An easy way to help cure pediatric brain cancer.

A big thank you to Jonathan, a new commentator here on the blog, who has given this idea/invitation for you to help us raise funds by sitting at your keyboard.

Instead of using Yahoo or Google to search online, if you use GoodSearch.com, for every search you make, the Kyrie Foundation earns a penny! Just sign up (for free!), choose the Kyrie Foundation and type your search into the bar just like you would another search engine. You could make it your homepage or put the search bar into your toolbar instead of Yahoo.

Now here's the begging part: You have a lot of charities & causes from which to choose. I'm hoping, pleading & begging that you choose the Kyrie Foundation because we really need the help. The board is made of a few devoted volunteers whose heartache—not time or money or ego—brought them to this point. They work on the foundation, not as a full-time opportunity but amidst everything else: in the car, before work, while opening the mail, on the weekends, over their lunch hours, in airports, while they sleep and ... even in the bathroom.

The average research grant is $50K. That is the Kyrie Foundation's minimal goal every year. Anyone know how many bake sales that is? ;) And the Kyrie Foundation wants to financially help families, too. We know all too well that in these situations, the family precariously teeters over a bottomless pit of insatiable bills. So you can see that we have a steep hill to climb, using what resources we have but very conscious not to burn out our biggest supporters.

Please know that the foundation's "board of directors" are simply organizers. You make up the foundation. You, the blog reader, the t-shirt wearer, the friend, the relative, the classmate, the donation maker, the commentator, the business owner, the prayer giver—you are the Kyrie Foundation. You who want pediatric brain cancer to end—you, too, are the Kyrie Foundation. We've counted you among our most treasured blessings since day one with Kyrie's diagnosis. We hope that you will remain steadfast, inspired and encouraged with Kyrie as we all move together toward a cure.

Go, Kyrie, Go!

Thankful Thursday

Today I'm thankful for today. Often times, it's dreadfully difficult to be in the moment, isn't it?

Carpe diem? Nice in theory, but it's nearly impossible, almost inhuman. We're so caught in what happens next, what isn't done, what's going on over there that we lose right now. The very trendy phrase "live in the moment" doesn't tell you how to live in the moment. And that's what we need to know, right?

So for right now, it's right now. Threats loom on the horizon, doubt plagues like the plague, worry is hovering overhead, pain lingers at the legs, still, this moment, and this one and this one and this one are as real as you will ever get, even if it's at a desk, in the kitchen, on the beach, in the car or up above.

What are you thankful for today?

For the shoppers ...

If you visit the Kyrie Foundation Web site and click under donate & shop, you'll see the icon for iGive. iGive is a site that is set up to retrieve donations from online shopping at venues like Target, PetSmart, Bombay Company, Home Depot, Lane Bryant, Avon, HSN.com, Bass Pro Shops, Ebay, Dean & Deluca, Sephora and so many more.

You sign up for free & choose your cause. (The Kyrie Foundation is already set up in their system.) Then shop away! The key is to use your iGive portal to get to the stores' Web sites. So if you go to Target.com and shop, there won't be a donation made. Gotta go through iGive to Target.com to get the credit.

I also completed three reviews for Viewpoints.com (an opportunity sent to me by iGive), and I earned $5 for the Kyrie Foundation!

And now through October 2, 2007, several stores are doubling their donations to the Kyrie Foundation: Home Bistro (those gourmet dip/soup/bread mixes), Staples, Land's End, Drugstore.com, JCPenney's, Doctors Foster & Smith, Nordstrom, Quill, Expedia & NewEgg.

The cool thing is that you're donating while you're shopping for things you'd purchase anyway. Painless!

Good to keep in mind as holiday shopping draws near ... ;)

Person of the Week

Each week, ABC News honors a person worth noting. Last Friday, in case you missed it, their person of the week was Randy Pausch, a 46-year-old Carnegie Mellon computer science professor who was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. This 19-minute lecture on "How to Live Your Childhood Dreams" is worth a listen.

You can read a little about Randy here, too.

Somedays.

Somedays are tough. Somedays are fraught with doubt & confusion & worry & frustration not only with ourselves but also with regard to others in our lives and even with regard to God's plans. There are plenty of somedays where I still wonder where all of our prayers went. There are plenty of times where fairness is completely MIA to what shakes out at the end of the day. Supremely difficult to step away from feelings and into faith, isn't it?

As a manner of practice, there is a nifty site that gently helps stir a bit of faith back into the day. Sacred Space is a daily online prayer site, a site that brings a little soul into the soulessness of technology.

Here's the passage for today:

Ephesians 4, 1-7

I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift.

A thought.

"This is the beginning of a new day. You have been given this day to use as you will. You can waste it or use it for good. What you do today is important because you are exchanging a day of your life for it. When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever; in its place is something that you have left behind...let it be something good."

Author Unknown

Step by step.

Around 2:30 a.m. at the Relay for Life event in Maryville, you could tell who was in it to win it, so to speak. Most of those who donated by way of nachos, a couple minutes in the bounce house or through the silent auction had gone home. Those left (and there were plenty) were either manning the booths, warming up the omlette griddles or walking round & round, lap after lap around the luminaries holding their team's baton, which could be virtually anything: a sparkly baton with streamers, an altered Barbie doll, a stick, a decorated plunger.

There were groups of people walking & laughing, power duos working up a sweat, lone walkers deep in contemplation. Among those circumnavigating were three walkers who slowly, steadily made their laps methodically and with monosyllabic conversation. Three men, each wearing hats to cover their heads rather than express fashion; two in bib overalls flanked the one in old Wranglers. Three men whose slightly bowed, ambling gait was the result of wearing work boot for decades; tonight they wore support sneakers. Three men who walked with a good yard, a manly distance, between themselves, but waiting for one another should one's pace outdistance the remaining. Three men in no hurry. One step then another. Little by little. Chipping away the wee minutes of the morning, walking for someone who couldn't.

You could tell that they certainly weren't there to be seen, not because they had to or even because they felt emboldened by doing something for charity. It was just a quiet, steadfast expression of support. Not a race to the end, but a determined presence to do something that from the outside looks like walking but intrinsically meant having paramount moxie to brawl with cancer. They weren't looking for thanks or even appreciation. They were doing it just because, one step at a time.

And what we're doing--a tee-shirt here, a conversation there--may seem small right now, but every time you tell someone about Kyrie or the foundation, you're growing the cause by leaps and bounds. You're part of this. Thank you for walking with us.