Thursday, January 29, 2009
Thankful Thursday
Today I'm thankful for those around us that make us better. Maybe it's an energetic and positive friend, a parent who provides an example of strength and kindness or a child that reminds us what we are all capable of becoming. What are you thankful for today?
Monday, January 26, 2009
Hello 2009.
Here we are. The swill of January upon us.
Changing the calender, especially from last year, has offered a breath of hope— the inhale of goodness, a cleansing exhale, refreshed for whatever is next.
I don't know about you, but I've always thought that song "Auld Lang Syne" sounds terribly sad. The festivities of New Year's party horns belie that melancholy, tinny horn we hear in that song's traditional rendition. While there is joy for so many during the holiday season, simultaneously others are kept company by sadness and ache, like bruised fruit, especially when something—or rather someone—is missing. And when the world changes the current year, time suddenly contains a cruel distance, too.
This year is going to be really special for The Kyrie Foundation. We've met so many new people in the last year who have jumped on board and offered their help that 2009 is marked for even more success (hey! we still need volunteers & ideas, though. plenty of room for more help!). I know that there will be lots of opportunities to introduce Kyrie and the foundation to new people, which is super-great, but recently, there has been a nagging fret that pangs when I say "2009." That's because when I tell someone about Kyrie's story, I tell them about what happened in 2007. Now that we're in 2009 and especially since the foundation is growing so well (thanks to you!), there's an assumption that everything's okay. That we're all excited and happy--huzzah!
The thing is okay, excited and happy are all relative states. We're okay except for the giant, gaping pothole in all of our hearts. We're excited to be a part of curing this unfair & vicious disease. We're happy that someday, we all will be in a place where cancer doesn't even exist.
At the Wichita Baby Fare last year, a woman came up to our booth and asked us how we had the courage to do this, to take on all this work and live with the idea of babies fighting brain cancer every day. That notion had never occurred to me. She went on to share that she lost a daughter 12 years ago to pediatric brain cancer, and we could clearly see that for her heart 12 years ago was the same as today. Just like how 2 years ago is the same as today for us. Time doesn't heal all wounds. In some cases, time just allows you to develop a new level of pain tolerance.
With all of that in our gullet, I still feel a bubbling of determination when looking forward to the strides that we—all of us, including you, our dear reader—are going to make on behalf of children everywhere this year. Hello, 2009. I'd like you to meet The Kyrie Foundation.
Changing the calender, especially from last year, has offered a breath of hope— the inhale of goodness, a cleansing exhale, refreshed for whatever is next.
I don't know about you, but I've always thought that song "Auld Lang Syne" sounds terribly sad. The festivities of New Year's party horns belie that melancholy, tinny horn we hear in that song's traditional rendition. While there is joy for so many during the holiday season, simultaneously others are kept company by sadness and ache, like bruised fruit, especially when something—or rather someone—is missing. And when the world changes the current year, time suddenly contains a cruel distance, too.
This year is going to be really special for The Kyrie Foundation. We've met so many new people in the last year who have jumped on board and offered their help that 2009 is marked for even more success (hey! we still need volunteers & ideas, though. plenty of room for more help!). I know that there will be lots of opportunities to introduce Kyrie and the foundation to new people, which is super-great, but recently, there has been a nagging fret that pangs when I say "2009." That's because when I tell someone about Kyrie's story, I tell them about what happened in 2007. Now that we're in 2009 and especially since the foundation is growing so well (thanks to you!), there's an assumption that everything's okay. That we're all excited and happy--huzzah!
The thing is okay, excited and happy are all relative states. We're okay except for the giant, gaping pothole in all of our hearts. We're excited to be a part of curing this unfair & vicious disease. We're happy that someday, we all will be in a place where cancer doesn't even exist.
At the Wichita Baby Fare last year, a woman came up to our booth and asked us how we had the courage to do this, to take on all this work and live with the idea of babies fighting brain cancer every day. That notion had never occurred to me. She went on to share that she lost a daughter 12 years ago to pediatric brain cancer, and we could clearly see that for her heart 12 years ago was the same as today. Just like how 2 years ago is the same as today for us. Time doesn't heal all wounds. In some cases, time just allows you to develop a new level of pain tolerance.
With all of that in our gullet, I still feel a bubbling of determination when looking forward to the strides that we—all of us, including you, our dear reader—are going to make on behalf of children everywhere this year. Hello, 2009. I'd like you to meet The Kyrie Foundation.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Thankful Thursday
Today I'm thankful for another day.
In serif type on greeting cards, we usually get that lofty sentiment, don't we? Or sometimes near the cashier at a bookstore, we'll find tiny books that offer grandiose pieces of simple wisdom. We hear it in song, on Oprah, and something to this effect is seen in nearly every issue of every woman's magazine ever published.
Yet most days we wake up and put ourselves on autopilot to get through another Tuesday, carpool day, work day. We fill that day up with job responsibilities to our boss and doctor's appointments and errands to Walgreen's, the bank and the grocery store. Maybe for half a second in that day we have a moment of zen or gratitude or peace, where we smile and take a breath. Then it's on to the next thing. So American of us.
A handful of days in our lives are markers—the days when everyone else experiences the previous paragraph while you experience something that changes your life irrevocably. Those days are often too much for our human brains and hearts to completely comprehend, be it birth or death. Too much. Too big.
