What I Didn't Know: 2013 Edition
I don't know if this has ever happened to you, I suspect that it has... I thought that I stretched myself too thin.
I've spent the last few months thinking that I needed a break, but recently I realized that what I really needed was to keep going. I heard someone say recently that you know when things are going good for you when you don't have any time to enjoy them. That when you have time to sit back and smell the roses... the roses are just about to die, and if you let that happen... they don't ever bloom the same way again. That sentiment pretty much sums up my year and it's message to keep planting roses makes a lot of sense to me.
I've spent these last few weeks trying to have it all, I wanted the roses and the time to smell them, but you know what, it doesn't work like that. The joy comes from planting, tending and nurturing the roses. The energy to do it all again, that comes from watching others enjoy them.
It took me a while to figure out how to make my new life fit into our day, but I I have it now, I know what to do. Before April of 2012 I had a system and it worked, but when I decided to write my book I added a lot of new moving parts that at times were overwhelming. All of the rest of my life still existed, but suddenly I had a lot more responsibilities and I wasn't always able to balance them with my existing life. Now that I've lived through all of this, I have a much better plan for moving forward - a new attitude of sorts. It's time to pull a few things off of the back burner and get them front and center where they belong and time to see what else lies ahead of me. For the first time since I started writing Life Is Short, I understand how to do that. I understand that I have to stop smelling the roses so I can plant more, so that others can smell them... because that's who I am.
First up, Arden's Day Gives. I admit it, I couldn't simultaneously learn about starting a charity and write a book for the first time. I tried, but the burden of that froze me last year and so I pushed the charity's 501c3 paper work to the side. Know that my decision to do that broke my heart, but moreover, I was embarrassed to not have the ability to accomplish both. What hurt most was that I could tell it was an obtainable goal that I lacked the knowledge to obtain.
Arden's Day Gives is my start up charity whose goal is to help offset the cost of insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitors for children who want but can not afford them. It's in it's infancy, incorporated with the state but not yet a 501c3. This Friday night a few of my friends are holding a Beef and Beer to help support their softball team and ADG. So, if you are in the Bucks County PA area and want to help some aging guys play competitive softball while helping to get Arden's Day Gives off the ground, I have the beef and beer for you!
Moving forward for the rest of 2013 and beyond... Arden's Day Gives is getting going, I'm writing another book and rededicating myself to getting the laundry folded on the day that it comes out of the dryer. Armed with the benefit of this past year's wonderful life lessons, it's time to put what I've learned to good use. I can't wait to see what happens next and I can't wait to find out what else I don't know - so I can keep growing.
4 am Scavenger Hunt
I'm not embarrassed to tell you that more than a few times a year I fall sound to sleep on our sofa while trying to watch television at night. I am however embarrassed to admit that a handful of those times I am so stone cold tired that my wife can't wake me up to go to bed. This is apparently my signal to Kelly that I need a night off from BG patrol and she always, no matter how tired she may be, picks up the reigns and carries on.
One thing these nights seem to have in common, I always wake up a bit disoriented around 4 am, usually with pillows pilled on top of me acting as a blanket.
Last week when this happened to me I woke on schedule around 4 am, stumble to the second floor and went directly to Arden's room to check on her. I picked up her DexCom, saw that she needed a small temp basal and reached for her bag but it wasn't where I expected it to be. I found my phone, realized I didn't have a flashlight app and proceeded to download one from the App Store.
This is the exact moment when all of this would get funny
There I was standing in the doorway of Arden's room, leisurely browsing the flashlight apps because I didn't want to download one that I would regret later - which is of course ridiculous. My hair was standing straight up, my shorts were twisted about 180º counterclockwise around my waist and I was incredibly thirsty, but in my exhausted daze I couldn't let go of the feeling that I didn't want to download an inferior flashlight app. This process took a few minutes and then I set out, armed with my new flashlight, to find Arden's bag that holds her OmniPod PDM, MultiClix lance, test strips and all of the rest.
I quick scan told me that it wasn't in her room, "must be with Kelly" I thought. It wasn't. So I headed back to the first floor where I finally found Arden's bag under a pillow on a chair in our living room. I walked back upstairs, opened the bag and found that it only contained test strips. I laughed to myself and I made my way back downstairs. I won't bore you with every detail of the next twenty minutes but sufficed to say that the contents belonging in that bag could not have been more spread out throughout our home.
Our poor dog Indy looked quite cross when I finally gave up on my new flashlight app and turned on all of the lights in the living room. When I finally set the temp basal rate and went to crawl into my bed, I realized that I never folded the laundry that I put on the bed earlier in the day. One more trip around the second floor netted me a laundry basket large enough to hold the clean clothes... and I was finally off to dreamland.
If only I wasn't wide awake from my scavenger hunt...
Video: Diabetes Hands Foundation Interview
It was my very sincere honor to be asked by the Diabetes Hands Foundation to participate in a live interview with their very own Emily Coles... We spoke about many type I diabetes issues, I made some bad jokes, Arden even made a couple of cameo appearances... I hope that you have time to check it out.
Suite D
Suite D is a diabetes blog that is owned and operated by Insulet, the makers of OmniPod. I was compensated for my writing but please know that I was not asked, nor would I ever let this effect my opinions about the OmniPod insulin pump. Arden's Day and the relationship that you and I have together means far more to me than any freelance writing work. You can always trust that I am giving my honest opinions whether you hear my words here or somewhere else. Your safety, my integrity and the sanctity of the diabetes online community are paramount in my mind, always. I hope you enjoy the series!
Today is Arden's 9th Birthday
Nine years ago today my amazing wife Kelly gave birth to our second child, she was the most perfect little girl that I had ever seen. A few days later, we brought her home where she and her brother Cole promptly fell to sleep together on our sofa. I couldn't imagine then, as I was taking what would soon become on of my favorite photographs in the world, just how much her presence in our lives would touch our family.
Since that day my children have shown me parts of life, the world, and of myself, that I didn't see before they arrived. These things were always there, yet somehow invisible to me. I never knew how much joy my heart could hold, how much pain I could withstand, I didn't realize the depths of the human spirit or how vast my own potential was.
And I didn't know what that word 'love' truly meant or how it's power would touch my soul...
Happy Birthday Arden!