The Genomic Revolution

On a day when I was home with the boys during the week Gabrielle was given her chemotherapy, I remember remarking to my brother-in-law Ben, who knows a thing or two about medicine, about how I couldn't help but foresee the medical community 50 years from now looking back on chemotherapy and cringe with a, "Oh, if they only knew that _____." While chemotherapy literally saves lives today, I think this talk is such a great eye-opener into how fast medicine is progressing right now, and it's crazy to ponder where things will be in just 15 years.

Team Gabrielle - $10,300 for canuck place!

What an absolutely amazing day I had last Sunday as the four of us competed in the Canuck Place Adventure Challenge.  A super big THANK YOU to the three girls: my sister Julie, and friends Nadia and Adrienne for sharing in this incredibly special day with me.  Thank you for organizing the t-shirts, the flashy accessories, the super awesome road bike, and for pulling me across the finish line (that trail run was a killer)!!  I loved every single minute of it!!!  I even woke up this Wednesday longing for a killer workout at Innovative Fitness with Isabelle (the best workouts ever!).

Thank you to every single person who sponsored us for this event.  I feel so lucky and blessed to have so many family and friends who are supporting us on our journey.  I've said it once and I'll say it again, Canuck Place is amazing.  As a friend put it the other day, even the people who don't work directly with the kids ooze with love and positivity.

When you've got three kids under the age of 4 with one requiring lots of attention, an event like this would be impossible to do if you didn't have the support from your husband.  Regan, thank you for knowing me so well and encouraging me to do the things I love despite our crazy-busy life at home.

The absolute best part of the race was coming across the finish line and seeing my sweet angel Gabrielle waiting for us.  Thank you Gabrielle for inspiring me and teaching me to never give up and to keep going no matter what the challenge.

Laughter #7 ~ Dance Fights

Anger sucks. I get angry, and it's no fun. People I know get angry, and it's no fun.

The thing about anger is you never feel good afterward. You feel empty, maybe guilty and almost always sad. That's probably because anger is a secondary emotion – there's always a reason why we're angry! But I guess it's easier and maybe feels better (at the time) to be angry rather than confront the source of hurt that's causing the anger.

Anger is especially awful when it leads to fights. And while I've seen many books on how to deal with anger, or how to rid your life of anger, or how destructive it is, I think if we had dance fights (like the guys below) instead of real ones, we'd feel a whole lot better.

 

Team Gabrielle Did It!

A super quick post to say that Team Gabrielle – Amy, Julie, Nadia, and Adrienne (and Brenda, too, who participated solo and won the women's race)  raised $9000+ for Canuck Place in today's Adventure Challenge, and finished in pretty pink style with Gabrielle waiting for them at the finish line. So proud of everyone!

Nadia, Adrienne, Amy, Gabrielle, Julie

Thanks to Isabelle (the super trainer at Innovative Fitness) for the pic!

End Points

I don't know why this is, but end-points provide us with us meaning and purpose.

We always find that extra something when we see the finish line in a race.

We always save the real conversations for the drive to the airport.

We're often ready to forgive an old friend for an old grudge right before they move away.

We do our best work the night before a deadline.

We have newfound patience for our kids right before they reach a major milestone in life.

We say I love you when the end is near.

We contemplate life and why we're really here when faced with death.

The funny thing is, everything ends! Everything will come to pass. From the race, to the deadline, to our last breath here on earth, everything will come and go.

I think knowing things will end is half of it. And I think remembering to remind yourself that everything ends is the other half. It makes you appreciate right now a whole lot more. It makes you appreciate what you have a whole lot more.

End-points put things into perspective. They open your eyes to what is wasteful, superficial, and unimportant, and they help you hone in on what really matters. In turn, they can also be motivating and inspiring too.

And while their realities can be down-right gut-wrenching and anxiety-causing, I have to wonder: Are the end-points themselves causing those reactions in us, or is it having to confront the illusions and fallacies of what we held to be important and true beforehand causing these reactions in us?

Well, if end-points are inevitable, you tell me.

If they're coming anyway, why wait for the arrival of an end-point to contemplate and appreciate?