Wasted

What comes to mind when you think of the word...Wasted? Time, money, energy?

When I was quite young, I realized that time was something I didn't want to waste.
I had unlimited energy to spend and if I couldn't go outside and play in the dirt, I was BORED! Now that I have two kids of my own I am starting to see this in them too.

"Please give me something to do!"

As I became a teenager it was even worse. I wasn't bored, but I wasted so much energy on doing absolutely nothing at all that I felt like I was in a coma most of the time. No wonder its hard to get teenagers out of bed in the morning, when they waste all of their energy just being idle.

Can you just leave me alone, I'm really, really........whatever!

Fortunately I jumped ship on high school and started college early where I discovered COFFEE! The late night activities that were born because of this super-power-enabling drink, like bon fires on the beach and going to Denny's at 2am to eat with friends, only led me to waste more time, money and energy.

These days I don't have time, money OR energy, but its not because I'm wasting it like I used to.

Recently I started running again and I realized right away that it takes every breath, every step and even every thought to be able to achieve the goals that I set for myself. Today as I was running my 4th mile, I saw someone I knew and shouted out to them, nearly taking the wind out of me like a punch in the stomach. I wasn't focusing on the bigger picture of completing my laps on time and as I let my voice ring out with one big shout I put myself at risk of failing my mission.

As I was running I heard this song:

I don't want to spend my life wasted...

I don't want to spend my life jaded, waiting
To wake up one day and find
That I let all these years go by wasted...

I ain't spending no more time wasted...

In order for those of us who passionatly want to see the threat of childhood cancer eliminated, in 2013 we must not let our voices be wasted for another moment. We have 100 different areas that we find ourselves working on and at least 3 we each focus deeply on, but now is not the time to stand alone trying to raise our voices, missing the whole reason we exist. (WE WANT A CURE)

 

 

The childhood cancer community has been given incredible gifts. 

Don't waste them.
Its time to find our "One Voice"

 

"A thousand prayer, a million words...but ONE VOICE was heard"

 

Watch the Truth 365 film http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oljTL1iuMmY

Run to the White House for Childhood Cancer Awareness

 https://www.facebook.com/events/129786293855902/141054956062369/

A Day of Yellow and Gold

 https://www.facebook.com/yellowandgoldforcole

 

Join Brian's Phirst Blog Exclusive Group

https://www.facebook.com/groups/132084550254587/287789378017436/
Like My Blog Page https://www.facebook.com/briansphirstblog

The Window

My son Lincoln loves to play with his toys. He plays and plays and plays and plays because he is a boy and this is the world he knows. He has Lego's and superheros and costumes to dress up in and he runs around the house flying back and forth. He hasn't been able to go outside as much in the last year during his chemotherapy, but his favorite place to play with his toys is at the window, where he can look outside and sometimes see a hummingbird or squirrel, or at night watch the bugs being zapped.

 

During Lincoln's time in the hospital in 2011 and 2012 he felt right at home, even when his port was accessed and there were tubes hanging from his chest. His window was right there and he would take his toys from his back pack and would enter into the world that only he knew.

 

There were times when he was so focused on playing at the window that you could see it on his face (and you could hear it in the incredible sound effects he can make)

 

 

Some days he would just look out the window to see what he could see, or just to let his mind wander away from the pain of the IVs and the hospital room that he was confined to.

 

Most of the time he was as happy as a boy should be...

 

 

 ...possibly even happier as he continued to crush cancer like an army of American soldiers dominating their enemies.

 

 

There hasn't been a day that has gone by that Lincoln hasn't wanted to spend time focusing in this window, knowing that his world is a child's world.

 

 Lincoln's window is a window of opportunity for normal childhood development, but his life is far from developing normally as cancer continues threaten him and thousands upon thousands of other children in this country like an unseen terrorist organization.

 

Until our country, its leaders and millions of its citizens stand up and declare the elimination of the threat of childhood cancer to our future generations, kids like Lincoln will continue to suffer and die from the number one disease killer of children.

 

 There is a window...

 

Everyday there is a window of opportunity for people to spread awareness, but one window will soon be closing, unable to be opened for another year.

 

 If we join together and put some pressure on our President, congress and senators to eliminate childhood cancer as a threat this year, we could see the beginning of the end of this monster.

 

Don't let this window close on kids like Lincoln.

 

 

Join us in our efforts to eliminate childhood cancer as a threat to all children @

 

"Journey 4 a Cure" Letter Writing Campaign

http://www.journey4acure.org/will-you-write-a-letter-to-save-kids/

"The Truth 365" Pledge

http://www.thetruth365.org/pledge/

"Run for the White House for Childhood Cancer Awareness" Join the Event

https://www.facebook.com/events/129786293855902/139166022917929/


Also check out
Subscribe to my blog page https://www.facebook.com/briansphirstblog
Follow my friend Tony Stoddard too https://www.facebook.com/yellowandgoldforcole
Follow the Journey across the country https://www.facebook.com/www.miles2give.org

A Valentine's Gift

Valentine's day is a great holiday when everyone feels the love and shares gifts with each other. This year I discovered someone who is giving something a little different than most people would expect. Instead of giving chocolate, cards or other gifts all colored in red or pink, one man is giving his miles to raise awareness for sarcoma cancer in honor of a young inspiring person who was taken too soon.
On the facebook page and website "Miles 2 Give" Landon Cooper will run from the west coast of California to the East coast with a goal of raising $100,000 for their cause.

