The entire team 5/17/13 ready to start the 200 mile relay run to support RTR. The TEAM raised over $6,500 to support RTR~!

So off we went and they took her away and when I looked at her I swear the smile went away and she was sad. She probably thought we were never coming back. But we did. One week later we tracked the hour up the turnpike to Princeton, sat in the living room, an in she sprinted. And it was happiness from there on. Big smile, and big times. As we left the breeder told us two things: 1. “she’s a lot of dog” and 2. She will never leave your side. We only learned that those two things where what made her special.

I have had a lot of Goldens in my life but as I said many times she is/was the sweetest. The most engaging and the most attentive. How many times did I come in from work and she ran to me to make me happy, then turn around quickly as if to say “lets go find Mommy” Every time we came home she ran to us. Never did she not. And every time we left she looked out the window at us. Just as sad to see is go as happy she was to see us home.

It was a brutal choice to say goodbye to her., But these last days she wasn’t herself. She had trouble standing, and though never lost that appetitive she didn’t have the same pep. I miss her so much that my heart aches and tears are shed. We miss her but glad we have her memories.

Yes there are more serious and worse things in life. But today my heart aches hard and I do miss my sweet baby girl.

http://cancercontrolplanet.cancer.gov/documents/meta-analysis-psychotherapy-survival.pdf

Peace and strength!

You May Be Happy But Are You Meaningful?

Excerpt from upcoming book on inspirational stories of athletes who have overcome blood cancers to find true meaning in their lives through their illness

Thomas D. Kramer,Founder Racing To Register

Recently I came across a great article in the Atlantic that addressed meaningfulness vs. happiness in people’s lives.  I must admit I had never really thought about the difference. For many years I was admittedly, probably like many, worries about feeling immediate satisfaction, happy, good about myself, and absorbed with what the world could do for me.

“If there is meaning in life at all, then there must be meaning and suffering “

The author points out that Victor Frankl wrote this in one of his studies. (apparently Victor never ran a marathon, did and Ironman race or attempted a 100 mile running race probably).

I pondered about this quote form more than a month. Being around patients who are suffering from the most hideous blood  cancers known, I have seen things that are beyond compression. You can’t believe people that are so sick are still alive.  So I wondered these last few weeks what possible meaning could come from such suffering. None. No way. But maybe in some way, I am very wrong.

The article I refer to focused on Viktor Frankl a well-known Jewish psychiatrist and neurologist in Vienna.  In September 1942, like many of the Jewish population he and his family were arrested and directed to a Nazi concentration camp.  three years later he was released from the camps only to find out that his entire family, including his wife who was pregnant, had been lost during the preceding Holocaust years. He was only known as prisoner 11910 but he had survived. He suffered despite the horrendous conditions. Though a terrible experience, his time in the camps was not without meaning. Vicktor went on to write a bestselling 1946 book, Man’s Search for Meaning, which he wrote in only nine days about his experiences in the camps. As he reflected on his experiences he became keenly aware and he concluded that a major difference, if not the difference between those that had survived and those that died came down to one thing: Meaning.

Just like some of the patients I have come to meet through my work with the charity I founded, Racing To Register, having and maintaining a sense of meaning in one’s life can override some of the darkest days. Do not misunderstand me. I have never had cancer, never been gravely ill nor suffered a tremendous tragedy. All in all, I consider myself lucky. But many of the patients actually find meaning during all of their treatments and darkest days. For example, one survivor I know told me something that blindsided me. Cancer was his “blessing”. When he told me that I honestly believed that he had been given too much chemotherapy and should file a lawsuit against the doctor straightway. Not only did he tell me this but he said it with a glowing smile, “Sure” he continued and when I asked him what he meant, he said simply: “If I didn’t get this cancer I wouldn’t be able to help all of those I have helped and inspire people to get well”.  Aha moment. He had found meaning in his darkest days.  In fact good ol Dr. Frankl recognized this nearly 70 years earlier. Frankl wrote of this same  phenomenon in his masterful book Search for Meaning,  when discussing those that survived the horrors of concentration camps: “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing” he wrote, “the last of the human freedoms- to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way”.  My wise friend knew that though beaten down, and stripped of his physical strength, he still controlled his own attitude, and in turn what he could do to make a difference and sustain a meaningful life in the present and in the future.

More to come……