With Sympathy

This post isn't about running; it's about one of Cady's friends.

Last year the school organized an informal pizza dinner for the parents in Cady's class - all of the children in her primary class have some kind of disability. Most of the children are far worse off than Cady is. I barely kept it together as I listened to each parent/couple talk about the challenges their child faced. Several of the kids have seizures and other repetitive problems that prevent them from sleeping through the night which makes taking care of them a ton of work. I felt so bad for them all. I kept thinking that, up to that point, I was feeling kind of sorry for our situation. But that discussion really awakened me to the reality that some parents face. At a minimum, one of the children had a degenerative disease that made their diagnosis terminal.

I'm sad to say that one of Cady's classmates died. I don't know how old she was and I'll refrain from stating her name out of respect for her family; I think she was around 7, maybe eight. I remember this about her: the first time I met her she held both of her arms horizontal as if to say, 'what's up?'. One of the teachers told me that was her way of asking for a hug. I was so touched - she seemed like such a nice little girl who was dealt a real shitty hand in life. I so admired her parents for having helped her find a way to communicate her thoughts and feelings.

I know Cady liked her. I have many times asked Cady if she was looking forward to school, to seeing her friend. Cady almost always smiles. Tonight, I told Cady that she won't be seeing her little friend anymore. I told her she got too sick. I don't think Cady understood me - I'm going to ask Deb to try to explain it to her again tomorrow.

I didn't want this posting to be a downer, but let's face it: life is full of challenges and difficulties. When we hear about how difficult others have it - loosing a very young child to a disease, or loosing an adult child to a senseless act of violence - we should take pause for a moment. It's a reality check. How bad can things really be for us? I admit: Cady is a lot of work. But, that's it - she's just more work than the average kid; it's not like she's dying.

So, for anyone struggling with life's challenges: keep your head up, work hard, and stay positive. There is absolutely no question about it: someone else always has it worse. Looking at things from that perspective might make all of us think twice before we compain about something.


Just for the record, we did run the other day - I took the kids with me again and they made it about 0.6 miles at a ridiculously slow pace. They feel good about it, though, and Cady seems to like it. We did just over three miles again; our three mile run is now pretty routine for us and we could almost do it in our sleep (not really). Cady doesn't choke or gag anymore and I'm much better with the hills. With last week's 10-mile run going great, we'll be fine for our upcoming half marathon.

One more thing: I flipping love this video on youtube about perseverance:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZlXWp6vFdE
If this doesn't make you cry then you're a vampire or something. If you want to cry more, read the text below the video from the woman who created it.