GET UP!

When Life Knocks You Down...

[tadtomaseski]

STRONG LOVE gives you strength to GET UP!

This classic picture is my Grandma Ruth and Grandpa Pete, my Mom’s parents. I knew my Grandma Ruth well and we were always very close, but unfortunately my Grandpa Pete passed away when I was only 2 years old.  My Grandma Ruth and I were so close because she chose to never get married again.  It was definitely a choice because she was quite beautiful and had male suitors calling on her regularly, including one that tried for decades.  She chose to raise 5 children by herself because she and my Grandpa Pete had such a STRONG LOVE that she could never see herself with another man.  The second picture is from an article written about them this year in the Sarasota Florida Herald Tribune for Valentines day.  While serving in WWII he wrote my Grandma every day, each letter filled with lavish expressions of his love for her and every envelope was covered in his own hand drawn art.

They unquestionably had a STRONG LOVE that was and is very uncommon. When we think about love, this type of relational love is what usually comes to mind first, then love for family and friends.  I will say that I am fortunate to have an uncommon STRONG LOVE with my wife Gina, we’ve been together 31 years.  I also have the good fortune of having an uncommon STRONG LOVE from my family.  There is no bad blood, unlike many others who have to suffer within their families.  I am also fortunate to have an uncommon STRONG LOVE from our friends that love us so deeply and most would do just about anything for us.

The day I announced my diagnosis, love and prayers began to be poured out for me from literally around the world.  It humbles me to think about how many and how deeply people love me.  You may be reading this and thinking to yourself, if I had that much love from others I could find the strength to GET UP too...but I don’t have STRONG LOVE from a spouse, I don’t have a STRONG LOVE from my family, I don’t have a STRONG LOVE from friends.  

Although this love I speak of that I receive is so astounding, it’s actually not this love I receive that gives me the strength I need to GET UP when I’ve been knocked down really hard.  The STRONG LOVE I am referring to that gives me the strength to GET UP when I have been knocked down really, really hard and am struggling to GET UP is not the STRONG LOVE I RECEIVE, but rather the STRONG LOVE I GIVE.  That’s right, the STRONG LOVE I GIVE is what gives me reason to GET UP.  The best part about this is that you don’t need anybody to love you in order to have a STRONG LOVE that gives you the strength to GET UP.  

But you may be thinking “How can I give anybody anything when I am so beaten down?  I don’t feel like I have anything left in me to give anybody.  I need somebody to give to me.” 

Over the decades I have given people that are knocked down in life my STRONG LOVE and in doing so it has given me great purpose, but until they modeled what I had done and give their own STRONG LOVE to others, it didn’t necessarily help them to actually GET UP.  

Having others pour their love on you will give you a sense of value, but not necessarily a sense of purpose.  A sense of value helps us feel good sometimes, but when we are knocked down, what we really need is to have a sense of purpose.  Purpose in life is what gives us reason to GET UP. The origin of the word PURPOSE comes from “intention, aim, and goal.”  When we are knocked down really hard it is going to take strong intent, focus (aim) and a goal in site worth pursuing to give us reason to GET UP.  

So “where do I start?”  A great place to start is with someone with whom you stand to get nothing in return.  Giving more love to your spouse, family or friends is great, but you should have already been doing this and therefore it won’t give you any more reason to GET UP and doing so will be for your own gain anyway as you will receive more love in return from them. 

Instead, how about starting with a complete stranger?  Or at least somebody you know but you also already know they will be unable to ever return your STRONG LOVE.  Somebody that will never be able to love you on anywhere near the same level.

I want to make clear that by STRONG LOVE I don’t mean you saying “I really, really, really love you...and I mean it!”  By STRONG LOVE I’m not even referring to the word “love” even being spoken. What I am referring to is actions that demonstrate a STRONG LOVE.  What actions should you take?  It is different with each person.  I think you will easily figure out what these actions will need to be once you decide who it is you will be “intentional” with as you take “aim” with your actions, and make loving them with your actions your “goal.”  As you have them in your sites look for what is their greatest needs, you’ll quickly see them, and then start with meeting those needs.  Those needs could be as simple as validation and encouragement, or they may be more tangible like food or finances.

