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August 23, 2009

A Special Request

Slow
Dance


This
is a poem
written by a teenager with cancer.

She wants to
see how many
people get her poem.

It is quite the poem
Please pass it

on.

This
poem was written by a terminally ill young girl in a
New York Hospital ..
It was sent
by

a medical doctor -
Make sure to read what is in the closing statement
AFTER THE
POEM.

SLOW DANCE

Have you ever
watched
kids
On a merry-go-round?

Or listened to
the
rain

Slapping on the ground?

Ever followed a

butterfly's erratic flight?


Or gazed at the sun into the
fading
night?



You better slow down.


Don't
dance so
fast.



Time is short.



The music
won't
last.



Do you run through each day



On
the
fly?


When you ask How are you?



Do you hear
the
reply?



When the day is done



Do you lie
in your
bed



With the next hundred chores




Running through
your head?



You'd better
slow down



Don't dance so
fast.



Time is
short.



The music won't
last.



Ever told your
child,



We'll do it
tomorrow?



And in your
haste,



Not see
his

sorrow?



Ever lost
touch,



Let a good
friendship die



Cause you
never had time



To call
and say,'Hi'



You'd
better slow down.



Don't dance
so fast.



Time
is short.



The music won't
last.



When you run
so fast to get somewhere



You
miss half the fun of getting
there.



When you worry and hurry
through your
day,



It is like an unopened
gift....



Thrown
away.



Life is not a
race.


Do take it
slower



Hear the
music



Before the song is
over.



------------
--------



FORWARDED
E-MAILS ARE TRACKED TO OBTAIN THE TOTAL
COUNT..



Dear All:
PLEASE pass this mail on to everyone you know -
even to those you don't
know! It is the request20of a special girl who will soon
leave this world
due to cancer.



This young girl has 6 months left
to live,
and as her dying wish, she wanted to send a letter telling everyone to

live their life to the fullest, since she never will.




She'll
never make it to prom, graduate from high school,
or get married and have a
family of her own.



By you sending
this to as many people as
possible, you can give her and her family a
little hope, because with every name
that this is sent to, The American
Cancer Society will donate 3 cents per name
to her treatment and recovery
plan. One guy sent this to 500 people! So I know
that we can at least send
it to 5 or 6. It's
not even your money, just
your
time!



PLEASE PASS ON AS A LAST REQUEST.
Dr.

Dennis Shields, Professor
Department of Developmental and
Molecular

Biology
1300
Morris Park

Avenue
Bronx , New York
10461

August 16, 2009

Love at First Sound


the following is based on true events. Some of the events and characters are composites or totally fictionalized for reading pleasure

The exterior of the department of public safety building near my apartment is designed like a huge concrete grid. I wonder what the authorities there would think of me climbing it, so I tried it out today being that they are closed and in near the top I find a little fairy. The fairy grants me three wishes. I'm ecstatic. My lucky day.

I read today that happiness is only real when shared.

A little boy lost his mother at the store today and crying his heart out. It was adorable seeing him pine for his mother. I can't remember pining for my mother like that in years. It makes me wonder what it's like being a mother knowing that your brood will one day "outgrow" your love. I think I'll call my mother tomorrow and say hello to her.

A lady gives me change at the checkout and i go to count it. i don't trust her? Then I realize she gave me TOO much money. Do I give it back? Do I keep it? I figure corporate America won't be missing a few dollars and decide instead to walk next door to the Chinese restaurant where, in the back, some Hispanic cooks are taking a smoke break.
"This is for you". I off the overage i received at the store to him. He looks at me quizzically, cautious at first, weighs his options and decides to accept the gift from the crazy Asian with the pink backpack and bicycle basket. I smile and say "Feliz Navidad." The fact that it's August is not lost on me.

how do we trust the the oncoming traffic won't come head on to us? Went on a nice morning ride and had these thoughts floating through my mind. I guess we just do. Otherwise we would never get anywhere would we?

the one good thing about some friendships is it's seamlessness, if you can't get your needs once place you can find it in another friend. Although I appreciate this quality, I also yearn for relationships that require a higher standard.

At the bus stop today as I was waiting for a ride, I happened upon a visually impaired couple. Normally it's an older couple but today a pair in their early twenties made their way across Lamar and 51st, one of the busier street intersections in Austin. My heart always melts when I see couples with physical challenges of any kind. I'm sure they have their own quirks and engage in their fare share of disagreements, but it's the earnestness that gets me. There's something especially sweet about two people who love each other who have no idea what the other looks like. There's something noble about that. I too will aspire to love at first sound.

quotes I've enjoyed this week:
"love like you've never lost before"
"i posses a troublesome superabundance of that sort of time which is not money"

August 05, 2009

Connecting with Others

I sometimes find it challenging to connect with others. I think it's likely that I can use some work on my listening skills. With this in mind, I have found it easier to pay attention to someone with my eyes closed. I put on my shades and close my eyes. it's a little weird, I know, but the person doesn't know I have my eyes closed. It's fun to really listen to another person and "hear" what they are saying.


I don't know why today when the at the farmer's market I was approached to do a survey or fill out a questionnaire or be asked to donate a kidney; I'm not sure, because before I heard her pitch I was avoiding eye contact and said "no thank you" before she even did her spill. Then I asked myself, well, that was not necessary of me. I could have just given her a few seconds of my time and then either choose to continue listening or say no thank you. I didn't even give her a chance and I did not feel good about that. I think I'll try to stay open to things before making a judgment. I'm sure she was just doing her job and perhaps even had something worthwhile to share.

I sometimes feel conflicted. The things that I enjoy the most, don't have much inherent meaning or are nonproductive (books, film, sports). I'm on a quest to create ways to use the things I enjoy as tools to contribute to the people I care about. What do you love? :)

August 02, 2009

Secret Places

i 'm not one who normally is able to find pleasure sunbathing but it's nice to dry off in the heat after a dip in the pool. I used to hate the Texas heat. Now it's not so bad.

I realize how AWESOME it is to eat with real silverware after having used plastic cutlery for weeks. My new roommate brought his silverware and now I appreciate eating cereal with a big fat silver spoon.

"friends may move away so far that you may never meet again. But they are a part of you forever"

3am. woke up from some unsettling sleep. realize i used to write more candidly. it's a good quality and i let it slip away out of fear of being judged. But on the other side of fear is growth.

I found a secret place in austin off of dessau and braker bicycling there when I was a freshman in college; behind some corn fields. It resembled a crop circle. They've done some development and I don't think it's there anymore. I also have fond memories while solo traveling and having found cliffs to climb in Pike National Forest in colorado springs. places we go to be with our thoughts. I fell in love with the idea of secret places when I first read Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson as a child. do you have a magic place?