People Who Inspire Me

With a passing comment in one of her Facebook posts, Dee said something about "people who inspired her", and it suddenly rang loudly and true in my creative head. I'm going to try and write a series of posts about this very topic... people famous and unknown.

There seems to be so much negativity going around... this might be a little way to spread a bit of positiveness.

Plus, it'll be another way for me to try and get past this current creative 'brain fog' I'm experiencing.

Oh... and I'm not 'obligating' myself to do this... it's only for a bit of creative fun - and keeping things positive.

"People inspire you, or they drain you. Pick them wisely".

Posts in this series include:

• Jordan Vincent & family

Guess who turned 25 years old?! YAY!

• A selfless gift from a child to a child 

• Twins 

• A great response to sibling bullying 

• Grandpa Dobri 

Bookmark this page: People Who Inspire Me

Also: Inspire

Peas be with ewe 
Mal

Inspiration

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Peas be with ewe 
Mal

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A Great Response to Sibling Bullying

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"Agony Aunt" launches tirade at "an awful person"

(Source)

A woman who wrote syndicated advice columnist Amy Dickinson of “Ask Amy,” seeking advice for a problem she was having with her sister, received a brutally honest response (cf. below!) when Dickinson called the letter writer a “horrible person.”

“I’ve been pretty amazed by the public’s reaction to this letter,” Dickinson, who replaced Ann Landers at The Chicago Tribune in 2003, tells Yahoo Shine. “And I’m excited that it’s generated conversation about how bullying is a problem, even among siblings.”

The woman, who signed her letter “Sad Sister” wrote to Dickinson explaining that she excluded her sister, “Wendy,” from family functions and didn’t understand why her sister would be offended by the slight. Here is the letter:

"Dear Amy: Every fall, my sister, cousins and a cousin’s sister-in-law have a weekend shopping excursion in our home city. We stay in a hotel, treat ourselves, shop for our children and go out for lunches and dinners. It is a great time to reconnect. I have a sister 'Wendy,' who we do not invite. 

"She is offended to the point of tears when she finds we have not invited her. My two sisters and I are very close in age, but Wendy hasn’t been as close to this set of cousins as my sister and I have been through the years. We are all married stay-at-home moms. Wendy is a divorced, working mom with one young child. 

"There are several reasons we do not include her. We know she doesn't have very much money for such an outing. She also does not have many of the same interests as we do. Her life is quite different from ours. We’re not interested in what she has to talk about. She complains too much about her aches and pains, and claims to have some kind of neurological disease that some of us feel is more psychosomatic than real and which she uses to avoid getting up for church on Sundays. 

"She also complains about her ex-husband who left her for another woman, but everyone knows it takes 'two to tango' and she is not without fault. 

"We’re all very active churchgoers, while she only sporadically attends services. Plain and simple, she does not really fit in with us anymore. 

"She takes it very personally, and last year even came over to my home unannounced crying about it, which upset my children and caused my husband to threaten to call the police if she did not leave. 

"Now she barely speaks to me and has told our relatives that I am a horrible person (even though I’ve helped her). 

"How can we get her to understand that she should perhaps find another set of friends whose lives and interests align more closely with hers? — Sad Sister"

Then came Dickinson’s (awesome) response:

"Dear Sad: First, let’s establish that I agree with your sister: You are a horrible person. Obviously, you can do whatever you want and associate with — or exclude — whomever you want, but you don’t get to do this and also blame the person you are excluding for not 'fitting in.' 

"The only way your sister would ever fit in would be for you to make room for her. You are unwilling to do that, and that is your choice. But her being upset is completely justified, and you’ll just have to live with that. 

"Perhaps this is something you could ponder from your church pew, because despite your regular attendance, you don’t seem to have learned much."

From the series "People Who Inspire Me"

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Peas be with ewe 
Mal

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Inspired by Twins

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Twin carries injured sister across the finish line.
(Source)

Twin sisters Chloe and Claire Gruenke might have come in last place in their recent track race, but they deserve a medal anyway for the inspiring way they made it across the finish line.