Too many think that loving somebody means saying the words rather than taking the actions.  Too many love only those they stand to get something from in return. This is not STRONG LOVE, this is just typical, normal LOVE.

Loving those that cannot repay us is the most STRONG LOVE we could possibly exhibit, and as a matter of fact, it is also how we love God.  (Matthew 25:35-39) I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’ “Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ “And the Lord will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’

I stand to gain nothing by writing this blog.  This is just one of my ways of STRONG LOVE that gives me reason to GET UP.  This weekend has physically been horrible for me, the worst I have ever felt.  Knowing how many and how deeply people love me would not have been reason enough for me to GET UP. But giving STRONG LOVE through this blog gave me a reason enough to GET UP.

I have had many people say “even though you don’t know me at all, you have done so much for me.”  This is how I can love people, many I don’t know at all, in a way from which I don’t stand to benefit.  I don’t do this for any sort of accolades.  I do it because I wasn’t given a choice whether or not to go through what I’m going through and there is no good reason for me to go through it. But what I can do is give purpose to what I’m going through and in turn give myself reason to continue to GET UP.  

Over my lifetime I have loved countless people that could never love me back the way I loved them, even those who had no love at all for me.  I still continue to love people today that don’t love me the same way in return, and truth be told some of these people really could love me similarly in return, but they choose not to, and yet I still choose to continue to love them with a STRONG LOVE.

This does not make me a “good person” or a “better person,” it just makes me a person committed to STRONG LOVE because I believe it is the greatest call of every one of our lives and if we don’t answer this call, we have missed our greatest purpose.  What I will say this does make me is “a loved person.”  I know that I am loved by so many, so deeply, because I have made love my life’s focus.  So if you don’t feel you have the love of so many, then don’t wait around for others to love you, start by loving others, and do it never expecting love in return.  With time you will one day say “Wow!  I can’t believe how much love I am surrounded by.”

I have been waiting to blog on STRONG LOVE because I knew it was a lot to cover and I don’t like to make my blogs too long and cumbersome to read, so I am going to call this the end of STRONG LOVE ROUND 1 and I will continue with further thoughts next blog.  I will cover the fact that loving people and loving God are inseparable and why you need to forgive, etc.  

In the meantime, if you’re knocked down right now and can’t find a good enough reason to GET UP, then take a shot at giving some STRONG LOVE and see how it gives you reason to GET UP.  You may very well get knocked right back down again, I know because I do too, but the good thing about giving STRONG LOVE is that you really do have a never ending supply within you.  So you therefore also have a never ending supply of reasons to continue to GET UP!

Than you for reading.  Thank you for sharing.  Thank you for loving.  Thank you for letting me share my STRONG LOVE.  Now go share your STRONG LOVE.

[tadtomaseski]

GET UP HEROES

We’ve all seen the movies where the hero dives into the water to save somebody that’s down and dying.  They heroically pull them up and then breath life into their lungs saving them.  

Everyone loves a hero.  News stations today alway make sure to find a hero to spotlight when a tragedy has struck, because they know that everybody loves a hero.

But there are also another group of heroes that save many lives every day in a very different way.  These heroes I am talking about are actually heroes because they saved themselves in the midst of tragedy.  Then through the story of their heroic rescue of themselves, they INSPIRE others to save themselves as well.

The word INSPIRE comes from the Latin word “inspirare” which literally means to “to breathe or blow into.” 

At times when our souls are near death, these real life heroes breathe life into us.  They INSPIRE us through their real life testimonies of how they made it through something as bad or worse than us, giving us just enough faith that we too can make it through this.  They breathe life into us to help us GET UP.

The top picture on this post appeared in my Facebook memories this week and it got me thinking about these heroes in my life who suffered tremendous, heartbreaking, unfair tragedy in their lives that would have destroyed most any other person, leaving them face down for life, unable to GET UP and GO ON.

The top picture is me and my two older sisters Tina and Tracy.  Not born yet when the top picture was taken is my baby sister Sarah pictured with me.

If you were to look at the lives of any one of my three sisters today, all experiencing such joy and love in life now, you could easily find yourself thinking “Wow! I wish I had their life!” 

