The Beautiful, The Happy, The Noble and The Abused

Yes, I need a non-rain day and some gardening tools!

The Beautiful

Preferably, that non-rainy day is sooner than later. I have ragged weed-rose stalks and dead leaves strangling the flowers in my back flower bed. But the crocuses are still beautiful, blooming in spite of them. It’s still MY flower. It blooms despite adversity. Abundance of snow? The crocus still grows, little green shoots waiting to be discovered as the snow melts. Snow on it again? The crocus still blooms. Cluttered area filled with obstacles and the crocuses still fill-in and burst with color. That’s me. Sometimes I feel the challenges are so cumbersome I’m smothered in snow like my calls will never be heard. Sometimes I just cry like I’ve been covered with snow again. And sometimes I just see the defeating clutter of difficulties all around me. But I force myself to learn, to grow and choose to bloom. I love my crocuses because they are my spirit-flowers.

Here are a couple closer looks at out fashion colors this year:

Bright yellows

The paler purples inside the purple and white striped petals

The Happy

Yesterday was a beautiful day, although it was still cold in the morning when I was waiting for the bus to take me grocery shopping. In the late afternoon it was a bit warmer, mid-60s, so I could got out to get the mail without the need of a coat over my sweatshirt. I’d opened up the front door so the cats could look out the “tall screen TV” so I took my camera with me to get a picture of them from outside. Trouble was that when I went around to the front of the house there were no cats in the door! I got the mail and came back in the back door. I went in door one onto the porch an locked it behind me. When got to the top of the porch ramp I looked in the double door window, where I usually see Marco waiting, and saw all three of the kids waiting to get onto the porch! I opened the door and Marco and Kaline went right onto the porch. Carla is a little more skittish about the power chair so she went out as soon as I was in.

Kaline by the door to outside

Carla on top of the cat tower

Marco was trying to get into the Christmas tree box and I didn't get a picture of him!

It was fairly warm on the porch and the fresh air outside smelled so good, I left the doors open until it got chilly later in the evening. Ahh, Spring!



The Noble

My fundraising for Walk MS is going slower this year, but I really thought it might. Walk is also later this year so maybe there will be more donations closer to the date.

http://walkoha.nationalmssociety.org/goto/nani

My battle cry this year is EVERY DOLLAR IS HUGE. And it’s true! As I’ve said before, you never know which dollar will be the last one needed to help someone with MS afford a wheelchair or other assistive device, afford their medication or fund the nominal amounts we use to facilitate our self-help support groups. You could be donating the dollar that will complete funding for research that will diagnose the disease sooner or before the symptoms start to tear someone’s world apart. You could send a gift that contains the dollar that will by the last test tube that will unearth the cure. Even if it’s not that celebrated final dollar, the dollars underneath it are essential for that dollar to ever exist. See? Every dollar really is huge! If you can afford to even drop a cup of good coffee and a muffin, $5, it helps, it adds up.

If you want to repost my Walk MS link in your social media or even email signature, please accept my gratitude big time and copy and paste anything you’d like!

 

Click photo to donate

If we reach goal we'll turn off the account

 

I’m still working on fortifying that GoFundMe account for Sheri. I wish I could personally do more. Looking at it now I wish I’d chosen a different funding site than GoFundMe, there are others out there.

The Abused

I’ve seen GoFundMe abused too much. Most recently and notably a fund set up by someone to buy a man a car because he was walking to work ended up with him refusing 2 cars offered because he wanted a different one and now he has financial advisers because, with some media attention, he got way more than he needed for a car and kept all of it.

I have an issue with that because there are GoFundMe accounts, like the one I did for Sheri, that aren’t coming anywhere near goal and people donated to buy him a car, not make him wealthy. Considering that people who can barely afford it are likely to give what they can to help others, that's a statistical fact from data collected from giving, it’s just wrong to keep accepting donations for something specific after the goal has been met. It’s likewise wrong to keep all the overage. I’d have kept the first car offered and maybe enough for the first year of insurance on it. The rest I’d donate to another less funded GoFundMe account.

Donating to the next GoFundMe charitable account accomplishes 2 things. One: it keeps the faith in the GoFundMe idea by not taking donations from the poor to make one person rich. Two: the story of the person who made the news with a need that was met to overflowing with generosity passing that generosity on to someone else would give that account publicity and help fill its need. Helping others could have been passed on and on instead of filling one bank account. A story like this makes me less likely to give to accounts set up like the GoFundMe system. It’s sad because GoFundMe and sites like it really have helped people pay devastating bills like Sheri’s or start a business or recover from destruction like a house fire or flood. To see it abused, giving someone the equivalent of a lottery win without buying a ticket and strangers pay for it with their charitable donations, is just sad.