> > Subject: Thank you> > From: sethtberry@yahoo.com> > Date: Mon, 30 May 2011 21:49:31 -0700> > To: ron@ronwhitetraining.com> > > > Dear Ron,
 I just wanted to take a moment to thank you for inspiring me and giving me courage at a very difficult moment in my life.
My closest aunt, who acted like a Godmother to me, passed away unexpectedly from a brain aneurism a couple weekends ago. There was no warning and no time for anyone to say goodbye. While it was very sad, I feel so blessed to have known her. She was a beacon of light, who inspired me to me to be the best and most positive person, father, and uncle I can be.
 In a crisis there is both danger and opportunity for those left behind. I choose to focus on the opportunity for positive self reflection and change.
 The reason I am thanking you is that your discussion about how to memorize a poem was extremely helpful when I was asked to give a reading for her funeral service at church. I had a day's notice and about an hour to prepare, as most of the time was spent with at the wake and with family in mourning.
 She was so loved in her community that up to a thousand people attended her wake and funeral. I have always been very uncomfortable and afraid of public speaking, but being able to memorize word for word that long reading gave me the courage to stand up and honor her the best I could. My uncle, who was her husband, her immediate family, and our whole extended family and friends couldn't stop thanking me afterward for how heartfelt I delivered that reading. By memorizing it and thinking about her and my wife in the imagery of the reading, I was truly able to connect with it, with her, and the people present in the church.
I still tremble when thinking about that moment, as a great energy seem to be lifting and holding me up, giving me courage to keep speaking. "Coincidentally" a very spiritual best friend of my aunt's family even said later that she had specifically been praying for me to be able to do that reading.
I have only once before felt the presence of God so powerfully. The first was when I was fighting for my life when undergoing treatment for cancer, and I almost died from septic shock. I was drifting away, but felt total peace and comfort. As the doctors helped to save me and it didn't seem to be working, I felt a turning point when I willed myself harder to fight for life.
 On that day in church I felt that power on a scale that encompassed all of those present, and I truly knew in that moment that we are all connected.
Thanks again buddy, and keep inspiring people with what you are passionate about.
Your friend, Seth in Reno and Lake Tahoe> >
