Can someone cure cancer already?!

Don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today.  Tell the ones you love that you love them every time you see them.  Life is short.



How many phrases can I think of to describe what is going on in my world right now?  My precious beautiful friend from my youth has died.  Cancer has taken a bright light and extinguished it. Cancer sucks.



I met Stephanie in middle school.  Stephanie was my friend.  I called her Stepherdee.    She was kind. She was good.  She was all the positive adjectives.  She took great pride in lifting others up even above herself.  There are not many left in this world like Stephanie, and cancer just took her away.


I knew that Stephanie was sick.  I had gone to one of her doctors appointments to see her face to face because as life happens she and I had lost touch.  We would text or talk on the phone intermittently but as far as seeing her on a daily basis that had ended in high school almost 27 years ago.  Where on earth did 27 years go? 


My daughter has a friend that is Stephanie like in nature.  Mackenzie is always kind, always happy, always loving and there when you need her.  I told my 13 year old daughter that my friend Stephanie had died and my daughter didn't understand how I could be so upset when she didn't even know her.  I said Stephanie is my Mackenzie, only we didn't keep in touch after we got out of high school. 


Friendships are integral in your development!  Learning give and take, learning to put someone else above yourself, learning that you are not the center of the universe.  I feel like this world has many things wrong with it and one of which is that we have lost the ability to learn how to be a friend.  We are so quick to jump in and "fix" conflicts that our children have with other children and  this impedes their social development.  We sit behind little screens throwing out comments with no regard for how our words will make someone else feel.  We do not look at the big picture only at how the situation effects us, and most times it isn't about us. 


I found out that Stephanie's situation was dire when I was sick.  I didn't want to go visit her being sick because I was holding on to the fact that of course she would kick this and I didn't want to get her sick and hurt her already compromised immune system.  I didn't go.  I didn't do a million things I would have loved to have done for her and now she's gone, and I can't. 


Do not wait to do a good deed because you have all the time in the world, because you don't.  Be intentional in your friendships be a helpmate and support to those around you. 


Proverbs 27:17 As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. 


Rest in peace sweet Stephanie.  You ran a good race!