Our country is in a battle like no other with cancer and we are pulling out all the stops in this ultimate survivor/amazing race for a cure. Please join the journey and follow Miles 2 Give in the next few months and share with your friends this young adults passion to find a cure for cancer.

Watch the Video
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152586593750319&set=vb.878860318&type=2&theater
Like the Page
https://www.facebook.com/www.miles2give.org
Website
http://miles2give.org/

Humane Society

There is no doubt you have seen or heard something about animal abuse in the news or radio lately.

There is this one news reporter in Oregon who only posts on facebook when there is a story about neglected animals. Animals are an important part of society and people take pets into their homes because they want to take care of them. Most of the time our pets become like family and when we see that their are people who don't care for animals, we call them cruel. Remember Curella Devil from 101 Dalmatians?

I don't have any animals in my life at the moment, but I did grow up with a dog or two. On Super Bowl Sunday I was at a party and I was throwing a rope to a dog when the dog accidentally bit my arm. I didn't get mad and kick the dog, I just kept throwing the rope because I like pets and I treat them like one of the kids. I appreciate people talking about animals and I see a lot of action being taken because people want to help. I don't have a problem with the humanity in this, but what I do have a problem with is...

• Cancer claims the lives of more children each year than AIDS, asthma, cystic fibrosis and diabetes combined. It is the leading cause of death by disease in children and adolescents.

• • Each year in the United States, approximately 13,500 children and adolescents younger than 20 years of age are diagnosed with cancer, that’s more than a classroom of kids a day.
• •Approximately 2,500 children and adolescents die of cancer each year.

• One out of every 300 males and one out of every 333 females in America will develop cancer before their 20th birthday.

•35,000 children are currently in treatment for cancer.
•Some 20 percent of all children with cancer die.
• The causes of most pediatric cancers remain a mystery and cannot be prevented.
•Childhood cancer does not discriminate, sparing no ethnic group, socio-economic class or geographic region.
• About one in 500 young adults is a childhood cancer survivor. Nearly 2/3 of the survivors later experience significant and chronic medical problems or develop secondary cancers as adults that result from the treatment of their original cancer.
• In the past 20 years ONLY ONE new cancer drug has been approved for pediatric cancer.
•Incidence of invasive pediatric cancers is up 29 percent in the past 20 years.
•The average age of death for a child with cancer is 8, causing a childhood cancer victim to lose 69 years of expected life years; a significant loss of productivity to society.
•Childhood cancer survivors are at significant risk for secondary cancers later in life.
•Cancer treatments can affect a child’s growth, fertility, and endocrine system. Child survivors may be permanently immunologically suppressed.
•Radiation to a child’s brain can significantly damage cognitive function, or if radiation is given at a very young age, limiting the ability to read, do basic math, tell time or even talk.
•Physical and neurocognitive disabilities resulting from treatment may prevent childhood cancer survivors from fully participating in school, social activities and eventually work, which can cause depression and feelings of isolation.
• Researchers estimate that 51% of moms and 40% of dads who have a child with cancer meet the criteria for “Acute Stress Disorder” within two weeks of the cancer diagnoses.

After reading this ask yourself, "How can our country go on like this without acting on immediately on the abuse, neglect and cruelty against our children with cancer?

How can this be humane?"

I think its time we reclaim our country as a "humane society" for our kids fighting cancer. Please act today.


Watch and Share "The Truth 365 Film" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oljTL1iuMmY
Like "A Day of Yellow and Gold to Fight Childhood Cancer"
https://www.facebook.com/yellowandgoldforcole
Join the Event "Run to the White House for Childhood Cancer Awareness"
https://www.facebook.com/events/129786293855902/134536760047522/
Read and Comment on the Huffington Post peice by Jonathan Agin
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-agin/alexis-agin-you-are-an-ir_b_2615975.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false#sb=2458792,b=facebook




Statistic from http://www.thetruth365.org/cancer-facts/

Do Something

Today has been a very difficult day already for the community of children with cancer. Just before noon I found out two children's lives had ended and now there are four who have been taken by cancers rage. January was not easy in anyway, at least 2 kids every week and many more on the brink of the unknown about if their treatments will work. September is well over, and yet to far out of reach for a cancer awareness month. There are those who still use every resource, every single day to try to advance awareness and funding, but too late for so many kids.

My son went to the ER yesterday after my daughter and I gave him our cold. His immune system is continually compromised because of the drugs that are trying to save his life from a recurrence. He is doing well now, but the families and the community are reeling from the 4 children, and possibly many more we don't know about who have passed.

All I want to say now is: "If it were your child, what would you do?"

Please,

Do something.

Thanks.

 

Read through some of my past posts and explore this blog to find out more about what can be done to save children with cancer like mine.