Butterflies, Ladybugs and Flowers

Hello friends!

Today is a special day for me – I’m publishing my very first blog entry! I’ve been wanting to write a book, start a business, and various other things for so long – many of you know that I did start to publish a newsletter last year but I just wasn’t in the right place to continue it. Now I think the time is here for me to start focusing more on my career and personal goals – step one is a blog, and here I am! I’m calling my blog the Half Full Pink Martini…Common Sense Musings on Life, Home and Motherhood. A mouthful, yes, but the name has real meaning to me. Half full – I’ve always been an optimist, seeing the glass as half full. Pink – with a husband a three sons, I need some pink in my life. Martini? Well, need I say more? And if there is one thing I’m passionate about, it’s using common sense. I feel that it is so lacking in our world today! My goal is to spread a little common sense around the globe.

As I write this, I’m sitting in the Pediatric Oncology Infusion Clinic at New York’s Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. My eldest son Corbin is receiving his monthly treatment for his various diseases. We’ve been coming here for almost 5 years, since Corbin was 4. It’s never an easy place to be, despite the many many days we have spent here. The room is filled with children getting their chemo, some just babies, others in their teens, hooked up to their IVs, some crying out of fear and pain. A few of the children have lost their hair and are obviously very ill. Others are running around chasing toy cars on the floor or watching videos at their seats. It’s a room full of fear and uncertainty. But it is also a room of great hope and beauty. We are on the seventh floor, sitting at a window overlooking the majestic Hudson River. From another window, we have a view of the Empire State building and the skyscrapers of Manhattan. On the windows are stickers of butterflies, on the doors, ladybugs, and painted flowers cover the floor. The young girl in the bed next to Corbin is choosing a wig – she wants to look like Hannah Montana! The nurses are some of the most caring and supportive people you could ever hope to meet. Corbin is snuggled up in his chair drinking lemonade, eating chips and Skittles and watching the latest Indiana Jones movie – he always gets what he wants on his treatment days!

Coming here always makes me think of the fragility and randomness of life – what force makes an innocent child critically ill but gives another a childhood without disease? It’s a question that I don’t think anyone can answer, but it makes me realize what a gift day to day life is, and that it is my responsibility - both to myself and my husband and children - to live it fully. I truly believe in Living a Charmed Life! One of my favorite authors, Victoria Moran, has written 2 books about just that – Creating a Charmed Life and most recently Living a Charmed Life. Her writing has inspired me to think and live this way, that despite our health problems and the stresses that can so easily consume us, we have so much to celebrate. Whether it be the butterfly stickers on the window, or the parties the nurses here give to each child who completes his or her chemo treatments and moves forward in health, there is much joy in this room, just as there is much joy in the normal day to day existence of our lives. Sometimes we just have to look for it.

You can find Victoria’s books on Amazon.com. Visit her website at www.victoriamoran.com. I’m sure you’ll find her books inspirational too.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you come back for more!