The 13-year-old girls, both eighth-graders from Trenton, Illinois, were competing in the 800-meter race at the Southern Illinois State track meet on May 10, when Chloe took a tumble, according to KTVI, a local news affiliate in nearby St. Louis.

"I felt something pull and pop in my thigh and then around the first curve on the second lap it just hurt too bad and I couldn’t go anymore so I just fell to the ground,” she explained in an interview with the station.

"But she didn’t stay there long. Instead, Claire pulled her sister on to her back and carried the injured twin for the remaining 370 meters all the way to the finish line.

Twins have a special bond, of course, but Claire simply says her motivation for the move was “love and sportsmanship.” Piggybacking a human of equal size and weight isn’t easy, but she credits the roaring crowd for the surge of energy she got.

Of those supporters cheering in the crowd was the girls' father, Doug Gruenke. He tells Yahoo Shine that he knew that Claire wouldn’t leave her sister, and her actions didn’t surprise him, but he didn’t know if she would be able to carry Chloe the whole lap around the track to the finish line.

Coree Waltering, one of the twins’ coaches at Wesclin Junior High School, calls the good deed a “happy coach moment.” Another coach, Ted Crail, is thankful he happened to be wearing sunglasses because there were definitely tears in his eyes.

And making Claire’s feat even more impressive, she was already exhausted from running a 5:23 mile that earned her the title of Southern Illinois Junior High School Athletic Association Mile State Champion in her age group.

Once they finished, Chloe got checked out by a trainer (her father says that she’s doing much better now, her muscle is strained and she’s taking it easy), and Claire found a Gatorade and gave it to Chloe.

“They always look out for one another,” Gruenke says. “So this was just a great example.”

From the series "People Who Inspire Me"

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Peas be with ewe 
Mal

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Inspirational

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(From the series "People who inspire me")

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Peas be with ewe 
Mal

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People Who Inspire Me - Jordan Vincent

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Jordan Vincent and her family - Larry, Jeanette & their son, Luc

I can only write but these simple words, to try to portray someone, and a family, who are an absolute inspiration to me, despite the horrendous situation they continue to experience.

Jordan has been battling brain cancer since the age of four. Now 15, she has constantly shown to everyone, her gritty determined (almost stubborn) resolve to "Slay" this beastly cancer, to the pride, and sometime astonishment, of her family.

They don't nickname her "The Slayer" for nothing.

From California USA, I first heard about Jordan thru her dad's blog, about 5 years ago. I immediately had a sense of 'connection' somehow - simply from one father to another.

How both Larry and Jeanette (mum'n'dad) can hold themselves together sometimes, is simply beyond my comprehension. I wholly appreciate they must have private times when they simply break down and sob into each others arms. I cannot begin to imagine the unfathomable angst, having a young daughter experiencing all that she has gone thru.

The very fact that they have - is an inspiration to me.

Even her older brother, Luc, loves and cares for his kid sister - in simple ways that show me, despite the classic 'niggling sibling rivalry' here and there (all in lighthearted fun) - that he really appreciates the angst of the whole situation for everyone in their family. It cannot be easy for any of them.

The 'glue' that seems to bind them together is Jordan's resolve, her positiveness, her simple acceptance.

She is a legend, a slayer - and a personal inspiration. Words, alone, cannot express...

Here's a small sample of how she brightens everyone's world...

Her dad writes:
"Can you believe she had neurosurgery yesterday?? So amazed by her! Celebrating. http://t.co/tX1dKhDluf "
"Here you go. Here's how 'The Slayer' views the world. Given that she has a big patch of hair missing on the back of her head, and a big scar to match, we asked is she wanted us to dig out all of her beautiful scarves and maybe start rocking them until the hair grows back. She said, "no, I think it's fine just as it is." We told her that was cool, too. We just didn't want her to feel self-conscious at school. She said, "why would I be self-conscious? People have to look at my face to talk to me." "

Thank you.

(All pics by Larry Vincent)

(From the series "People who inspire me")

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Peas be with ewe 
Mal

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