ability to serve others could be magnified as a result of this injury/process.  I invited her to be sensitive to listening to the Spirit so that she would recognize these lessons and guard them close now, only to then use them in abundance later.

I prepare myself for new chapter of monitoring and paying attention to what transpires the next 4 - 6 months.... to watch and absorb how she applies herself to this process and what she ends up learning along the way.  Then, later.....much later, I see myself looking back on this experience and helping her see how well she applied these lessons by blessing many peoples lives through her love and empathy.  She will finally come to understand that the Lord often achieves His purposes through mysterious ways.  Using adversity is just one way.... but it is a marvelous way when viewed with proper perspective.  Gibran always sheds such great perspective on life:

On Pain

      And a woman spoke, saying, "Tell us of Pain."
      And he said:
      Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.
      Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.
      And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy;
      And you would accept the seasons of your heart, even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields.
      And you would watch with serenity through the winters of your grief.
      Much of your pain is self-chosen.
      It is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self.
      Therefore trust the physician, and drink his remedy in silence and tranquillity:
      For his hand, though heavy and hard, is guided by the tender hand of the Unseen,
      And the cup he brings, though it burn your lips, has been fashioned of the clay which the Potter has moistened with His own sacred tears. 


You are a Warrior McKenna, you were before you ever came here, and you most certainly are now.  There isn't a mountain you cannot climb, a storm you cannot weather, a battle that will ever best your indomitable spirit and unconquerable faith.   You will cry many tears of physical and emotional pain of what "could have been" but you will never realize just how many people you will inspire along the way.  Watching you wage quiet and subtle war on those forces that would thwart God's ways is a beautiful thing.....

                                                                          This too shall pass.....