I promise you, that if you knew what they went through and in some ways still endure day by day, before they got to where they are, and if you had to suffer the same things to get where they are, you wouldn’t be willing to endure what they had to endure.  I won’t go into the details of their devastating knockdowns in life, as that is their stories to tell.  But I will tell you that most women would have been so scarred and damaged that they would have either given up completely on life or just gone on to live tragic lives and not have been able to GET UP like my Sisters.  

All three of my sisters have been knocked down so hard in life, over and over again, yet all three managed to GET UP and GO ON with life and become such amazing women, so full of love and therefore also so surrounded by the love of so many others.

If you are reading this and you know my sisters, you probably don’t even know all they have been through, because they have not allowed tragedy to leave them living tragic lives.  Every time they were knocked down so hard, with superhuman strength they continued to GET UP and move forward in life.

They are true heroes to me, and their own heroism in life inspires me when I am down to GET UP and keep moving.

It’s important for you to have heroes in your life.  It’s nice that you may have heroes like famous people from history, or people you’ve read about in books, or Jesus, or any other such figure, but you also need heroes you can follow closely today.  People that have suffered something as bad or even worse than you, that managed to GET UP and GO ON and not let tragedy leave them living tragic lives.  These sort of real life heroes that are close enough to be “touchable” make it seem that much more real that we too can GET UP just like them.

Then one day soon, it will be your turn to “breathe life into” someone else by sharing your story of how you managed to GET UP when life had knocked you down and you will be their hero.

So if life has hit you hard and as you read this you feel knocked down, I want to encourage you that if you don’t have these sort of heroes in your life, then reach out, go on a search and find them.  Find as many heroes as you can and fill your mind with the stories of their tragedies, and remind yourself that they managed to GET UP and SO CAN YOU!

This has been a tough week for me, I got knocked down hard again.  My mouth, tongue and throat became so damaged from the radiation that everything I tried to swallow felt like swallowing broken glass, even water.  Then Monday I stopped being able to swallow all together, I would just choke on everything.  I spent 4 days in the hospital and had to have a feeding tube put in through the wall of my abdomen into my stomach and I have not eaten for 8 days.  I now pour my medicines and my liquid nutrition into this tube to get it into my stomach to prevent me dying from lack of nutrition.

This was a devastating blow to me.  I wanted so badly for this not to happen that by the end it was so painful to swallow that I would just put on my headphones, play my GET UP montage over and over again while I forced down food with tears running down my face from the excruciating pain.  And to know I was only 1/3 the way through my radiation treatments and things would only get worse...this was a big hit that knocked me down hard this week.  

But you know what, I didn’t stay down.  All my real life heroes that had gone before me were breathing life into me, filling my spirit with hope that I could GET UP and keep moving forward.  First day out of the hospital I was at the gym working out, big old feeding tube hanging out of my stomach and all, and then I went straight into work to continue to serve and love the patients in our hospital helping them to GET UP too.

You may feel knocked down in life right now.  I want you to know I am right there with you.  I know exactly how you are feeling.  I want you to know that my sisters and my other heroes managed to GET UP and so can you and I.

If we are not enough to inspire you, then keep looking for someone that can. Don’t give up.  Just searching for heroes to inspire you is a good sign that you want to GET UP and you’re not giving up.  Keep searching, don’t give up, and I promise you that sooner or later you will GET UP...and when you do, you too will be a hero!

[tadtomaseski]

WHY ME?!?

WHY ME?!? This is a very natural question we ask when life delivers a tragic blow that knocks us down hard, particularly for those that have made great efforts to be a “good person” in life.  It seems especially unfair that it has happened to somebody that genuinely does not deserve it yet we see “bad people” not ever “getting what they deserve.”

Recently people that know me have been asking the same question regarding what is happening to me.  They have watched how I have taken care of my body and health in ways that most don’t.  They have also witnessed the depth of my love and caring for others and it has left them confused and questioning “Why Tad?!?”

Many people of faith are taught that good things will happen to those who believe and do right, while bad things are reserved for those who don’t believe and do wrong.  So when tragedy hits, they are left wondering “What did I do wrong to deserve this???”  This leaves them knocked down, crawling around the mat trying to find what they did wrong.  Searching for their own guilt thinking maybe if they can find out what they did wrong they can make amends’ with God and He will take it all away.

Others turn their back completely on their faith questioning “How could a loving God let this happen???”