Every morning, the landscape of the day rests before us. Today, I'm thankful for that vantage point. Come what may, I am thankful for today.
What are you thankful for today?
In serif type on greeting cards, we usually get that lofty sentiment, don't we? Or sometimes near the cashier at a bookstore, we'll find tiny books that offer grandiose pieces of simple wisdom. We hear it in song, on Oprah, and something to this effect is seen in nearly every issue of every woman's magazine ever published.
Yet most days we wake up and put ourselves on autopilot to get through another Tuesday, carpool day, work day. We fill that day up with job responsibilities to our boss and doctor's appointments and errands to Walgreen's, the bank and the grocery store. Maybe for half a second in that day we have a moment of zen or gratitude or peace, where we smile and take a breath. Then it's on to the next thing. So American of us.
A handful of days in our lives are markers—the days when everyone else experiences the previous paragraph while you experience something that changes your life irrevocably. Those days are often too much for our human brains and hearts to completely comprehend, be it birth or death. Too much. Too big.
Every morning, the landscape of the day rests before us. Today, I'm thankful for that vantage point. Come what may, I am thankful for today.
What are you thankful for today?
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Thankful Thursday
Today I'm thankful that you're still here. I've been thinking a lot lately about time, the anticipation of it, the lack of it, the passing of it. I think about how time changes feelings or interests, how it can deepen a passion, like rains to the gully of a creek, or cause us to evaporate altogether. More on that tomorrow.
I'm thankful that as time here has flowed through us, through the foundation, that you are still here no matter what the state of the economy, no matter how bitter the temperatures. As two years here have marched on, you have remained constant. We thank you so much for that. And that fortitude will be necessary to balance the gloomy 2009 forecast that is predicted by the television pundits. I say, now is the time when the fertilizer is tilled to bring about next season's harvest. Come what may, we will still be here holding fast, doing good and working for a cure.
What are you thankful for today?
I'm thankful that as time here has flowed through us, through the foundation, that you are still here no matter what the state of the economy, no matter how bitter the temperatures. As two years here have marched on, you have remained constant. We thank you so much for that. And that fortitude will be necessary to balance the gloomy 2009 forecast that is predicted by the television pundits. I say, now is the time when the fertilizer is tilled to bring about next season's harvest. Come what may, we will still be here holding fast, doing good and working for a cure.
What are you thankful for today?
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Taste testing.
Not sure how many of you tried a recipe or two from The Kyrie Foundation cookbook, but I have to tell you that I've heard five-star, two-thumbs-up reviews for several recipes. Jordan & Lacie brought over homemade gingerbread men cookies on Christmas Eve, and they were incredible! The cookies and the company. ;) The recipe? Straight from a generous cook willing to share her recipe in The Kyrie Foundation cookbook!
I whipped up the Tuscan dip, which tastes more like a pizza dip. Chad really, really liked it. My sister-in-law said that her kids loved the chicken enchilada recipe. And Janice Thome's Spinach Salad recipe is one of my all-time favs. Bonnie, are you out there? How would you rate the spinach salad?
Several people I know gave the cookbooks for Christmas gifts. Can't wait till they try out a few dishes. And if you have birthdays or gift occasions coming up and would like to purchase a cookbook or two, check out the foundation's Web site or just e-mail us. Just $15 and all proceeds go to The Kyrie Foundation. Also, if you know a salon, gift shop or any other place that would like to sell the cookbooks for the foundation, we'd LOVE the help.
I whipped up the Tuscan dip, which tastes more like a pizza dip. Chad really, really liked it. My sister-in-law said that her kids loved the chicken enchilada recipe. And Janice Thome's Spinach Salad recipe is one of my all-time favs. Bonnie, are you out there? How would you rate the spinach salad?
Several people I know gave the cookbooks for Christmas gifts. Can't wait till they try out a few dishes. And if you have birthdays or gift occasions coming up and would like to purchase a cookbook or two, check out the foundation's Web site or just e-mail us. Just $15 and all proceeds go to The Kyrie Foundation. Also, if you know a salon, gift shop or any other place that would like to sell the cookbooks for the foundation, we'd LOVE the help.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
A hope on which to think.
I hope you will have a wonderful year, that you'll dream dangerously and outrageously, that you'll make something that didn't exist before you made it, that you will be loved and that you will be liked, and that you will have people to love and to like in return. And, most importantly (because I think there should be more kindness and more wisdom in the world right now), that you will, when you need to be, be wise, and that you will always be kind.
--Neil Gaiman
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Ethan's birthday party
Here are a few photos to give you a sense of what an incredible outpouring of support showed to bowl for Ethan Tuesday night at Thunderbowl!
Superboy snapshots & trophies.
Every cent counts when it comes to finding a cure!
It was a complete suprise to Ethan's family and to the bowling alley when so many people came to Ethan's party. We poured over into several additional lanes.
Lots of friends & families.
Ethan's friends came to bowl.
Remember the sweet girls from the skating party last year? Guess where they were on Tuesday night!
More friends ...
And still more friends ...
Even more friends!
It was such a special evening. The support and care were nearly tangible. Such a wonderful way to honor a Superboy who loved bowling. Thank you Tracy, Marcy & Asia, and thank you Ethan for sharing your birthday with us.
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