Posted by rae on Jul 8, 2008 in
Mom's Corner Mike says “don’t talk about it, be about it”. Michael is a SURVIVOR. A drunken drive home changed his life/our lives FOREVER but it was no accident. There is a message, a cause, a reason that he is Traumatic Brain Injury SURVIVOR. The 5K is on!
Mark your calendars - (after we get approval)
Saturday October 18, 2008
You are a group of VERY talented people and I am humbly and respectfully asking for your help. I know nothing about planning an event of this magnitude but I am learning, thanks to Karl’s sister Ellyn. Ellyn is an event planner and has generously volunteered her services from afar to help guide the way.
Ellyn sent a packet to get things rolling and I now have 5 HUGE very detailed steps to follow to make this very important event a success. I will need your support in every way - as we get closer I’ll need your experience, contributions of service, advertising, sponsorship, we’ll need t-shirts, bib #’s, banners, fliers, posters, a DJ, in addition to Mike we’ll need a local celebrity to speak, etc., etc., etc.
BUT FIRST….we need a name for the event. What’s in a name? EVERYTHING! I’m going to start a discussion on the blog’s Forum section for your thoughts and suggestions for a name for this 5K. Mike would like to call it “The Journey of Miracles 5K” and perhaps that’s what it will be but with just a few queries on Google, we’ve seen that maybe this isn’t so original. Let’s get busy. Let’s get creative. Let’s “be about it”.
AND THEN…we need a route in the City…AND THEN… Approval …and then, and then….!
I know we can make this happen…
Sydney Gambini Jones shared a poem with Mike today that she thought was very fitting - Michael loved it and is quoting it already. Thank you for your intuitiveness Sydney.
|
Invictus
William Ernest Henley
1849–1903
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul. |
xxoo
Posted by rae on Jul 8, 2008 in
Mom's Corner I thought an explanation/disclaimer might be in order for Mike’s post that included the letter to the pastor. During church on Sunday, the pastor asked a couple of people to share their testimonies of how God had worked in their lives. At the end of the service, he invited anyone else that felt they had a testimony of God’s work to write it on one of the blue cards or send it via the MAG website. Mike announced before we even got out of the parking lot that he wanted to write a letter to pastor Scott to let him know how God had worked in him and changed his life.
We got home, I went upstairs to change clothes and by the time I got back downstairs Mike had the church website pulled up. He was trying to post but couldn’t get it to work. I sat with him and showed him that he needed to register first and then with a password could log in and post his story. Mike registered, got the password and began to type his letter. He said he wanted to tell him what had happened to him and asked if I could help fill in what he could not remember. There are times when Mike’s descriptive language is very simplistic, other times he is the language police. If there’s a better word, he’ll let you know that you “should have said” or “so what you meant to say was…” English was never his strong suit but you wouldn’t know that if you hit him on a day he has police duty.
As I gave him the details of what day, what time and so on he was quick to insert his own “proper” interpretation of what I should or could have said. He can be very serious with policing what you say and of course we tease him endlessly. He’ll rub his head and smile but doesn’t change his determination to correct you. We have a good time with it.
Like I said in my earlier post, Mike has been spending alot of time reading the postings and comments on the blog and spent about an hour Saturday afternoon on just the “we love mike” comments. Based on some of his thoughts on Sunday, I think he had realized how many people cared about him during his time of need. He read his Dad’s post just before writing the letter and had just heard the testimonies of the power of prayer at church - it was all very fresh in his mind. He worked for about 45 minutes on his own and then asked me to come help him again. My laptop can be frustrating and he was getting tired.
When I read what he had written, considering it was going to the Pastor, I thought it needed a little tweaking. His feelings/thoughts sometimes bounced around so with his help, we talked about moving some things around so they would stay in sequence and then corrected capitalization and puncuation. He knew what he wanted to say and he said it. I helped him make it pretty.
On Saturday he had talked about wanting to post on the blog so after he finished the letter to the pastor Sunday, I asked him what he thought about taking that letter and letting it speak for his posting on the blog. He thought that was a good idea…saved him from typing so much on my laptop. I changed the font to italics for the letter and he did the rest.
I thought it was important to add this detail to help you understand that although he isn’t always in touch with how he feels, there are times when he is and needs to get it out. The next time he posts, it will be straight from him to you, no help with the pretty. He doesn’t need to pretty it up for you guys - in fact he probably shouldn’t.
xxoo