choice

My heart has been heavy over the past several days. The "niece" of a friend of mine passed away after a valiant life. I started to say, after a valiant fight against cancer, but realized that, although I didn't know her, I'm sure she lived her whole life in a boldly courageous way. Her name is Jessie Rees. She was truly amazing and as I followed her battle on facebook, I was so touched by her strength and joy. She and her parents started an organization (check out her story and foundation at http://www.thenegufoundation.org/) to spread hope, joy and love to other children fighting cancer. Amazing!

I am constantly in awe of people who are faced with horrendous challenges, terrible loss, unimaginable heartache, but continue to function. Many people in these situations, not only function, but contribute enormously to society. You often hear people say, what choice do they have? But, they do have a choice. There are so many people, in similar circumstances, who shut down, withdraw, spread hate.

Actually, we all have a choice. Bob Greene, (Oprah's fitness guru) once said that everything you do is either good for your body or bad for your body-there is no neutral. (Really? Sitting and eating french fries isn't neutral, Bob? I beg to differ.) And while my family's favorite game is "Argue Against Anything Anyone Ever Said, Especially Oprah Fitness Guru Bob Greene"-AAAAESEOFGBG for short, I embrace Bob's philosophy and take it one step further (which could explain my family's desire to disprove it). I think that it applies to living life. Everything we do is either good for ourselves, our families, our society or it is not. It seems extreme-but I feel that doing nothing isn't neutral- it's a missed opportunity to make things better.

Ugh!

Keeping a blog is like keeping a diary. There are people out there who write, faithfully, every day. I am not those people. I absolutely love writing, if I had time I would write for hours every day. Write and create art and eat only healthy foods. But who has time?!? I've read about people who spend hours writing every day. Okay, so these people are Writers- making a living writing and probably don't have 6 children-or at least have a really good nanny. They are clearly way more a) organized b) motivated c) paid, than I am! But I'm okay with that. As I said, I love to write and do it, whenever I can carve out the time, for personal entertainment and the occasional entertainment of others.

When I do write, I feel a sense of accomplishment, and usually am tickled, renewed, or unburdened, by my musings. But I must admit, lately, the only feeling I am experiencing after I write is complete and total irritation! Every time I try to post an entry on my blog it shows up BLANK! How annoying is that?!? Oh, the title is there, but there is no body, no content, no indication of the clever observations I have made. So, ironically enough, I am venting, through my blog, that may or may not post more than the title... UGH! Is this another futile attempt? Perhaps, but for the moment, I feel completely tickled, renewed and unburdened!