humbling

Do you ever place value on what you think about in your very first waking moments? These are important thoughts that set the day in motion and catapult you into action and live in your thoughts. They have power. They make your day.

I woke up this morning at 4:45 thinking about someone I have never met.

I was thinking about a single mother a few years younger than me, whose challenges and stories and glories and fears and joys may have been very similar to mine up until just a short while ago.

But now she faces the unimaginable.

Her name is Tracy Dort Kyne and on September 4 of 2011 she was training for a road race when her bike crashed.She is now a quadriplegic.  If you understand spinal cord injury it is much like all of life a fraction of a second here, a millimetre of a difference there , a quick decision to do or not to do something and everything is changed. Forever.

It is an interesting thing about adversity. You think for a time that you are dealing with the very hardest thing on earth.  And the next day those challenges may be dwarfed by struggles  never dreamed of.

And then you have choices.

Today we only know this version of  struggle and pain.

Lately I have been thinking about health and well being. I have been loving my health and both emotional and physical strength more than ever and how it has thanked me for the attention I have paid to it.

This morning very early, I went for a run and then an hour of hard yoga. I did it because I can.

I wondered what it would be like to need so much help. And to accept it.

I wondered about not being able to do the simple things and the things that brought you pleasure and independence. I wondered about less of that treasured time alone.

I do not know her but I woke up thinking only of her.

She *inspired me today.

but when you get to the gym and your eyes meet with a stranger every day- how do you react? When that stranger is hurting themselves? Doesn’t that seem crazy knowing how everything can be changed by a moment? Click here for starving for attention

*If you want to be inspired by strength, courage and compassion, read the blog dedicated to her new journey. It is  humbling.

what do you say?

 

what do you say when someone is suffering?

what do you say when they are not well?

what do you say when you are not sure they can hear you?

what do you say when they are next to you but far away?

what do you say when they are or may be  aware of their present limitations?

what do you say when you can’t say it will be ok?

You tell them you love them

You tell them they are loved by so many

You remind them of what they have taught you and others

You remind them of the impact that they made

You remind them of the power they once had and how it is enduring

You thank them for what they have given you

You hold their hand

You touch them

You kiss them

You say I love you again

 

 I may be stating the obvious but we need to talk about LOVE seeing how it is Valentine’s Day- specifically loving that most important person in your life today and everyday- click here for the 5 step program to LOVE

 

the museum of weird gifts

Did you ever notice that often when an adult gives you a gift that they often  say “it is nothing” or  “it is just a little something”. They diminish its value at the onset.

But when a child gives you a gift – and mainly it is  something they have made-they give it wholeheartedly and with such pride that the way it is given is really better than the gift.

As I am still celebrating my birthday month, lovely things are still trickling in.

My  artists give me hysterical gifts-I have been given a shoelace, a tiara, a spider in a tupperware container, packs of stickers,  hockey cards,  a bubblemaker, origami things that twirl if you drop them from the sky, silly putty (used), bubblegum (thankfully not)  a pair of ballet slippers, and a bag of half eaten movie popcorn. I call this collection the “museum of weird gifts”. The artists insist I keep them on display.

Ocassionally I feel like asking them “how old do you think I am?”. But I don’t because the real  answer will scare them as it does me. I prefer to keep it this way- the way they see me-well under 10.

Last week I got a gift from a  most excited little friend. She fished it out from the depths of her very busy and overstuffed grade 1 knapsack. She could hardly contain her excitement.

“Oh Nancy, you are going to love my present” she whispers breathlessly.

She handed me a ziplock sandwhich bag.In it was a tube of half empty glitter glue. Something no girl should be without.

and a decorated matchbox and inside a hand made fairy for good luck

and some shells collected on a vacation in Cayman

and strangely $1.13 in cold cash

and a  pipecleaner ring with a heart (my very favourite item)

a tatoo (her favourite item)

The museum of weird (cherished) gifts is growing.

if homemade = love then prepared feels like cheating, right? This divorced girl wants to talk about every woman’s biggest secret -CHEATING.Click here for my cheating revealed