Community

As we finalize all of the details and planning for this weekend's Team Elizabeth Run/Walk I've found myself doing an awful lot of reflecting on community.  This past year has felt like decades to me and at the same time it doesn't always seem that long ago that I was living a life without fear or even much knowledge of cancer.  What a difference a year can make?!  Throughout this year I have learned so many things, too many to list, in fact.  But one of those things is about community.  I have realized over the year that I am a part of many amazing communities that have all come together in one way or another to support me and my family as we have ridden this ridiculous and frightening cancer roller coaster.  These communities individually and as a whole have helped me take each day one at a time and put one foot in front of the other when at times it was all I could do to stand.

This Sunday, we will be bringing together people from many of these different communities to walk, to run, to volunteer, to make a difference.  The outpouring of support for this first time event has been remarkable.  In our quest to obtain local sponsors in the town of Hull I have had the opportunity to meet some very caring, giving, and thoughtful people.  I have lived in this town for over 7 years and can't believe that it has taken me this long to meet and know these people.  We have received monetary donations, food donations, space donations.  Local businesses have posted our bright green signs in their windows and on their doors, many have signed up to walk or run and have encouraged their customers, clients, friends, and family to do so as well!  Thank you.

Which brings me to my main point about community.  Community is necessary and important but also thoughtful and kind.  If each person in this world understood that they are a welcome part of many communities, the world would be a very different place to live.  I think there would be more smiles, more purposeful acts of kindness, and a genuine gift of love from one to another.  Take a look around at your community and see how you fit into it and how you could be a welcoming member of that community.  You just might make someone's day!