My brother sent me this photograph this week. It's one he took while travelling in Scotland last year. Dark and cold in many ways, but incredibly beautiful as well.
On Wednesday I had a fundraiser to go to. I don't usually go out during the week. In fact I'd gone through three babysitters in order to be able to get out the front door, and at the last minute Mr Large kicked a football through our front window smashing it into spectacular smithereens.
Keeping my voice calm (and resisting the urge to yell loudly at him) I asked him to get me the tape. I knew I'd need to measure up the window to give the correct details to the Insurance Company.
He rushed off and returned white-faced seconds later, thrusting the sticky tape at me.
My sweet boy.
His hopeful little face that I'd be able to repair the damage done by sticky tape. And sheer relief I hadn't yelled at him, even though I'd really wanted to.
Having established that someone would be out shortly to repair the window I shot out the door. While driving I thought about how late I was and feeling increasingly edgy.
The fundraiser itself is for a cause dear to my heart. Within minutes of arriving I'd calmed down and wandered the room looking at the silent auction bids. Then the speakers were introduced.
The Doctor was first. She warned the parents of the children in the room that this would be hard for them to hear and to hold on while she did.
And she spoke.
I wiped tear after tear as she spoke passionately about the children she works so hard with.
I cried as I looked across the room at a mum who wants her daughter to live a long and happy life.
A mum who is running across the Great Wall of China in a half marathon to raise funds so other parents and families don't have to suffer the same way. Three fellow school mums are joining her in what is considered the toughest run in the world.
For reasons I can't discuss further I know too much about Cystic Fibrosis. It is a cruel and gruelling condition. It turns the lives of families and sufferers upside down.
But listening to a father of three with CF speak about his life journey, which included 2 lung transplants it struck me. It's perspective and the one we choose to have.
The Doctor was there to fight it.
The Mother was there as an advocate.
The Sufferer is Living while living with it.
The broken window is repairable. The petty small stuff we sweat over? It's rubbish.
What's important is how we choose to see things.
Like the photo above there is darkness so much of the time, but the light and beauty is what makes it bearable.
Standing in that room that night surrounded by people who took the time to be there, to cheer those mums on and to donate towards the work they're doing made me smile. Ordinary people doing extraordinary things.
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- Slow day.
- The Gunt Hold
- Banana Bread Donuts
- Biggy's Adventure
- Old Fire Trucks
- Confectionery
- Royal Weddings, and Royal Disasters
- Because It Should Exist: 1979 Topps #721 Mets Pros...
- Home
- Weekend Warrior - Videos to get you STOKED!!
- Man speak.
- The New Guy...
- In the week where I decided to stop killing myself...
- Mystery Solved
- Exhibition
- 268 Mulberry
- My souvenir book already put to use
- More bugs from the desert (and a lizard)
- See the resemblance?
- The Baseball Card Blog welcomes a new contributor:...
- Misinterpretation
- Marvel Content Coming to Netflix
- Fashions from the 1950s
- Avalanche Claims Life near the Ruth Gorge
- Schmooze
- A precarious life for a toad
- A night with the light
- A slow nature walk
- Navigate
- Envy
- Film Review: The Way Back
- Utsikt från dagens gym
- Flattery
- Because It Should Exist: 1963 Topps #299 Rookie Stars
- Play
- Withdrawal
- Royal Wedding Whoopie Pies
- Borrego bugs
- A beautiful morning in the desert!
- A Century Of Britain’s Royal Weddings
- Climbing and Outdoor News from Here and Abroad - 4...
- Mariorama 3D print design
- Med solen i ögonen
- Chips and Salsa Cookies {Tutorial}
- The Heckler's Wife's Comeuppance: On Poor Records ...
- Royal Drinking Game & a Quiz!
- Numerically Speaking
- To the left, to the left
- Spacesuit: An Interview with Nicholas de Monchaux
- Dietary Inspiration
- Tempotempo
- Blog Love
- Chernobyl before 1986
- Gluttony
- Risk
- Conditions Report - April 27 2011
- So many bugs, so little time!
- Moscow in 1930s [more]
- Moscow in 1930s
- Maple, Chocolate Chip & Candied Bacon Cookie Cups
- My #1 Fan {WFMW}
- Creature of habit.
- Tight & Bright & Thick & Rich.
- Infrastructural Opportunism
- Tillbaks i stan
- Breathe
- John Lennon in red and black striped pajamas
- laughing
- Acknowledgment
- Using Your Rope in Anchors
- Because It Should Exist: 1976 Topps #650 Thurman G...
- Merlin reporting from Paris
- Bubble Tea Fever Hits London!
- How I got my body back.
- An impromptu bug jar
- Angry Birds Part 2 {Yellow Bird}
- The Psycho Eyebrows of Sam McDowell
- Who won the Lego Giveaway?
- A broken day.
- RMS Lusitania
- Stealth Objects and Scanning Mist
- Earthquake Sounds, Tsunami Rocks, Future Trenches
- Harvest
- Girl & Her Motorbike, 1958
- New Print
- Fred Beckey Documentary
- APRIL 2011 MUSIC VIDEO RECAP
- Royal Icing 101, or All Roads Lead to Rome
- Romance and reality.
- Portland Edition: Sympathize
- Portland Edition: Referral
- Portland Edition: Appraisal
- Portland Edition: Watchdog
- Week Ending April 24
- Architectural Ecology
- Happy Easter, Y'all!
- Fartlek plus distansrekord
- Bettie Page's black and white photos in bikini by ...
- Fiction and the city
- I shall remain under water for most of the time
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