I'm appreciating the little things today

You know when you are mindlessly going through your life just waiting for the day to end and you can put the kids to bed and hunker down to watch t.v.? When you have been running around all day getting things done, and yet you feel like you have done nothing?  You know those days, when your hubby and your kids make you so mad you just want to scream? You know those days when nothing seems to go right?

Well, today I am appreciating those days.  I am lucky and fortunate to be able to run around and do things.  I am lucky to be here with my kids everyday, and jump in my car to pick them from school, or drop them off at an event or friends house. Or drop their lunch at school cause they forgot it... again.

Let me tell you why...

Those who know me in real life, will have heard me speak of my friend Tracy.  Tracy and I met in 1995 when we were both in our first "real" job after college and university.  She was the first person that introduce herself that fateful day in May of 1995. She sat at the next cubicle beside me.  We started each morning with a chit - chat about the previous evening or the weekend.  That summer we spent a lot of time hanging out together. I remember that she came out drinking with my roommate and I, and then slept over that night, with a couple of cats sleeping by her pillow.  The next morning I noticed eyes red and swollen, and her face blotchy and red, and she told us she was allergic to cats.  Oooops! We laughed about it, cause she couldn't have driven home anyways. That summer she nominated me for Social Committee member,  and then appointed herself as "campaign manager".  Little did I know what that meant.  She then arranged the Communications/Marketing Dept guys to scan a picture of me and embed the song "Dancing Queen" into an e-mail, that was then sent to every employee in the company (I am not sure if the President got it too or not).  I didn't make it on to the committee but I did end up meeting my future husband.

Tracy and I met our husbands at around the same time.  We had our children at around the same time too.  She has a 13 year old, 11 year old and 6 year old.  Heck, we even got our first dogs at around the same time.  Our Muskoka passed away in October of 2009 and Sonoma (her girlie) passed away the summer of 2010.

Tracy and I have worked together many times since that first job in 1995.  She and her former husband started their own financial company and about 1 year later hired me as Business Development Coordinator.  Those were some really fun times.  We got to travel to Whistler together, and dine at some fancy schmancy restaurants.  Tracy bought me my first Coach purse, my first overnight Coach bag, my first Salvatore Ferragamo wallet and a Tiffany bean bangle.  (I should mention that those are my only Coach, Ferragamo, and Tiffany items I own).

In the last couple of years, I became Tracy's virtual assistant.  She says I was the only person she trusted to deal with certain aspects of her life.  I valued that trust that she placed in me. Every time tax season rolled around, I would get a frantic call from Tracy asking me to make my way to Toronto (two hours away for me) to help her with her taxes.  I always did.  The last time I saw Tracy was last May.

Let me tell you why I'm appreciating my life today.

On Sunday, September 4th, while training for a bike race in Collingwood, Ontario, Tracy crashed her bicycle at very high speed and sustained a traumatic  neck and spinal injury.  She broke her neck between C3 and C4 vertebrae severing her spinal cord.  She is paralyzed from the neck down.  Her injuries are comparable to those that Christopher Reeves sustained.  As of today, the doctors are getting her to breath on her own.

She is in a fight for her life. And she has one heck of climb ahead of her.  She is one of the strongest women I know, and I believe that she will keep on fighting.

Tracy is a single mom of three young boys with no financial support from her ex husband.

If you would like to help her financially or to read more about her fight you can go here. (you might need to set-up an e-mail and password).

I am appreciating every step I take today, and cuddle I give my kids.

Won't you join me in sending her healing light, strength and a little prayer that she has the strength to make her way back home to her boys.  And to give her strength to NEVER give up no matter how hard the next few months, years will be.

Thanks for reading .