My friend Jeannette Paladino lost her husband a few months ago. Jeannette and I met this year through a class on blogging taught by Bea Fields.
Jeannette is a gifted writer. She prepared the following blog post celebrating the life of her late husband Charles. I was so moved by the post that I decided to share it.
Wishing you a life of love, passion and abundance!Jeff
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I wrote this blog after Charles' memorial service. I hope you enjoy knowing more about my wonderful husband's passion for life.
Jeannette Paladino
What I Learned From My Husband About Having a Passion for Life
October 8, 2009
This is going to be a very personal blog to celebrate my husband Charles. My beloved passed away a week ago, but his lasting legacy will be his passion for life, especially for family, books and music.
What I admired most about him was his zest for learning. Once he became interested in a topic, he would become passionate about learning everything he could about it: printing, typography, arctic exploration, and military history were just a few of his interests. His passion extended to the interests of friends, too. Once he learned what you were passionate about, he would pepper you with letters, articles, and books on the topic. His friends would say, “please don’t go out of your way for me.”
But the truth was, they were doing him a favor because he loved the “hunt.” He once told me he could literally feel his fingers tingle when he entered an antiquarian bookstore and he approached the stacks. He knew most of the books by their spines.
I learned from Charles how important it is to be passionate about life, your friends, the arts and your life’s work. Passion is what makes life so endlessly interesting and what makes us interesting to others. Thank you, Charles, for teaching me this great lesson of life.
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The Potential to Turn a Life Around by Leo Buscaglia
"Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around."
