Jan 14, 2017
Courtney Lund is a professor and writer who is currently working on a memoir about her relationship with her disabled brother, Gavin who suffers with AGS Aicardi-Goutieres Syndrome.
Courtney received the
news about her four-month-old baby brother when she was 19 and in
college. She dropped out of
college to be with him and her family -- and to learn to love him,
despite his death sentence.
There was nowhere for
Courtney to turn for help as there was no resource to help people
who had to cope with losing a sibling, to a disease or
death. Feeling like she was
up against the impossible, while also feeling alone are probably
some of the worst feelings in the world. She had left life in a
sorority house to the home of my dying
brother.
In
Courtney's words: Love is one of the most complex emotions, and
the only way we can love authentically is to go through those
emotions. Fear, anger, sadness -- they are all tied up with love.
And the longer we run from those emotions, the harder it is to love
fully, and wholly.
Faith,
Hope, and Love have often been lumped into a cliche.
Each component draws off the other. I wondered what it would
look like if I drew it. I saw the image of an old
tree.
It
starts with the roots - the foundation. This is our
faith. The trunk grows sturdy, from the support of
the roots. This is our hope. From the
trunk, love grows. Love flourishes, like
branches, our of hope. The three are fluid and part of a
larger whole.
Listening to her story you will be inspired on a level you did not think possible.