Be The Difference You Want To See!

We all have ideas, ideals, dreams, of how we would like to change the world - make it a better place. We tend to believe that as one individual we can't do much. But - we can make a huge difference right where we are - where life finds us and the difference we make can inspire others to do the same and then it grows and becomes bigger than life - larger than our one life and like a huge snowball it will grow and grow long after we are there to push it down the hill. Share your ideas, links, the differences you see, with us here and we can all spread the difference and thereby Be the Difference!!!

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Be the One to Shine the Light.......


We can all take a moment from our lives and use it to "Be the Difference!"
My Dad died after a two year bout with Lung Cancer - it happened when I was only 17.  He died on a cold December day - the exact day I got out of school for Christmas vacation.  I remember it well - it was a Tuesday, December 18th, 1973.  He had been unresponsive for a couple of weeks prior to that and we kept him at home and cared for him there.  He was very afraid of dying alone in a hospital room.  He was a frail thin 85 pound version of his former self.  He rarely knew who I was and when he was awake, he gave me orders to do things regarding his long defunct sign business.  He would be worried about a delivery or a phone call from a customer when in fact he had not done any real work for over a year.

Being a senior in high school, the day to day care and frustration was unbearable for me.  I would attempt a good mood and enter his room with a chipper attitude and he would quickly tell my Mother to get me out of the room.  I just did not understand ---- now I do.  I remember an incident when we had to call an ambulance to take him in to the hospital - he was getting very week and they were going to put him on IV fluids.  As he made the short walk from the hall bathroom to his bedroom, he uttered under his breath, "Go ahead and get the dead man out of here!"  I was in close enough ear shot to hear this whisper of desperation and it broke my heart.  I knew he was tired, tired of the pain, tired of the confusion, and just plain tired of living.

When my Dad drew his last breath and I heard rumblings and tears from his room, I felt a deep heart striking pierce of relief - I just could not stand to watch his suffering any longer.  In my young life, I just did not have the capacity to take it in another day.  To some it was unfathomable that I could be relieved but for me he had died many times over the past couple of years and this meant I would not have to go through it ever again - it was finally over.


While I have grown and learned and moved on from this event, it still breaks my heart when I hear of another child that has to go through this with a parent or other loved one.  Cancer is a formidable enemy and it will take the strength of us all to take it down, but if we believe--we can do it.  If you know of someone who has been through cancer or has a loved one who has, or have yourself, pass the word - help fight the fight.  Each one of us can Be the Difference in finding a cure for Cancer!

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