Today I woke up, remembering where I was 10 years ago ..... remembering that my 10 year old was just 5 months old .....watching is dismay glued to a television and watching the 2nd tower hit .... crying and walking Christian and looking to the sky empty ... no sound in the air ... no streams of smoke from endless airline flights .... the world changed .... I ran across a teen girl fighting cancer and her blog and I needed to share with you what she wrote today ..it encompasses my personal thoughts and she is fighting cancer herself, what a beautiful brave child to write such a profound entry ....

(This photo to the right is the writer in 2008)

On any day our lives can change.

At any moment, our lives can change.

On this day of remembrance, ten years after 9/11, I feel sorrow.  As television stations show news clips of the destruction of the World Trade Center again and again, all I can think of are the lives. I think of the lives lost and the lives that have been drastically changed by the catastrophe.

In the senseless violence of these acts of terror, I find myself asking, “What can I learn from this?” The answers spin around in my head, making me dizzy. There is so much to learn from this. What I am learning from this is not complex, but plain, simple truths…

—We are mortal.

—Our time here is short.

—Since our time here is short, we have no time for hatred.

—Our purpose here is not to gather and “get”, but to seek out and give.

—What The Media World tells us is important means zippo in the Great Scope of Life.

—We need to love deeply, fully, holding nothing back at all.

(This photo to the right is the writer a year after diagnoses 2009) My heart is with the suffering—those who are grieving a loss– those who are fighting for their lives– those who are helping loved ones fight for their lives. With everything in me, I want to be a building block for change that will relieve suffering.  I want to notice when people suffer and not turn away.  I want to be grateful for all of the people who give me love. I want to be especially grateful for those who are close to me; the people who will always and forever love me unconditionally.

I feel that sharing in the suffering makes us more Heart Aware.  There is a love I have inside me that comes straight from the pain of caring. I would not trade this love for anything.

Please don’t be afraid of the pain of caring; it is great nourishment and terrific exercise for our hearts.

… never forgetting…

--- Melinda Marchiano


I look at this precious girls life and it puts life into persceptive even more than I already thought it did seeing who she was and now even more - how beautiful she is today - now more than ever ....