This is all very natural.  There is no shame in asking WHY ME?  It does not show a lack of faith to question and be angry with God.

I reread the book of Job today as it is very relevant to my life and this subject. The book of Job quotes God Himself describing Job as “The finest man in all the earth.  He is blameless - a man of complete integrity.  He fears God and stays away from evil.”  Yet in the story of Job, God allows complete devastation in his life, losing all he owned, losing all of his children and servants to tragic deaths, and even his own health was taken away being covered head to toe with boils and sores.

Tragedy knocked Job down as hard as any man has ever been knocked down. There he was down on the ground, in the ashes of his tragedy, scraping his own skin off with a broken piece of pottery.

Throughout the story Job continues to challenge God asking WHY ME?!?  He was furious with God.  Job was brutally honest with God and everybody around him about how unfair it was that these tragedies had hit him.

Job’s friends all wondered what he must have done to “deserve” this?  As they heard Job question and express his anger with God, they began to judge his faith and accuse him of having brought this upon himself. 

People of faith often struggle hard with WHY ME as many are taught that only good things will happen to those who believe.  Many are taught that the answer to tragedy is to deny what is actually happening to them, because if they speak what is actually happening to them, then they lack faith and they will not be delivered.  They are told to confess the opposite of what is really happening as truth or they lack faith and it will be their own fault they are not healed.

This philosophy doesn’t actually stem from faith, but rather man’s desire to be in control, which quite honestly defies the very definition of faith.  It says that we can control God and the world around us by our own actions.

This belief does not resonate with me.  I don’t believe I will be delivered from cancer or muscular dystrophy by denying it is actually happening and declaring things are actually going the way I want them go.  I don’t see God as a puppet whose strings I can pull to get what I want.  It would be nice if that were true as I would be in control and I could make it all stop.  Don’t get me wrong, the power of belief and a positive attitude are strong, so don’t read this as opposing these things.

Here is what I do believe...good things can happen to all people and bad things can happen to all people...regardless of how “good” or “bad” we are. 

I grew up watching sweet, precious, innocent children that believed in God and had never done wrong die of cancer and I have also watched uncaring people with no faith and of questionable character be healed of cancer.

I witnessed children born disabled in ways we cannot imagine, yet so many were the most beautiful, loving people I have ever met and I have also met many people born perfectly normal that suffer no health problems their entire lives, yet they were filled with hatred and completely self absorbed.

I could go on with examples, but all would lead to the same conclusion...LIFE IS JUST NOT FAIR...and our actions do not always determine the outcome.  When we accept this, we can get past WHY ME and get on to “What Should I Do Now?”

We can chose to accept that life is not fair, what is still happening is not fair, we don’t deserve it, and we can’t do anything about it...and we can decide what it is we can control and make it our reason to GET UP and move forward.

We cannot control or change the tragedy that HAS happened. Many times, as in my case, we can’t even control what tragedy IS continuing to happen.  But what we can control is HOW we go through it.

When Job finally came to grips with the fact that life is not fair, that his faith and being a Godly man would not deliver him, and he took his attention off how unfair life was and turned his attention to the needs of others, then life began to take a turn for him.

I will tell you that it is harder for me to find reason to GET UP merely for myself, even though I know I should.  Helping others in the midst of my own tragedy, that is what I find to be the most compelling reason to GET UP.  if I have to go through this, and I do, then I am going to make sure something good comes out of it for somebody.

I want to say I am truly sorry that unfair tragedy has hit you so hard.  You don’t deserve what has happened to you.  It is not fair.  I wish I could simply pray a prayer and make it all go way for you...and for me.  But here we are together. Life has knocked us down.  There is no reason for this to have happened but let’s find reason to GET UP!

You reading this blog has already given me another reason to GET UP.  Now its time for you to find your reason to GET UP.

You don’t need all the answers right now, and honestly you will never have ALL the answers.  ALL you need right now is ONE THING...ONE THING YOU CAN CONTROL...and use it as your reason to GET UP and move forward.

If you get knocked right back down, know that I did too, and I continue to get knocked down over and over again...but I also continue to GET UP and so can YOU!

You are not alone.  Let’s GET UP TOGETHER!

