August has been an odd month. For its first full moon I was at home in New York. When I returned to California, my personal and professional life went haywire, one line-item at a time, surrounded by two 4.0 earthquakes just outside of LA and a night of meteor showers. Coincidences, if you want to call them that, happened left and right; some good, some not so good. I was just about ready to kick August to the curb in hopes for a calmer September, a peaceful fall, a better rest of the year. Then today, on the morning of August’s second full moon, I woke up to the news that a friend had passed away. August needs to go, indeed.

Michelle and I met at work like so many of us did. We spent some time working on projects and blogs together and sharing a cubicle wall for a almost 2 years. It quickly became apparent that we had more in common than that. We always saw eye to eye on the spiritual side of things. We shared our philosophies on living in the moment, respecting the universe, and being grateful for what we have. So it would come as no surprise that a day after I’d write my spiel about “we have control over what we do with what’s given to us but what’s actually given to us is out of our jurisdiction” that would Michelle, who was a long time fighter of pulmonary fibrosis, would compose this as her final Facebook status:

We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.

With my understanding of Michelle’s human spirit and the faith we shared in that which is bigger than us, I know her soul is ripe for its next step and somewhere, high above, surrounded by animal style burgers, a camera and an iPod to play as loudly as she wants, she’s smiling.

My 7duckets.com and Michelle’s Chelness.com fan stores have long been donating proceeds to the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation. You can shop online or to donate directly, visit pulmonaryfibrosis.org.

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