weekend, i am going to really (really) miss you + carry on, warrior

"be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle."

(rev. john watson)

how is it already sunday night? i don't know either but it sucks. we had a great weekend so no complaints, minus the fact that it didn't last longer;)

a couple of updates:

+++ thanks to all of you that have got in touch with me about the fun mail campaign for chase, tanner and ava. you all rock! so far, we have enough people signed up to send the kids mail every week between now and then end of november! how awesome is that!! if you have been in touch with me to let me know that you wanted to sign up, you should have got an email or a fb message from me today with your assigned week and all of the info. if you didn't hear from me, i somehow dropped the ball on getting your name on the list so remind me:) if you haven't yet but want to sign up, please get in touch with me and i will give you all of the details. i am so excited to kick it off this week:)

+++ regarding the bracelets, i want to make sure that i have everyone covered who wants one. so, i am going to make sure that i don't drop the ball on this one either. if you told me that you want one, and you haven't got one yet, please confirm i have your name on this list: mary b-z, nan, michael, kadeena, kerry, ellie, kris, jen, jill, doreen & charlie, roberta, rheta, ann, kelli, megan, crystal, and tami. if you want one and your name isn't on the list, get in touch with me and i will get them sent out this week. thanks!!

i read carry on, warrior last weekend and it was awesome! one of the best books i have ever read. hands down. her writing will make you laugh, cry, find hope, believe that good can come from bad, etc. i didn't want to put it down. here are a few of my favorite parts...

"the more i opened my heart to the folks in my circles, the more convinced i became that life is equal parts brual and beautiful. and/both. life is brutiful. like stars in a dark sky. sharing life's brutiful is what makes us feel less alone and afraid. the truth can't be stuffed down with food or booze or exercise or work or cutting or shopping for long. hiding from the truth causes its own unique pain, and it's lonely pain. life is hard - not because we're doing it wrong, just because it's hard. it's okay to talk, write, paint, or cry about that. it helps.

this book is my story, and i hope it's yours too. it's about how i built my circles - how i built a life- and what is means to me to carry on."

"here's what i learned in the wake of my lyme's news: it's really hard to distinguish between a chute and a ladder. the days following my diagnosis were filled with little miracles. maybe all days are filled with little miracles, but i'm too distracted by what i think is my life to notice them. sometimes bad news is the best way to see all the good quickly and clearly. bad news has a way of waking us up, sort of like a glass of cold water in the face. we might prefer waking in a gentler way, but we can't argue with the efficiency of the cold-water method. and we'll take it if it means we're not going to sleep through the party."

"until then, i'd only learned this about grace: sometimes, like in my case, you get blessed for no reason. you get something wonderful that you don't deserve. but on that day, i learned that the flip side is also true: sometimes you get screwed for no reason. you get something awful that you never, ever deserved. it all slips away. you cannot earn yourself an easy life or even a fair one."

"but when your miracle doesn't happen the way you planned, it becomes important to look for peripheral miracles. peripheral miracles are those that aren't directly in front of you. they're not the one on which you've you been so damned focused. you have to turn your head to see the peripheral miracles."

if i could put my kindle out on a constant rotation so that everyone that i think would love this book could read this book, i totally would. i loved it that much.

carry on peeps, carry on.

you know i am doing my best to do just that.