Be grateful

You hear it all the time. "Be grateful. " "Be thankful." "At least you have your health." It can be easy to dismiss these words of wisdom. Tonight I was given the opportunity to see Carla Zilbersmith live them large. You can (and should) read all about Carla's story on her blog http://carlamuses.blogspot.com/. It is an amazing story and she is brutally honest and hilarious even as she faces death. As we go through our daily lives it easy to let little things aggravate us. You wake up stiff and complain how it hurts when you walk. You run out of milk for your cereal so you skip breakfast and you are cranky all the way to work. On the way to work you get cut off in traffic and now you are cursing. It is moments like these that I would encourage you to envision what I saw tonight. A beautiful, talented, funny, wonderful actress and singer restricted by her body to a wheelchair and microphone. But her mind and her heart are adept as ever. She has chosen not to see the things that she can't do anymore but rather see the things she can do. Carla would be the 1st to tell you that she doesn't want your sympathy. Because she has a great life. Surrounded by people who love and care for her. So do you. The difference is that she knows it. So to paraphrase Carla tomorrow when you wake up you have a terminal disease: living. Take advantage of every bit of it.