Tag: inspirational people

gratitude-a-thon day 3011: a perpetual shooting star

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I just read an article in The Atlantic about one of my favorite people–Suleika Jaouad. At only 22, she was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. She began writing a column for The New York Times called Life Interrupted, about what it was like to be young, facing cancer. People connected with her, all sorts of people, and when she was done with treatment she drove across country with her dog and visited people who’d she corresponded with through her column. Then she wrote a book about it called Between Two Kingdoms and it and she stole my heart. She’s written and spoken about her health journey in many prestigious places, and married her old camp bud, super star and all around cool guy, musician, Jon Batiste. In 2021 the leukemia returned. She had another bone marrow transplant, while Jon hit mega stardom, which is beautifully illustrated (plus so much more about this miraculous being) in the documentary American Symphony, and in which they learn that she will have to have to have chemo for the rest of her life.

But she doesn’t just persist, she fucking thrives!

And this is why I follow her every move, because she is spectacularly inspiring– all HOPE AND POSSIBILITY in an “Oh Fuck” situation, a lightening bug doing the Watusi in a black-out, a solution seeker, an art maker, a life liver, a modern day Rumpelstiltskin, spinning manure into 18 karat gold.

I often think about how people presented with perfectly miserable circumstances can still wake up in a positive place finding even the most minute bit of light shining through the teeny tiniest crack. This is one of the things that most fascinates me. Obviously, it’s easy to throw up your arms, give in, allow yourself to be swallowed up by unspeakably difficult things, but those who can march their way through the combat, actually finding meaning and joy on the way, figuring out how to slay whatever beast they’re up against while still showing their pearly whites–those are the people I am in awe of.

Knowing how to live your best life even when your best life kind of sucks, takes brilliance and courage and patience and acceptance and fight and an Herculean life force. Gratitude to Suleika for being all those things plus so much more and teaching me (and I suspect a million other people) that there’s always a way to find a luminous path even in dark, black woods.

gratitude-a-thon day 1036: ISAIAH THOMAS

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Um, yeah, that about covers it.

Isaiah Thomas scored 53 points last night to shut down the Wizards.

I’m not a rabid sports fan like the rest of my ball-obsessed family, but I do get on my cheerleading spirit when the Celtics or Sox are in any kind of playoff situation, I mean before you move to Boston, you have to promise to support the hometown teams, or you have to live in Vermont.  but forget all that–FIFTY. THREE. POINTS. That’s a career high and like sort of impossible (you don’t have to be a sports freak to know this is out of the ordinary).

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But forget that. Because there’s this.

His sister Chyna died in a car accident just a few weeks ago. His 23 year old sister. And he is grieving her loss. HIS TWENTY THREE YEAR OLD SISTER DIED.

AND YESTERDAY WAS HER BIRTHDAY.

Oh, and in the last game, his front tooth got knocked out. AND HE KEPT PLAYING AND THEY WON.

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And just so you know, in case you don’t, he’s only 5’9. In the NBA, that’s like being the size of a bonsai tree.

Also, he’s only 28 years old. (At 28, I think I was still using a pacifier).

So, in this game he was contending with having had massive oral surgery all day Monday and being in major physical pain, to add to the emotional pain of having to mark his 23 year old sister’s birthday without her. C’mon. Are you fucking kidding me? (I could take to my bed just hearing this story).

Anyway, my point, is that people like this, like Isaiah Thomas, inspire me to my core. You know why, because in the face of massive amounts of shit hitting the fan, and I mean, like the empire state building of shit hitting a fan the size of toaster oven, they somehow find their inner strength. I can tell you confidently I’d be rendered useless for the rest of my whole life if my sister died. I would be in a puddle of pain and tears if you knocked out my front tooth (plus I’d be too vain to have continued playing that first game with a missing tooth–this is how I am–I know–awful, right). I would not be performing at all, let alone performing at my best.

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I love people who show me how to deal with pain. Because let’s just face it, there is pain everywhere you look in life. Not to be negative, but this is just the plain truth. It’s getting through the pain that’s the key to the castle. I watch these people. I dissect their every move so that I too can figure out how to move forward when I am stuck in the muck. These are the people I look to, people who keep going and thrive even, despite being in circumstances that should have them unhinged. Where do they pull from? How do they get through? What do they do with their pain? Looks like Isaiah put his in da basket.

Anyway, my husband has always told me that sports can teach you a lot. He would trade his impressive resume to be a basketball or baseball player in the time it takes to say “score.” He’s right (I hate when that happens).

Hey Isaiah, you’re fucking inspiring me–and teaching me–not to play basketball–to play life. Celtics pride. Boston Strong. Yup.