a personal web log and feed

To All My Family, Friends, and Colleagues,

At some point in our lives, we all experience a time of disbelief. For 2009, I wish you belief.

In 2008, there were many people who believed in me, and, in both small and big ways, the belief changed my life.  As well, I learned that my belief in others had helped them and changed their life.  These two types of belief are what I wish for you in 2009.

Sometimes that the little voice inside your head tells you that you don’t believe you are able to do something. It could be learning something new, passing a test, or finding true love. It could also be the belief in accomplishing career goals at the right job, knowing you can recover from losing a large sum of money, or even having a strong belief that you can survive a major injury or disease. For 2009, I wish you all the belief that you need to overcome the fear, unknown, and doubt that can creep into our head at times.

Belief can also be passed from person to person. Those who accomplish successes in life have often done so because someone believed in them. Parents believe their child can learn to ride a bike, mentors inspire future entreprenuers to start businesses, and artists show us how to view the world or feel an emotion in a whole new way. For 2009, I wish that you fully experience the joy of believing in someone else who needs you to believe in them.

Happy 2009 - I wish you belief.

AB

My co-worker faces a tough battle every day (outside of work). Her adorable daughter has mitochondrial disease, and I wanted to post some information about it. Historically I’ve worked with several people who have children with special needs and illnesses, and it is quite amazing to hear some of the stories and challenges they have to deal with. Their influences always keep me in a mode of gratitude and to help me keep in mind how fragile life is…that life is to be respected. You can read more about mito below.

Mitochondrial diseases result from failures of the mitochondria, specialized compartments present in every cell of the body except red blood cells. Mitochondria are responsible for creating more than 90% of the energy needed by the body to sustain life and support growth. When they fail, less and less energy is generated within the cell. Cell injury and even cell death follow. If this process is repeated throughout the body, whole systems begin to fail, and the life of the person in whom this is happening is severely compromised. The disease primarily affects children, but adult onset is becoming more and more common.

Diseases of the mitochondria appear to cause the most damage to cells of the brain, heart, liver, skeletal muscles, kidney and the endocrine and respiratory systems.

Depending on which cells are affected, symptoms may include loss of motor control, muscle weakness and pain, gastro-intestinal disorders and swallowing difficulties, poor growth, cardiac disease, liver disease, diabetes, respiratory complications, seizures, visual/hearing problems, lactic acidosis, developmental delays and susceptibility to infection.

Recently, I’ve become more fascinated by writing than I may have ever been in my life…maybe I should say “communications” which includes writing as well.  The quote below caught my mind and the related picture caught my eye.

From this article:

“Everyone ultimately buys for emotional reasons and then makes every attempt to justify it with logic. It’s simple…

Everyone wants to be right. No one likes being wrong, or being perceived as being wrong.

If you want to accomplish this feat you must appeal to emotions. Fear, greed, anger, flattery, exclusiveness, salvation, lust, desire for love.”