Running For Butterflies

Where I live, and probably where you live too, we are blessed to live a pretty safe existence. I can go for a 10 mile run starting at my house early on a Sunday morning and see more bunny rabbits than cars. I might have to  worry about being chased by a dog, or stung by a bee, and I do take precautions to be very visible in case there is a car out on these country roads. Real fear, real terror, however is not on my mind when I go for a run.

What happened in Boston yesterday is tragic and horrible and I don't even have the ability to describe the way it makes me feel. I am grateful to live in a place where this sort of thing is exceedingly rare.

There are others who live with the fear of not being able to walk to school without the threat of being  beaten up, blown up, shot at, or stabbed. There are those out there who here explosions daily. People live lives in which school teachers carry automatic rifles because they just might need them.

These intentional acts of terror and violence are a product of the world we live in. There is a story about this guy who, about 2000 years ago, came around and said, basically, can't you guys just love each other and take care of each other? The popular response was to torture him to death on a cross. I still find myself asking, "Can't we just love each other and take care of each other?"

I feel like I don't do enough for the world around me right now. I feel I should do more.

This is what I'm doing this week though. I'm running for butterflies.

http://butterfliesformaddie.com/Home_Page.html

Another unimaginable event. This family had a beautiful little girl. She got sick at age 6. Doctors were unsure what was wrong, then one day, just before her seventh birthday, she was having trouble breathing and her fingers were turning blue. From the emergency room the doctors decided to fly her to a hospital in Louisville. There was not room on the flight for her parents. She died before her parents saw her again.

I am sitting here typing and crying. My daughter, who is currently one year younger than Maddie was when she died is making a leash for our dog from an old tie. I cannot imagine what it would be like to lose her next year.

Maddie's family does all sorts of fund raisers to raise money and awareness about the disease that took their little girl away. Since I started running I've been running in their 5K fundraiser every year. So has my little girl.

This Saturday we run for Maddie.