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.