PENSIEVE

I Pink, I Can

Think "pink" and what is your mental default? 

• An ice cream parlor (studies suggest pink stimulates sweet cravings)?

• Little girls in ribbons and lace?

• Valentine hearts & roses?

...or breasts?

During the month of October, I suppose many of you are like me--thinking about National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  E.V.E.R.Y.where you turn, retailers and corporate America turn shades of pink themselves, so unless you're living under a rock, you already know this.

My long-time blog friend, Kathy (aka the Swampwitch) is hosting a month-long tribute to those who've battled cancer.  She's celebrating survivors and honoring those who lost the fight.  If you or loved ones fall into either category, you're invited to join her. Here are the reasons I most despise cancer, and why I want to encourage you to "do something"--

My daughter and I joined a group from our school, and for the second year in a row, walked in our local Race for the Cure.  If you've never participated, I wish you'd consider doing so--the affirming atmosphere will overwhelm you.  Another FANTASTIC way to give to others is to click this every day!  Bookmark it, then just click it!  Sponsors, in turn, will donate mammograms to those in need.   

Below you'll find a running list of personal weblog postings and businesses who support research for breast cancer. If you've written an applicable post or know of a company I can include in this listing, will you leave your/their URL in comments (thanks!)  Wouldn't it be cool if it was a mile long???

• Swampy's Stomp Through Blogville Against Breast Cancer
• National Breast Cancer Foundation
• Yoplait Yogurt (donates 10 cents/lid to Susan G. Komen for the Cure®, up to $1.5 million)
• Susan's Snaps & the Susan Carver Foundation (whom I discovered at the Metropolitan Cooking & Entertaining Show in Atlanta)
• yours?

Live intentionally!

If you were doomed to live the same life over and over again for eternity, would you choose the life you are living now? The question is interesting enough, but I've always thought the point of asking it is really the unspoken, potentially devastating follow-up question. That is, if the answer is no,
then why are you living the life you are living now?
Stop making excuses and do something about it.

                                                              William Alexander, The $64 Tomato

Do you remember what you were doing three years ago today? Hint: It's the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina

Because I blog, I have details about that day.  Reprinted from the original PENSIEVE, I thought it timely to re-post today. 

Who's Your Katrina?

Or maybe it's "What's" your Katrina? They're all around us, case in point:

The morning Katrina was having her way with Louisiana and Mississippi, I was sitting in a hospital waiting room, watching the play-by-play coverage of a natural disaster running her course.

A sidebar worth noting is our fascination and voyueristic need to watch a trainwreck in slow motion. It's sport to us. We have commentators (reporters) on the sidelines, bringing us the "action", and we can't wait to get to the end of the game to see the spoils...but in the trainwrecks of life, there are no victors. I cringe at the thought of the barbaric fight of a gladiator (Russell Crowe's Maximus Decimus Meridius "unleashing hell" comes to mind) and I wonder how a people could be so captivated by bloodlust until I realize I am guilty of much the same. Think about the last time you saw a car accident and rubbernecked a.k.a. Linda Blair to assess the damage...or as recently as Katrina...the Southeastern Asian (and beyond) Christmas 2004 Tsunami, 9-11....we sit transfixed to 24-hour news channels as macabre details unfold.

Ugh....but I digress and become much the drama queen in the process, so I'll move on :)

What brought me to the hospital? Good question. I am convinced it was a divine appointment, nothing short of a God thang, a surreal experience that left me completely humbled, and at the time, speechless and awed.

I was there to visit Teresa, a woman I had never met and who didn't even know I existed...I had the advantage. Our daughters happen to be friends and through personal circumstance, I learned about her family's "situation". They could be the poster family for "down on your luck". Her husband has been unable to work for some time now; she was the primary breadwinner, but in the past year she has had health issue after health issue after health issue. Debilitating illness, uncertain future. She's extremely overweight yet her body is malnourished because of disease. She has a feeding tube because her stomach is paralyzed and an IV port due to the incredible amount of medicine she requires. They lost their home, car, looks like a bankruptcy is in their future, she's received sub-standard medical care (I can't help but wonder if they're being discriminated against). She endured a physically abusive childhood only to marry a physically abusive man (first marriage, long over, thankfully a loving second marriage). Currently, when she's not in the hospital, they're living in an extended stay motel--she, her husband, middle school daughter and college-age son. It ain't the Ritz Carlton. Oh, and her oldest son steals from all of them when he comes around and he's messed up either using or selling drugs. Are you getting a picture? And yet...AND YET...this woman was BEAUTIFUL! Not once did she utter anything negative; she did answer my questions, she did tell an ugly truth, but she was PRECIOUS. In just a few hours we bonded in a way I have never before experienced. I told her I was there because I loved Jesus and after learning a little bit about their circumstances, I couldn't NOT come... because we wanted to be His hands and feet in anyway we could (Tad had learned about their need before I had, which was the impetus for my going to visit). We laughed and we cried and we prayed ... and a few hours passed in moments.

I didn't pity her although I felt deeply for her circumstances... they're awful....but I found myself very humbled and painfully aware of my "riches", materially and otherwise. She accepted the ways we were able to meet some of their needs in a way that truly challenged me. As I sit here and write, I can't even articulate her acceptance....there was this silent understanding that "we're all in this together...and what's mine is yours". I know that's extreme, I wish I was that generous, but that tone was certainly present.

I barely remember the walk from her room to my car...the tears came again. I think they were some kind of emotional release for the utter joy of being Christ to someone who needed Him. It was surreal and amazing. And it makes me hungry for more of Him.

And as the week unfolded and I saw the destruction from Katrina, I was struck with the thought that Teresa WAS a Katrina to me. I may not be in a position to reach the hundreds of thousands devastated by that disaster....but if I slow down...listen to the people around me...I can touch the lives of one...or two...or three, who are experiencing their own tragedies. Not world hunger. Not the masses. But making a difference.

A few "somethings" to help reduce unwanted catalogs and junk mail

In comments yesterday, Swampy (my recyclin' sistah) shared a link to Catalog Choice, a sponsored project of the Ecology Center.  Its stated mission is "to reduce the number of repeat and unsolicited catalog mailings, and to promote the adoption of sustainable industry best practices." 

You can browse through an alphabetical listing of catalogs to opt out of receiving them, or simply type in the name of the catalog itself.  Swampy opted out of 50--can you top that?

That comment reminded me of a previous post of Karmyn's at Dreaming What Ifs; in it, she provided the contact information for several companies which will register you to opt out of receiving credit card offers.  One of her readers then suggested  registering with optoutprescreen.com.  In doing so, you will accomplish the same result as if you wrote to each of the companies noted below:  for five years you will opt out of receiving firm offers for credit or insurance.

Don't you agree?  It's these little individual efforts that, when bracketed together with thousands of other individual efforts, can abrogate an avalanche of paper!

S o m e b o d y needs to be shoutin' "Amen!".

If you choose to write the companies below, make sure to include a line indicating your wish to OPT-OUT from any Prescreened Offers of Credit.

Experian Target Marketing, P.O. Box 919, 701 Experian Parkway B2,Allen, TX  75013

Equifax Options, P.O. Box 740123, Atlanta, GA  30374-0123

Trans Union Corporation, Attn:  Marketing Opt Out, P.O. Box 505, Woodlyn, PA  19094-0505