37 seconds clinically dead.
If you’re stuck right now, if gratitude feels impossible & life keeps hitting…
I see you. I was you. Flatlined. Gone.
Truth from the other side of #trauma:
Your “stuck” is necessary for change. The pain you hate is the pressure splitting you open for light.
You don’t have to feel thankful yet.
Just stay. Breathe.
One day you’ll cry over coffee because it’s hot & you’re alive.
That day is coming. I’m proof.
Hold on. Light lives in the wound. “Happy” Thanksgiving.
#37Seconds
"My name's Raymond. I'm 73. I work the parking lot at St. Joseph's Hospital. Minimum wage, orange vest, a whistle I barely use. Most people don't even look at me. I'm just the old man waving cars into spaces.
But I see everything.
Like the black sedan that circled the lot every morning at 6 a.m. for three weeks. Young man driving, grandmother in the passenger seat. Chemotherapy, I figured. He'd drop her at the entrance, then spend 20 minutes hunting for parking, missing her appointments.
One morning, I stopped him. "What time tomorrow?"
"6:15," he said, confused.
"Space A-7 will be empty. I'll save it."
He blinked. "You... you can do that?"
"I can now," I said.
Next morning, I stood in A-7, holding my ground as cars circled angrily. When his sedan pulled up, I moved. He rolled down his window, speechless. "Why?"
"Because she needs you in there with her," I said. "Not out here stressing."
He cried. Right there in the parking lot.
Word spread quietly. A father with a sick baby asked if I could help. A woman visiting her dying husband. I started arriving at 5 a.m., notebook in hand, tracking who needed what. Saved spots became sacred. People stopped honking. They waited. Because they knew someone else was fighting something bigger than traffic.
But here's what changed everything, A businessman in a Mercedes screamed at me one morning. "I'm not sick! I need that spot for a meeting!"
"Then walk," I said calmly. "That space is for someone whose hands are shaking too hard to grip a steering wheel."
He sped off, furious. But a woman behind him got out of her car and hugged me. "My son has leukemia," she sobbed. "Thank you for seeing us."
The hospital tried to stop me. "Liability issues," they said. But then families started writing letters. Dozens. "Raymond made the worst days bearable." "He gave us one less thing to break over."
Last month, they made it official. "Reserved Parking for Families in Crisis." Ten spots, marked with blue signs. And they asked me to manage it.
But the best part? A man I'd helped two years ago, his mother survived, came back. He's a carpenter. Built a small wooden box, mounted it by the reserved spaces. Inside? Prayer cards, tissues, breath mints, and a note,
"Take what you need. You're not alone. -Raymond & Friends"
People leave things now. Granola bars. Phone chargers. Yesterday, someone left a hand-knitted blanket.
I'm 73. I direct traffic in a hospital parking lot. But I've learned this: Healing doesn't just happen in operating rooms. Sometimes it starts in a parking space. When someone says, "I see your crisis. Let me carry this one small piece."
So pay attention. At the grocery checkout, the coffee line, wherever you are. Someone's drowning in the little things while fighting the big ones.
Hold a door. Save a spot. Carry the weight no one else sees.
It's not glamorous. But it's everything."
Let this story reach more hearts....
Credit: Mary Nelson
🎯 New Amazing Episode : Stephanie Arnold
Stephanie Arnold is an American producer and author. In 2013, she was clinically dead for 37 seconds after after giving birth to her second child. In her book, 37 Seconds, she recounts this event and her life afterwards.
Just pushing to be better than yesterday for myself- not better than anyone else. Here’s to bettering ourselves to help others where they cannot. #endafe#bodybuilding#birthtrauma
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In this clip from the latest episode of #CreativityUnleashed, the podcast for creatives, by creatives, host @sergiodirector discusses with guest, bestselling author @StephArnold37, the impactful words that @BernieSiegelMD, shared with him about living through your heart.
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