Happy Halloween

Today I got to put one of my babies in his very first Halloween costume. He was a chubby little pumpkin. We had a cowboy and two pink princesses visit us in the NICU. Gotta love this holiday.

The Way Things Are

The election... honestly, I'm sick of it. I'm tired of all the bickering, backstabbing, finger-pointing, and mucking up. Be grown ups! Is that too much to ask? Perhaps it is.

I was getting my coffee this morning, and I noticed the front cover of the Economist: Capitalism at Bay
Below the words there is a photograph of an ancient statue - a lion with three arrows piercing his body. He is falling, and he is going to die.
History does have a way of repeating itself, I wish to God that it wasn't true. Our country is far from perfect, but I love it so much, it hurts sometimes.

I've always had grandiose plans of what I'd like to do 20 years from now, when I harvest my money from the stock market. I've written my monthly checks to Vanguard with great anticipation, some I will spend on myself (no doubt, a ski-in-ski-out) but there were other dreams too, like better nutrition for starving children, scholarship funds, AIDs clinics in Africa.

The government has good intentions, it always begins that way. But if they tax me so heavily that I work for them, then they restrict my right to sew and reap my own money, they take my freedom to distribute my resources out of my own free will. Intellect, free-will, desire, the freedom to choose... that is what makes me human.

Capitalism is not faultless, and greed is rampant, but the thought of losing my freedom makes me ache. Have I taken for granted the freedom that I've always had? Absolutely yes. Will the nation that I was born in be the same one that I die in? Absolutely not.

I am going to be very careful what kind of "changes" I am supporting. Are they really the changes that I want? I'll be reading between the lines.

In the famous words of one of the best fictitious characters of all time:
"That's all I'm going to say about that."

Dreaming

Three years ago today I was ankle deep in the Mediterranean, looking out at the Isle of Capris, lava rocks are the breaker, gravel is the beach, and Chianti has never tasted better.

One Year Left

So maybe some would call it a morbid thought, to ponder what you would do, if you only had one year left to live. And truthfully, I do ache a little just thinking about it. I guess I really love my life. But it does jolt things into perspective very quickly, to think about what I would do, if I knew that mine was going to be much shorter than I'd ever anticipated.

I was out last night with two of my best friends, Missy and Heather, at our favorite vegan organic restaurant to celebrate Heather's 29th year of life. The question was presented, and strangely enough, I knew the answers right away. Maybe that's because I was with two of the people who know me better than anyone else, with whom transparency is automatic, or maybe I just know myself really well... Who knows? Regardless, this is what came to me...

First, I'd work like hell to get my book published.

Second, I'd visit children who are at the end of their own lives, and I would be able to say "I know how you feel." I've watched way too many kids face the inevitable, without anyone who understands.

Third, inappropriate to publish on this blog.

...Every moment is a gift.

Race for the Cure

Cancer is one of those sick realities that I have wanted to keep away, but it has come too close, and it has stolen people that I love. I hate it.

And yet when I see 65,000 people coming together to celebrate life and hope, I am overwhelmed by the knowing that love conquers darkness.

I am grateful to have been part of this event...