I GET TO
A few months ago, I made a bracelet for Paul, a friend I worked with volunteering for CT Children’s Medical Center over the years. He had recently said that he was encouraged to replace the words “I HAVE TO” with “I GET TO”. This encouragement came from our dear friend, Kyla Pokorny, who lost her battle to cancer in 2017. Her spirit and strength and positive attitude affected us all in ways she likely never knew. Paul wrote:
“These three words seem so innocuous…for me, I had no idea how often I used them until Kyla called me out for using them so much. I never considered the danger of “I HAVE TO” until she told me how it felt to be on the receiving end of those words – as a young woman who had very little time to live. Kyla told me to stop saying “HAVE TO” and replace those words with “GET TO”. She urged me to start looking at the world through a lens that is unpredictable and temporary and purposeful. She said that it’s possible to find beauty and power and opportunity in every moment if we simply approach each moment with “GET TO”.
Imagine my surprise (and a few tears) to read this from Paul (who has been wearing his MyIntent bracelet since he received it by the way) and took it with him on a meaningful family trip to Jerusalem:
“I was thinking about you tonight in old city Jerusalem- after my family went to sleep I decided to head out by myself to visit the wall and the church of the Holy Sepulchre…I said a prayer for you and your family and placed the bracelet you gave me on the stone of unction…it was special before but now it is something that means even more if that’s possible…It’s the only time I’ve taken it off”
Kyla didn’t realize it, but she chose Paul’s WORD for him and it was perfect. I GET TO should be in everyone’s vocabulary.
church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem
