Random Bits and Pieces

He was feeling a little neglected lately and wanted to pop in and say hi. Just trying to keep up his good standing as blog mascot. :)

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First thing first… we have a winner!!!! Random.org picked:

The NorEaster: "A life story in fifteen steps?"
Well, I'm glad we get to take a long walk with you on your blog, Sara! I don't know about anybody else, but I need your perspective. You are, in so many ways, my joy.

Congratulations!!! Email your mailing address to gitzengirl@gmail.com and I’ll get it shipped off to you. :)

And thanks to all of you for your always-kind words and support. It really does make a big difference having you all here.

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[no point to this photo, really… just thought he was cute…]

Here’s the part where, after a series of serious posts, I stick in a random blog-upkeep note for you all [after having distracted you with a cute puppy photo]. Awhile back I implemented a new commenting system that overrides the normal Blogger comments you were used to. It’s had a few hiccups, as all things do, but for the most part I’m liking it a lot. Some of you have had questions about how to comment with it, so I thought I’d take a quick minute to talk you through it.

They’ve expanded a few things since I first installed it, so where it says “Guest” … you can either leave it as Guest or click the drop-down arrow for choices of how to sign in. If you have a Facebook account, Google Friend, Twitter, Yahoo, Open ID, Blogspot, etc., it allows you to sign in through any of those accounts. I think that should import your avatar from that account as well, but you’ll have to try it and see. If your avatar doesn’t show up, you can add a photo after you sign in by clicking on the blank face, if you choose.

Whether you sign in or not, the important part is the next three fields. Your nickname is how I’ll know it’s you. If you have a blog or website you’d like to put in the URL field [always start with http://], a link to your most recent post will pop up under your comment so that other people can easily get to your blog as well.

And finally, you want to put your email address in the last field… no one can see it [not even me], so you won’t be getting random people emailing you or anything. If you notice in the comment section, each comment has a button under it that says “Reply.” The button is so I can reply to each of you directly, and you can all reply directly to each other’s comments as well. This is the main reason I changed the comment system… I like the idea of having a conversation within our little community. But the only way you’ll know if someone has replied to your comment is if you leave your email address, then the reply will come to your inbox and you’ll know I or someone else had something to say to you!

I know, I know… long explanation just to tell you how to comment, but since there were questions by some, I figured there might be a few more who were confused. The big test will be whether or not I’ve just confused you even further! [It’s been known to happen…]

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Can you tell I feel like I used up all of my words in my first three posts this week? Yep, my brain is pretty random today. I’m also fairly sure it’s been completely taken over by the steroids… I’ve been trying to write out my grocery list for the week and it’s getting a little embarrassing.

Normally I just copy and paste my list, as I pretty much eat the same old boring things each week. A little rice, a little meat, some fruit… the basics. I’ve been trying to eat those things all week and none of them are sitting well with me.

But these things sound divine:
Lays Potato Chips. French Onion Dip. Powdered Sugar Donuts. Glazed Donuts. Marshmallows. More Potato Chips. Did I mention French Onion Dip?

So, if this turns into a foodie blog, it’s totally not my fault. I’m blaming it on the steroids. Tune in next week when I give you step-by-step instructions on how to squirt Hershey’s syrup directly into your mouth and call it lunch.

Riveting stuff.

HDG: Attitude of Joy

This was a topic suggestion for Monday’s alphabet-sponsored post:

"attitude" I would like to talk to you about how you keep such a good attitude. Is it something you just are or do you work at being positive? And how do you achieve it each day, moment, etc. And do you ever find yourself in the dark place of a bad attitude?

…so, I thought I’d make it into a Hump Day Giveaway post!

I love the movie Out of Africa. The woman Meryl Streep portrays is Karen Blixen, who wrote under the penname Isak Dinesen. This is one of her observations about life in Africa in the early 1900s:

"Difficult times have helped me to understand better than before how infinitely rich and beautiful life is in every way, and that so many things that one goes worrying about are of no importance whatsoever.”
– Isak Dinesen

I couldn’t agree with her more.

That’s not to say it’s always simple to be happy and have a good attitude. Not all of life can be looked at through rose-colored glasses. I will admit I have a natural tendency toward that, which is great. But with the way my life has played out there came a point in time when I made a conscious decision that I wanted to choose happy. I wanted to choose gratitude. I wanted to choose joy. I wanted to spread that around as much as I could.

I sometimes feel like lamenting. I usually choose to move on instead. That isn’t always easy, but it has become second nature over time because life left me with little other choice. And like the quote says, difficult times allowed me to realize that worrying about what can’t be changed is really so very unimportant. In that difficult stuff, the stuff where abilities and things are stripped away, I’ve come to see how much of that I never really needed to begin with. I miss it, I loved it, but it was just window dressing on my life. And now when I get small glimpses of those moments, they are treasured and not taken for granted.

Last Thursday, my parents came down to take me to an appointment with my doctor, Annie. I’ve been having a hard time with my lungs, and while I used to just have problems reacting to the air when I went outside or opened a window, I have now started having reactions to the air on people when they come into my home. After a couple of instances in a row, I couldn’t get my breathing back to normal and needed a chance to talk with her about my best plan of action.

