3 people I'm grateful for, part 2

Sweet Baby J, who came into this loud, laughing, yelling, opinionated family and made us all gasp with his knowing smile and twinkly eyes. We've been such a tight group, it was hard to imagine another large-spirited person making his way in. But he did and now our hearts have just grown bigger.

My friend Elizabeth. We met at camp a gazillion years ago, as counselors leading children in spiritual, esteem-building songs about the sinking Titanic and bloody, dead squirrels (those were the banned songs...shhh) around campfires and flagpoles, in canoes and on hikes through the pine forest. We met again as adults making our way through this big city and, for more than the fact that she has seen me flash my sequined cheers before many naive, young Christian campers, I feel so lucky to count her among my friends. She's done work in Rwanda that leaves me in awe and founded the amazing organzation Every Child Is My Child. Elizabeth makes me want to keep singing bad camp songs off-key as loud as I can and to be better at doing good in this world.

The very best teenager I know, Cailey. I interviewed Cailey when I wrote profiles of courageous people surviving devastating illnesses and injuries at CarePages.com. Cailey's energy lit up my room, even though we were thousands of miles apart and shared one simple phone call. We talked so much on that call that it seemed like the profile just wrote itself. She's got an astounding brain, a wicked sense of humor, and the most incredible heart. This girl who had heart surgery at 13 has become a woman who is centered, hilarious, and full of gratitude and joy. She teaches me a lotthrough her advocacy for other children with congenital heart defects, sends me pictures of shoes, leaves comments on Sassafrass just when I wonder if anyone is listening. I'm cheering her on in her first year in college and hopefully, will be there to tear up and woohoo! for all of the adventures that await her. This kid has miles to go. (Encourage Cailey to blog by leaving your comment here.)

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Something humbling and lovely

Yesterday, someone Google searched the phrase

do helmet laws infringe on personal freedom of choice

and found 74,800 responses.

My post was number one on the list.

I took a deep breath in and felt grateful to see that. In other combinations of terms, my post is further down list. I am good with that and mostly pleased to see the pool of responses widening out beyond the conservative publications and big newspapers. Whoever searched this term was asking an important question and honestly, in a wave-my-hand-at-the-person-with-the-microphone-way, it feels gratifying to be one of the respondents.

When I chose to write about my brother's motorcycle accident and then was asked to cross-post it on another site, it was one part cathartic and one part goodwill. I talked to my brother about it and we decided it was important to put the story out there for many reasons, one of them to connect to kids writing paper, parents grieving, people on all sides of the controversy. Every single day, someone finds Sassafrass and that story from a search like this, and that tells me we were right to put my words on the screen.

There's a lot more to be written. If you or a loved one has experienced a brain injury, I hope you will leave a comment or share whatever you are comfortable sharing. If you found us from one of these searches, please feel free to speak up too.

Of course, one of the beauties of blogs is the ability to lurk quietly from behind your own computer. But know that the welcome mat is out to all of you wanting to read more about motorcyle helmet lobbying, traumatic brain injuries, the life that can follow or even just one family's trip from roadside through rehabilitation and beyond.

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Today, for WhyMommy

Today, I will give my boy an extra long good-morning hug, even if he wiggles out of it and even if he doesn't savor the sweetness of the moment like I will.

Today, I will send out warm thoughts to all the inspirational survivors I know, to all the people who have hearts and courage and hope stronger than violence, illness, injury, circumstances way beyond anyone's control. And to those who have safely boarded their flight to the next plane, and the family members they've left to continue their work on this planet.

Today, I will take more than one grateful moment to lift up the blessings and turn away from the challenges.

Today, I will revisit some of the posts and blogs I've admired by women who've chosen to write with rawness and eloquence and sincerity about the truth of their lives, whatever their choices and journeys have been.

Today, I will seek out an opportunity to do or say something kind just because I see the opportunity.

Today, I will call one of the many friends I've been meaning to call but haven't made the time to call but really, really want to call.

Today, I will send all my healing energy to WhyMommy who is on a journey through cancer with more wholeness, grace and honesty than any mother with cancer would ever be expected to have.

I won't ask you to get on board with all of today's to-dos. They are my own personal missions in honor of WhyMommy and in gratitude for the life I have right now, in this moment, at this time, today. But please do join me (and many others) in sending a prayer, a comment, a blessing, a bit of the love you have to give WhyMommy's way as she undergoes a double mastectomy and as she looks toward many tomorrows.

I pray that God holds WhyMommy in the palm of her hand and that all of the goodness sent her way will lift up this amazing writer, mother, wife, woman and give her peace.

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