Singing together makes everything better

Most of the news I share with you is from somewhere far far away from me. A lot of times it’s from all the way across the world from me. But the story I’d like to tell you about today is from right around the corner from me. Houston.

We’re 52 miles west of Houston. We rarely go into the city though. It’s so big and so many people everywhere. And a few of the places are a little on the scary side if I’m to be completely honest.

When my oldest daughter was just an infant we had quite the medical scare. We ended up driving like maniacs in the middle of the night into Houston to Texas Children’s Hospital. Christina was three months old and very sick. I was 23 and very scared.

The doctors there were extremely nice. They did everything they could to make both of us comfortable. Christina ended up having to have a spinal tap. If you’ve never witnessed that, I can tell you it’s frightening. They use the biggest needle I’ve ever personally seen. They have to get it just right, exactly in between the disks in your spine to remove some of the fluid to test. They thought she had meningitis. Thankfully she didn’t but I’ll never forget how the doctors at Texas Children’s Hospital did everything they could to solve and fix her issues.

And I’ll never forget their kindness. Everyone associated with the hospital was so caring and so gentle. I appreciated that so much. Now the hospital is in the news for their caring, kind ways.

The story was specifically about the Cancer Center at the hospital. It’s the number one pediatric cancer center in Texas and number three in the entire country. That makes me proud.

Now, thanks to donations and Anita Kruse, the Cancer Center offers the chance for terminally ill children to forget about their illnesses for a little while. Anita started a recording studio in the hospital where she and other staff members and volunteers help the children to write and record songs about important things in their lives.

One young lady named Jalen Huckabay wrote about her dog Jasmine or Jaz for short. Shy and unsure of herself, she quickly gained confidence once she realized she was actually writing the song just by talking about her much loved pup.

Anita is a Houston resident who sings and writes music professionally. After speaking a few minutes with Jalen, she hears the song in the young girls loving words and writes it in her notebook as they talk.

Jalen smiles as the first verse is read back to her. “MYD is my yippin’ dog. Got her last Christmas on the 23rd. We call her Jaz. She’s the Yorkie we chose. We dress her up in Build-A-Bear clothes.”

The project is named Purple Songs Can Fly and relies heavily on donations. All donations are tax deductable. I have a feeling a lot of people would donate even if they weren’t tax deductable. I know I will. It’s definetly worth it.

Read more about Jalen Huckabay

Read more about Purple Songs Can Fly

Read more about Texas Children’s Hospital

Read more about Texas Children’s Cancer Center & Hematology Service

Which one are you?

There are a lot of different people in the world. Some are strong and reliable. Some are weak and unreliable. It seriously blows my mind (to steal a catch phrase from the 60’s) how many different forms of strength walk this earth.

The strong build lives that are good and right. They stand up for the weak. They never follow the crowd. They are leaders.

My father was a leader. He never settled for anything until it was what he wanted it to be. If we were hungry, he found a way to feed us. If he had to roll up his sleeves and dig a ditch in 110 degrees to put that food on the table, he did it. He never complained. That wasn’t his style.

And he was disgusted by weakness which is probably where I got it from. It literally makes me sick to my stomach to witness weak people following others because they can’t do anything on their own. I’m not talking about misfortunes. Don’t get me wrong there. I feel sorry for people that are having a hard time in life. As long as they are working on improving it.

It’s the ones that sit back and complain about all the bad but never get off their butts to fix it. You know someone like this I’m sure. It seems like they’re everywhere I look.

And the worst ones latch on to anybody they think will carry them along for a little while. Oh, everybody likes them, I think I’ll just agree with everything they say… I try not to hate, but I do hate that. To me it says you aren’t worth the effort it would take to try to explain to you why that’s wrong in the first place.

I don’t know what my point is exactly, except maybe to say don’t be weak. Don’t be a follower. Stand up and be strong. Ultimately it will pay off in your favor. Life is so much better as a leader. I promise.