Of course, going to the doctor meant going outside. I knew this was not going to be a good thing for me. I was preparing myself for a rotten couple of weeks, reacting to the air, having to go on steroids, breathing treatments that make me feel awful, burning eyes, ears, throat. This wasn’t going to be fun.

But I was going to go outside. I was going to feel the fresh air and soak in the rays of sunshine that have alluded me for so long. I knew it was going to be awful for my body, but I also knew those fleeting moments could be great for my soul if I just took the time to savor them. Thursday was a gorgeous day here in Iowa. The temps were in the 70s, the sun was shining, a fresh breeze was blowing. I looked out that window all morning, telling myself that this would be worth it. It would be a hard few weeks, but this was my one chance to be outside and it was a perfect day.

As Dad walked with me out the door of my building to the waiting car, the sun went under the clouds.

Humph.

I laughed, said isn’t that just my luck, and declared that the sun better shine when we got to where we were going. We drove to the lab where I would need to have blood work done, the sun shining on the way. Dad pulled up to the door and the sun hid behind the clouds again… playing its game of hide and seek. As we walked into the building, a woman with her four little girls were walking ahead of us… the girls had an abundance of braids in their hair with at least 30 brightly-colored clips each. The mom excused herself as they were blocking our way and I commented on how lovely their hair looked.

She began to tell me, in the short walk down the hall to the lab, how much she loved doing their hair. She had been in prison and her oldest daughter had to learn how to tend to the little ones, but she was glad to be doing it herself again. They were on their way to the surgical center where her baby was in surgery and we wished each other luck. Mom looked at me as we parted ways with the family to go into the lab and said, “I didn’t know it was possible to learn a whole life story in 15 steps.” I didn’t either, but it was so nice to be out… to engage.

Leaving the lab and showing up at my doctor’s office was the same story… I couldn’t catch the sun if my life depended on it. I was trying to enjoy it out the car window, as I was enjoying the trees and the grass and roads I used to drive down everyday. And even though I was a little concerned that my glaring white skin would sparkle in the sun like the vampires in Twilight, I wanted to feel the sun on my face more than anything else that day.

By the time I got in to see Annie, I wasn’t doing well. My voice was going, my breathing was bad, my pain was increasing by the minute. It had been awhile since I had seen her [I’ve been going mostly to my rheumatologist now] and she hadn’t realized how much my life had changed in the last year. We talked through my prognosis, my medications, my options of what I could take to help with my lungs and the accompanying symptoms. We talked about some heavy topics and laughed about dumb jokes. She hugged me three times and we both knew, after 15 years of treating me, I wouldn’t be coming in to see her again. She would make my medical decisions, but it would be through home nursing now so I won’t have to make an extra trip out of my house again.

As Mom and I walked into the parking lot and dad pulled up with the car, I stood outside the door and decided I wasn’t getting in until the sun peeked out from behind the clouds. Mom and I talked about the perfect temperature and refreshing breeze. We talked for a moment about the things we discussed in Annie’s office, and I told her that no matter how life progresses for me from this point out, it was ok. I was good with it, that God and I are good about it.

Then the sun came out.

And Mom said she thought God was good with me, too.

So, the honest day-to-day stuff you were asking about: my body isn’t doing very well. I'm in pain. I’m not breathing well, my eyes and ears and throat burn. The steroids and breathing treatments bring their own host of issues that leave me feeling unwell. I’m very tired.

But all I can think about is that woman and our brief chat as we walked down the hall. I’m hoping whatever got her into prison is something that is behind her in life, and that those braids in her daughters’ hair will keep her wanting to be home with them. I love that I had a chance encounter with a stranger and engaged in real life for a moment.

I can’t stop thinking about how blessed I am that Annie has taken care of me all these years, treated me with respect and love and will continue to have my best interest at heart, even from a distance.

I can close my eyes and feel the breeze, feel the sun on my face and see the bright orange color that rests on the inside of my eyelids when they are closed and facing the sunshine. I can smile remembering that, for a few fleeting minutes, Mom, Dad and I sat in those patio chairs I’ve been longing to relax in and ate McDonald’s french fries just because we could… the damage was done and we were determined to take our moments.

I have a lot of things that aren’t going right because I left the house on Thursday. Those things will take awhile to leave my system. But I choose the joy. I choose the conversation, the relationships, the breeze and the sunshine.

And especially the french fries. :)

I choose the joy. When something is going badly and I’m dwelling on it, I think instead of something for which I am grateful. I swear to you, it’s as simple as that. You just have to decide today, and again tomorrow. And before you know it, you’ll have an attitude of joy more than any other attitude you have at your disposal.

To win today’s canvas, simply leave a comment before midnight CST and I’ll announce the winner tomorrow! [Only one comment per person, please.]

Blog Peep Questions: Round 5

In keeping with the theme of answering questions about my illness that started in yesterday’s post, I’m going to answer two blog peep questions I’ve received that were very similar…

1. When you are going through a hard time, do we always know?

2. Are you struggling day-to-day when you write posts that aren’t about your illness/how much do we see of how you are day-to-day?

