We recently lost a very dear friend of ours. Maria Maynard was larger than life. A vibrant and energetic woman, a teacher with exceptional skill, and a loving mother, daughter, sister, wife and friend. In her presence you felt completely and utterly loved. It is still unfathomable to us, now a month passed, that her presence here will not be with us in person as we go about our normal lives. Maria introduced us. It was 2012 and in her usual way, she made the introductions and very soon after invited us all to travel on vacation together with our kids. “The more the merrier” was always her motto and she openly embraced friends like family. She was lively, fun, always connecting friends with each other and as her network grew she built an enormous legacy of love. We are only two of the many friends connected by Maria. Her presence will be felt by hundreds, and thousands for many years to come. Her presence is felt daily by our clients and Center participants, because without an introduction there would have not have been a Center for Clarity, Compassion & Contentment and may not have been any coaching for us. Our friend is a beautiful example of the butterfly effect.
Each day of her 8 year battle with cancer was an inspiration. She was able to endure challenging treatments, find new ways of caring for her health that even her doctors considered awe inspiring, and always made time for friends and fun and laughter. According to Wikipedia, “The butterfly effect is a term used in chaos theory to describe how small changes to a seemingly unrelated thing or condition (also known as an initial condition) can affect large, complex systems. The term comes from the suggestion that the flapping of a butterfly’s wings in South America could affect the weather in Texas, meaning that the tiniest influence on one part of a system can have a huge effect on another part.”
In his book The Butterfly Effect: How Your Life Matters, Andy Andrews uses small unknown pieces of history to reveal the enormous positive effect that a person’s choices have had on millions in the world. He goes back in time to describe the choices of others that made later acts affecting many possible. Another dear friend of ours, Pat Wilday, gave us this book when we opened The Center making this article possible.
The butterfly effect of our dear friend and all of you is happening every minute of every day in the choices you make. There are subtle, untold ways, you are affecting the lives of others and having a tremendous impact on your community and world. In his book Andrews shares this piece of advice, “Know that your actions cannot be hoarded. Saved for later. Or used selectively. By your hand millions – billions – of lives, will be altered, caught up in a chain of events begun by you this day.” We may never know the depth of what we have put in motion but as Andrews concludes, “Your life…and what you do with it today…MATTERS FOREVER.”
Our friend Maria matters forever. You matter forever too.
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The Center for Clarity, Compassion & Contentment is a coaching collaborative operated by Helene Verdile and Kim Perone, Success, Life Transition & Spiritual Coaches who offer 1:1 Coaching many Programs, Workshops, & Retreats. There are a number of other practitioners at The Center offering healing modalities, coaching, and classes. Visit www.Center4c.com for more details or contact Helene at [email protected], (518) 470-0048 or Kim at [email protected], (518) 301-3593.
