Notes Left Behind

Elena Desserich



6-year-old Elena Desserich had only a few days to live and was too sick with cancer to speak, so she expressed her love for her family by hiding hundreds of love notes all over their house. Elena's parents "found the first notes in a backpack. Others were hidden between books on the bookshelf, in the corner of our dresser drawers, between dishes in the china cabinet or between photos stacked away in boxes."

The messages of love from Elena, along with a diary her parents kept for her sister Gracie, have been collected and formed into a book called "Notes Left Behind." Elena's family spoke about their experience with the Today Show


Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/28/elena-desserichs-love-not_n_336938.html&cp

www.notesleftbehind.com

Story Corp

If you haven't listened to Story Corp, you should. It's easy to forget the best in us, and what's really important. Every time I hear them, this is what I remember.


Mother Teresa once said " We cannot do great things, only small things, with great love."

Here's a few you might enjoy....


Boy Lifts Book; Librarian Changes Boy's Life


http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113357239

October 2, 2009 In 1950s Arkansas, Olly Neal didn't care much for school. Then he wandered into the library and stumbled onto a book by author Frank Yerby. The discovery changed the life of a boy who was, in Neal's memory, "a rather troubled high school senior."



A Toddler, An Open Window And An Amazing Catch


http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103418413

April 24, 2009 Marvin Goldstein was a toddler in 1945 when he fell out of a window five stories up in Brooklyn, N.Y. Fortunately for him, Sal Mauriello was there. Goldstein tells the story of Mauriello's great catch — and their reunion years later — to his son, Eric.


Memorial Day Miracle At 'The Wall'

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104389637

May 22, 2009 After his son was killed in Iraq four years ago, Allen Hoe decided to spend Memorial Day at the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C. He was not expecting to meet the nurse who tried to save his son's life.



Cancer Patients Teach Nurse Importance Of Love


http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111633198

Eleven-year-old Sarafina Viviano wants to go into the medical field when she grows up. She asks her mother, Dana Viviano, a nurse who cares for cancer patients, what she's learned from her patients and what it's like to tell someone he's going to die.

The Power of Perception

Here's an interesting read called the "Biology of Belief' by Bruce Lipton. He make the argument that perception and environment has the major role in determining your life and health as opposed to the idea the genes determine your fate.




Another gentleman who's done some great work in this same concept is Dean Ornish (check out this 5 minute talk Your Genes Are Not Your Fate & Healing

http://www.ted.com/talks/dean_ornish_says_your_genes_are_not_your_fate.html

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/dean_ornish_on_healing.html

This seems true to me, that happiness and peacefulness are our natural state. That we don't need to find it, we need to stop doing things that disturb it.

Luke Hand

Dean Kamen: New prosthetic arm for veterans

Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiJzJ771vDw

Inventor and entrepreneur Dean Camen on his work inspired by Star War's Luke hand.

Where does Hope come from?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltfc6GpLFr0&feature=related

Jon Young helps define HOPE, based on his 25+years experience mentoring & being mentored.

...the best comes from them

"Above all, don't fear difficult moments," she said. "The best comes from them."





ROME – Rita Levi Montalcini, a Nobel Prize-winning scientist, said Saturday that even though she is about to turn 100, her mind is sharper than it was she when she was 20.

Levi Montalcini, who also serves as a senator for life in Italy, celebrates her 100th birthday on Wednesday, and she spoke at a ceremony held in her honor by the European Brain Research Institute.

She shared the 1986 Nobel Prize for Medicine with American Stanley Cohen for discovering mechanisms that regulate the growth of cells and organs.

"At 100, I have a mind that is superior — thanks to experience — than when I was 20," she told the party, complete with a large cake for her.

The Turin-born Levi Montalcini recounted how the anti-Jewish laws of the 1930s under Benito Mussolini's Fascist regime forced her to quit university and do research in an improvised laboratory in her bedroom at home.

"Above all, don't fear difficult moments," she said. "The best comes from them."

"I should thank Mussolini for having declared me to be of an inferior race. This led me to the joy of working, not any more unfortunately, in university institutes but in a bedroom," the scientist said.

Her white hair elegantly coifed and wearing a smart navy blue suit, she raised a glass of sparkling wine in a toast to her long life.




Sharper at 100 than at 20, that's unusual, but I don't think it should be. What a great lady.

I'm sure we all have come to fear and despair when the moment is difficult, but this is where we can bring out the best... Or the worst, I think the choice is ours!

March Challenge

MIND
Finish reading:
Coyote's Guide to Mentoring(3 chapters left),
Guide to Connecting with Nature(2 exercises left)
Paleo Diet (still on chapter 2)
Red Cell (not started)
Added books


Fablehaven 1-3,
39 clues 1-3,
Ranger's Apprentice 6,
Um (4 chapters)
Mycellium Running (5 chapters)
Energy Work (2 Chapters)
Septimus Heap Book 1
The Last Apprentice(whole book)
Chi Running (whole book)
Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain (Reread book, have redone 5 exercises)




BODY
Continue to progress with Crossfit. (Have misses 3 workouts, all weekends)
Implement either Paleo or Zone diet.(Zoneish eating for solid 3months 80% compliance, 20% effect from delicious cakes and cookies)
Progress with Parkour basic move training - (no additional training outside of crossfit)
Progess with internal Hung Guar training, from 5 Animals 5 Elements to Hase Fu (sp?) & Iron Wire (5 Animals 5 Elements form has transitioned to ligament and structural changes to my movements, greater efficiency and sensitivity to others movement)

SPIRIT
Thanksgiving Address (every morning from Dec-present, when time crunched-performed on ride to work)
Spirit Plate - implement at every meal (only when eating alone- averaging a little over one meal a day, sometimes I get in two)
Sacred Songs, Hymms, Poems etc - research more into this fascinating and culturally diverse field. Particular attention will be paid to the Native American, Celtic, and Phillipines.(no work in this area)
Religions (read some web sites and wiki info in Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam- just general info)


Overall there's good reason for celebration! Everyone's really making great strides and more often than not we've all bit off more than we can chew. Certainly the physical accomplishments have been the most highlighted, but that's no small victory, and in truth all things are connected.

I've been given great mentors, friends and family. The gods have been very kind and the journey has been a great adventure so far. I've toiled and learned much, but much still remains to be done.
From my heart, mind, body, soul, and spirit I give thanks to everyone and look forward to the rest of our journey.

Peace