"Shine" ...... Keith Urban

Listen to the lyrics of this song, they're amazing. They're words that touch my soul and my heart.

Walk On

It’s now been almost two-and-a-half years since my husband, John, died as a result of suicide. And it still hurts, it still seems like it never happened, it still seems like decades ago, and it still seems like it happened yesterday. And most of all, I still miss him and wish he were here with us. But the reality is that he’s not here, so that is why I work to help others who are also hurting because they have lost a friend or loved one, who themselves suffer from depression or mental illness, and to erase the stigma associated with suicide and depression.

This year I will once again walk in the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) Out of the Darkness Walk on Saturday, October 11th. I am asking you to please sponsor me in the walk with whatever donation you feel you can afford. Every dollar helps and is tax deductible. Please follow this link to donate in John’s name and leave a note if you’d like on my donation page.

I also encourage you to forward this to any of your friends and family who you think would like to donate.

This year I am once again involved with the organizing of the Portland walk and it promises to be a wonderful event that celebrates the life of those who died as well as raise awareness and educate. The goal of this annual event is to raise funds for suicide prevention, erase the stigma surrounding suicide and its causes, to encourage those suffering from mental illness to seek treatment, and to show support for the families and friends of the 33,000 Americans who die by suicide and the 20 million people that suffer from depression each year.

Every 16 minutes someone in this country dies as a result of suicide. It is estimated that a suicide attempt is made every one minute. The 33,000 Americans who die by suicide each year is three times the number of people who die from aids, homicide, or cancer. These are completely unacceptable numbers; it means that we must do something now.

On the first anniversary of John’s death I wrote a heartfelt story of what it was like to get through that first year without him. If you would like to read it, go to my post on this blog titled 525,600 Minutes.

Thank you for your support, it means the world to me!

For a song that speaks to my heart and soul listen to the lyrics of "Shine" by Keith Urban that is posted here

I Have A Dream ... August 28, 1963

Forty-five years ago today Dr. Martin Luther King gave his famous “I Have A Dream” speech. Today Barack Obama accepted the nomination by the Democratic Party for President of the United States. Forty-five years. I’m excited that we’ve finally come to a day when equality has made this giant step. I’m also sad that it took forty-five years to get here. But I have hope that this is just the beginning and people of all races, religions, and economic status will come together and be seen as one.

I hope you take a few minutes to read all of Dr. King’s speech; it’s really incredible. This is a portion of it, probably the most famous portion, and the part that moves us the most.

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope.

This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring." And if America is to be a great nation this must become true.

So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Nothing Could Be More True....Trust Me

"It may be unfair, but what happens in a few days, sometimes even a single day, can change the course of a whole lifetime..."

— Khaled Hosseini

Oh Keith...you ARE my hero

Each time that Keith Olbermann gives one of his special comments I find myself wanting to put a blood pressure cuff on him and watch that little needle burst out of it's casing. And then I want to be there to hand him a nice strong martini.

Another great one from my little crush...."Senator, grow up!"

A Girl on Her Bike

Today I left work at noon to run a couple of errands then come home to pack for my trip tomorrow to Philly. Yes, tomorrow I get to see my beautiful kids and meet my future son-in-law! I wanted to get a head start on my day, because as Tyler puts it, I’m leaving at the ass-crack of dawn for the airport.

Have you ever known that you were supposed to be in a certain place at a certain time for a reason? Today that happened. I stopped at Nordstrom’s to say hello to a woman I know who works at the Estee counter and is a genuine sweetheart. I then started to walk down Yamhill toward Pioneer Place Mall when I crossed paths with another genuine sweetheart. Right in front of me a young woman was riding her bike and the tire caught in the MAX track and she took a spill onto the pavement, hitting her head on the curb. Several of us ran to her to help. A young man, who I later learned is a nice guy by the name of Ian and is a musician, got to her first. I asked him if she was ok and he looked up and said “no”. We got her, her bike, and her belongings off the street. Before we could even get her up off the ground, she’s holding her ear with blood pouring into her hand and she said “who needs an ear anyway?”

The people of Portland are incredible. I’ve always known that, but today was another proven example of just how wonderful they are. The top portion of her ear was torn almost all the way off and was bleeding a lot. I asked if anyone had a cloth or something to hold against it and one woman offered her sweatshirt that was in her bag. That’s amazing. I told her no, that I would run across the street to the Ben & Jerry’s to get something. As I ran in, another woman was asking for ice. The people at Ben & Jerry’s gave her a bag full of ice and a clean, white towel. The girl on the bike, Erica, refused to go to the hospital or to have an ambulance called, no matter how many of us told her she really needs to go. The reason she wouldn’t go to the hospital is that she doesn’t have any health insurance. This country is so fucked up when a 25-year-old girl rips off the top of her ear and her very first reaction is “I don’t have insurance”. She told me later that that was her very first thought when she fell. That’s unacceptable to me. We saw a police officer on his bike, flagged him over, asked him to help out. He said he couldn’t, that he’s just a bike patrol officer. I tried convincing him to please call the department and see if an officer would drive her to the emergency room, that none of us had a car. He again said he couldn’t do anything. Erica asked if there was a free clinic. Finally, something that officer could do….radio whomever and ask for the address of the nearest free clinic. Wow. I called the police non-emergency number and explained the situation only to be cutoff and told I needed to call 911. So, that’s what I did. And guess what I get? That damned automated voice that said, “if this is a 911 emergency please say 911 after the beep”. A woman standing there just laughed, she was as astounded as I was. I explained the situation and the operator was very helpful; she said she would send the fire department to look at Erica. What showed up were four of the hottest firefighters I’ve ever seen. And one of them was the tallest guy I’ve seen in a really long time. When I say they were hot, I mean they were HOT. Oh to be in my 20’s again. And they were quite smitten with Erica. Who wouldn’t be, she’s such a sweet girl and all through this, she was so strong and had us laughing. As Ian said, you know the true person when you see how they react to situations like this.