[tadtomaseski]

[tadtomaseski]

DOWN for the COUNT

I saw a post yesterday that said “there is no time for fear, worry, or feeling sorry for yourself when you know God has great plans for you”  This quote does not resonate with me.

I think it’s okay to be afraid.  I want you to know that I am scared.  I live with fear.  Courage is not the absence of fear or denial of your reality.  

Real courage is when you are horribly scared, wanting to lay there and not move, frozen in fear as though a giant grizzly bear is circling you for the kill...but at some point you decide to GET UP anyway and keep moving forward, even though you are scared every step of the way.  That takes courage.

So there is time for fear and worry.  But you can’t keep laying there until that fear and worry goes away, because it may never go away and that’s okay...so sooner or later GET UP anyway and go forward.  The more you GET UP and go forward with your fear and worry, your fear will control you less and the worry will move from the front of your mind to the back of your mind.

I also think it’s okay to feel sorry for yourself...for a period of time.  But sooner or later you have to GET UP anyway or feeling sorry for yourself will keep you DOWN for the COUNT. 

This part has been rooted deep in my soul from early childhood.  I was fortunate to grow up in a home where I was continually put in the presence of people less fortunate than me in so many ways.  Granted we were by no means wealthy by worldly standards.  My parents worked hard to put clothes on our back and a roof over our heads, but I never felt we lacked because I saw how many others had so much less.

I remember being in Joliet Illinois at the home of my Foster brothers biological family on Christmas Eve.  They were a family of 6 kids with a single mom working long hours for very little money, sleeping 3 to a bedroom with mom on the couch in a tiny home.  I remember each of them receiving their Christmas stocking, which was an athletic tube sock, filled with oranges, nuts in the shell and a couple small toys like what you would pick up in the dollar store today...and they were so excited and thankful to get it.

How could I ever feel as though I lacked anything?

I experienced first hand the prejudice, verbal abuse and hatred they suffered simply because of the color of their skin.  His younger brother was my best friend.  Our neighbors the Weavers were extreme racists.  The young boy and girl Weaver would do and say such cruel things to us.  When I was 11 my mom told me that we were moving and we wouldn’t have to put up with the Weavers anymore.  I said “But mom, no matter where we live there will always be another kind of Weaver.”

How could I ever feel disadvantaged?

I spent hours playing games with disabled children while we drove them to their doctors appointment.  My mom would tell me “they don’t have friends because other kids are cruel and won’t take time to know them.”  It was up to me to be their only friend.

How could I ever feel unloved?

I spent much time with incredibly beautiful children that were going through terrible cancer treatments and many did not survive.  They didn’t get to experience a love of their life, have children, or become an adult.  Yet they were so full of love and had so much fight in their spirit.

How can I ever feel I have it that bad?

So whenever I am DOWN for the COUNT...which earlier today I was down...I count my blessings.  

My cancer is not an easy one, it scares me.  It has spread to some bad areas. My treatment side effects are going to be awful, and there are no guarantees...but there are people with much worse cancer than me, going through much worse treatments, with a much worse prognosis...one I get to hug at work every day.

My muscular dystrophy scares me.  The dysferlin in my muscles continue to fail leaving the muscles in my legs, arms and lats eroding away like some creature comes at night chewing away at them from one end to the other.  But as a child I played games with a young man with a much worse form of muscular dystrophy that not only disabled him, but eventually the MD took his ability to breathe and took his life...his two brothers had the same MD and both passed away as well.

So when I’m feeling sorry for myself, i go DOWN for the COUNT...I count my blessings and that gives me strength to GET UP!

One of the greatest blessings I count is the wonderful people that I love and that love me.  If you are one of these people, thank you for giving me yet another reason to GET UP!

[tadtomaseski]

Welcome to my GET UP blog, where I am opening up about how life continues to knock me down, over and over and over again, seemingly worse and worse to the point that many times it feels hopeless and over.  I am also sharing how and why in those times I somehow manage to keep moving, find purpose, and GET UP.  Currently I am fighting squamous cell cancer that has spread to multiple areas throughout my head and neck and even possibly a secondary cancer of the thyroid.  Just this week I have started chemotherapy and radiation treatments.  

Although my cancer will serve as the catalyst for doing this blog and it will be a part of the discussion, this will not be a cancer-centric blog.  Insight for this blog will be drawn from my many life experiences as this cancer is not the first devastating blow to my life.  In just the last 7 years I have experienced the love of my life receiving a terrible, life altering diagnosis; myself being given a disabling diagnosis of a rare and untreatable type of Muscular Dystrophy; heart wrenching relational struggles that took me down the road of an extended emotional breakdown; and all this being dog-piled by the current cancer diagnosis. During this time there has also been plenty of other kicks to the head and heart from life and other people while being down on the mat and struggling to GET UP.  

To make matters worse, not any one of these tragedies were ever allowed to be over before the others happened... they just kept coming and coming and coming...piling one on top of the other.  Yet in the midst of all this tragedy I have somehow managed to GET UP, keep moving, keep finding purpose, have moments of great joy, tremendous love and laughs...while also continuing to get knocked back down over and over again.

This might all sound a bit disparaging, but I feel I have to be real, transparent, and vulnerable if this blog is going to be relevant to those of you going through similar circumstances.  I am not a motivational speaker coming to you with clever concepts I came up with to inspire you in your low times, but rather, I am a person laying on the mat across from you, both of us hit so hard we are wondering if we can GET UP or if we should just lay her and give up. 

Throughout my life I have been a “silent sufferer” and have not been open to talk about my struggles, my fears, my pain, my times of hopelessness, but rather people have only seen my seemingly optimistic spirit because I did not allow them to see the incredible struggle behind the silence.  

I find it ironic that this cancer has stemmed from a tumor at the base of my tongue, because I feel I have always held my tongue.  I have stayed silent about the struggles, but now I know in the depths of my soul that holding my tongue will help no one, including myself.  

I am hoping that the words in this blog that come forth from a broken, diseased tongue can bring hope and healing to someones soul, maybe even my own. Sometimes just knowing that we are not the only ones beaten down on the mat, knowing we are not lying down here alone, can be just enough to keep us hoping we can continue to GET UP.

If we are too proud, private, or shy to share our struggles and down times, leaving others think we are always up, then we are also leaving them to think they are alone and that there may be no hope for them to ever GET UP.  There is currently a tremendous increase in depression due to peoples social media presence making their lives seem so perfect that it convinces others that nobody has their same problems...and it just isn’t true.

I told Gina that I don’t have a choice...I have to go through this cancer.  But I do have a choice of HOW I will go through it and what the outcome of my HOW will be.  I don’t agree with the thought that God allows everything to happen for a reason.  I don’t believe God gave me or anybody else cancer or the other terrible things that happen to us in order to accomplish some divine purpose. But I do believe that my faith enables me to find purpose while going through it. My purpose is to use this struggle to help others GET UP and in turn that will also give me even more reason to GET UP.

Just before beginning to type this I was trying to cook breakfast.  I had been nauseous during the night and this morning I woke up nauseous from my chemotherapy. I quickly turned the stove off as I was overwhelmed with an urge the throw up, running and looking for something to contain it.  There I was sitting on a stool, hunched over a trash can, with nausea from my stomach into my throat, all constricting and welling up inside me...and my thought was “sit here as long as you need Tad and do what you need to do to get past this...but then GET UP and get this message out.”  So here I am.

I promise to be open and vulnerable like never before about my struggles, my fears, my time spent face down on the mat thinking “it’s all over...i’ve got nothing left in me” feeling hopeless and helpless.  It scares me to even do this, to be this transparent, to be this vulnerable.  But I feel it’s the only way I can bring any sense of purpose to this tragedy and a sense of purpose is absolutely a voice calling us to GET UP.

I will also share how, why and when I hear that voice saying “GET UP...GET UP Tad...it’s not over yet!”  I am baring my soul in hopes that somehow, someway, this blog becomes that voice to someone else, speaking to the depths of their soul ”GET UP...GET UP...IT’S NOT OVER YET!”

There may even be days when I struggle to hear the voice, and maybe...just maybe...in those moments, you can be the voice to me saying “GET UP Tad!”

Let me be clear, that despite this and the other tragedies in my life, I count myself a man blessed beyond belief.  I have such tremendous love for and from so many wonderful people.  Know that if you are one of them, you make my life blessed and you are one of my reasons to GET UP!

...more to come