Ian was so nice, he poured water from one of the water bottles that the firefighters gave Erica onto the towel and proceeded to wash the blood off her hand, arm and face. It was very touching to watch him. He told us he was “kind of drunk” and that made us laugh. I asked him what he was like sober if he was this nice when drunk. His answer…”I’m even nicer”. Ian and I sat with Erica until her friend came to pick her up and take her to the hospital. Yes, we, along with the hot firefighters, convinced her that she needed to get to the hospital. While waiting we exchanged phone numbers, Ian’s MySpace address, and Erica and my blog URL’s. Erica smiled that wonderful smile of hers and said “now we’re all friends!”

She just called me to let me know she’s home from the hospital, they were able to save her ear by stitching it back into place. And the plastic surgeon that was there for her is the best ear doc in town, that he’s the one people call when they need work on their ears. And that’s good because Erica said “and I had such cute ears!” Now she will continue to have cute ears.

This incident today has two lessons: 1) wear a bike helmet, and 2) elect politicians who will actually make it possible for everyone, no matter how much or how little they have, to be blessed with having the very best healthcare in the world. Because it pisses me off that the first thought in someone’s head when they’re hurting is “I don’t have healthcare”.

But today also showed the level of concern and caring of people and what they will do for a stranger. And that makes me all warm inside.

Flugtag...Portland Style

Portland certainly knows how to have fun. Yesterday was the Red Bull Flugtag in Portland and 80,000 people came to the waterfront as well as line the Hawthorne bridge to watch 31 teams "fly" into the Willamette River.

The opening show had three people parachute from a helicopter over the river and land on the runway of the Flugtag ramp. Teams of five people build a flying machine, put on a short skit or dance as part of their theme, then one jumps into the seat while the others push them down the runway and off the 25-foot ledge in hopes of flying over the water. Most crash immediately into the water as the crowd cheers. Just one more reason why I love Portland.

Freekibble...feeding homeless dogs and cats

www.freekibble.com

You really need to take a look at this website. What an amazing young girl. You can go to the site daily and play a trivia game; answer one question and whether you’re right or wrong, 20 pieces of kibble will be donated. There’s a separate game for dogs and cats and just since April 2008 more than six million pieces of kibble have been donated to local shelters. The following text is taken from Mimi’s website…

Mimi Ausland, a 12 year old girl from Bend, Oregon, wanted to help feed the hungry dogs at her local animal shelter. "There are 10's of thousands of dogs in animal shelters across the country, all needing to be fed a good meal." Say hello to freekibble.com! And now it's time to feed the cats too!

Freekibble.com's primary mission is to provide good, healthy food to dogs and cats to those shelters who are working so hard to see that none of them go hungry - they need our help. We'll continue to provide free kibble to the Humane Society of Central Oregon and now we're expanding to add more shelters in need of free kibble. Furrytale Farms on Bainbridge Island is next!

Zootoo.com has very generously committed to helping Mimi succeed and is partnering with freekibble.com to donate and distribute the kibble to all the hungry dogs and cats.

We also want to make it easy and fun for you to help provide free kibble by playing the Trivia game - and we hope you learn a few interesting things about dogs and cats along the way. Thanks and enjoy!

Bob Dylan-It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)

A song that is more than 40 years old and it's giving us the exact same message today. What a shame.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

The History of Father's Day

Sonora Dodd of Spokane, Washington, conceived the idea of Father’s Day while she listened to a Mother’s Day sermon in 1909. Dodd wanted a special day to honor her father, William Smart, a widowed Civil War veteran who was left to raise his six children on a farm. A day in June was chosen for the first Father’s Day celebration - June 19, 1910, proclaimed by Spokane’s mayor because it was the month of Smart’s birth. The first presidential proclamation honoring fathers was issued in 1966 when President Lyndon Johnson designated the third Sunday in June as Father’s Day. Father’s Day has been celebrated annually since 1972 when President Richard Nixon signed the public law that made it permanent.

My father loves telling this story…

“When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.” – Mark Twain

Happy Father’s Day, Dad. I love you. And I never thought you were ignorant. Granted, there were times in my teens when I thought I knew better (especially when it pertained to fashion or to boys), but I always knew you were a smart guy.

This is a photo of my dad, Maurice "Mo" Leyrer, with my niece and nephew, Anna and Jackson Percy.