The answer is no, you don’t see a lot of the daily stuff on here. Other than the straight-forward details about the disease I explained to you yesterday and in an earlier entry, I’d say you probably see about 5% of my daily struggle in my posts.

But here’s the thing, I hate to even call it a struggle. I know that sounds weird because it’s difficult everyday… and everything I do requires thought and effort and energy. But the truth is that it’s just my version of a normal life right now. And that normal is changing all the time.

Not talking about it has absolutely nothing to do with being willing to talk about it, though. I think we’ve covered over the past year that I’m more or less an open book… and am not shy about telling you of my many ridiculous antics. I’m also not shy about talking about my disease or answering questions, so if you have specific questions you should feel free to ask and I’ll do my best to answer you.

The reason I don’t talk about my day-to-day life in the ‘struggling sense’ is simply because I don’t sit around and think about it all the time myself. I just live it. There are moments that are incredibly frustrating, tiring, maddening, sad and exhausting. Everyday. But that doesn’t make my day a frustrating, tiring, maddening one. I reduce them to the moments they are rather than letting them define my whole day. I find that lamenting over all of those things only produces more lamenting. And I don’t want to live in a space that is taken up by the negative. It’s just simply not a fun way to live.

You know by now that I consider all of you who show up everyday to be my friends, and I want you to know that I don’t often talk about my day-to-day struggles with my friends that call me on the phone or stop by to visit, either. I want to spend my time in the joyful things… in hearing about their kids and their outings and their lives. I want to talk though their normal troubles and get lost in real life with them. If they ask me how I am, I tell them… but often not in the little details. It doesn’t change my reality and it does nothing but worry them, so it seems like complaining without purpose.

And that’s kind of how I judge what I talk about here: does it have a purpose? I share with you the ways I’ve struggled, how I’ve worked through different situations or emotions, and being sick is obviously a big part of those discussions. But I don’t want to talk about being sick just for the sake of talking about it… I want to talk about my illness as a way to show you how I have dealt with different situations, and hopefully learned to embrace and accept things. How I’ve learned to trust God with my life and realize that my life isn’t about me and my wants, as much as Him and what He needs from me.

I also have a purpose in updating you on the big things… if I don’t share with you that I can’t leave the house or open a window, then you’re going to be pretty darn confused about why I stay inside all day. :) I want to tell you about the big things because they shape my stories, they alter how I view the world, they help make me who I am. And there have been a couple of times, as there are periodic times with my friends, when I absolutely have to tell you that I am sad or exhausted or just plain fed up. It doesn’t happen often, but there are moments when the only way I can make room for joy is to get rid of the sadness by speaking it out loud. And in those moments, I’m glad my friends or family are on the other end of the phone, and I’m very glad all of you are here.

But the little things… the day-to-day… they are constant and never-ending. If I told you about it every day then this wouldn’t be a real representation of my life. Many years ago, when I made my list of Life Goals, number five was: To spread the joy, not the fear. My physical world is made up of the day-to-day pain and sickness, but my LIFE… my life is made up of joy. And that’s the part of me I want you to take with you everyday. Even when I do talk about the emotions or the physical struggles, I want you to leave knowing that joy can come from the hardest times and the ugliest places. You just have to choose it.

But I’ll talk to you more about that tomorrow. :)

Brought to You by the Letter “A”

Wowza. You people know how to alliterate.

I was hoping to have a couple of ‘a’ ideas to choose from, but I never expected the comments last Monday to be so entertaining! I have to admit I originally intended to choose the most fun and wacky topic suggestion, but then a few of you commented about wanting to know more about my illness [Ankylosing Spondylitis] and things associated with the disease.

A couple of you asked straight up:

* Any new research, medications, etc for Ankylosing Spondylitis? Well, it does start with an "A"

* I second the idea to talk about your illness and research, etc. related to that topic for "A". I know it would help us all understand your day to day struggles.

Another asked about the emotional side:

* "attitude" I would like to talk to you about how you keep such a good attitude. Is it something you just are or do you work at being positive? And how do you achieve it each day, moment etc. And do you ever find yourself in the dark place of a bad attitude?

And one of you pulled out some rheumatic alliteration:

* Okay, finally got one...
anticlimactic antics in annoying arctic air around associated arthralgias...

It would have been appealing to put all artistically articulated alliteration attempts one-after-another in the post and leave it at that, but I figured it would be cheating a bit if I let you guys do all the work for me!

As it turns out, you’re asking about my disease during a week where it’s making life even more difficult than usual. I’ve been half-tempted to take the week off, but I decided instead we may as well just attack it head-on, right? The next few days will be posts answering some of the questions/topics you have asked about this illness, and since I know I’ve gained a lot more readers since my one post explaining the disease a year ago, I thought I’d take today to explain the basics.

I have a disease. It sucks.

Ok, maybe that was a little too basic. ;) Let’s try that again.

My disease is called Ankylosing Spondylitis. It’s a genetic, systemic, autoimmune disease… which means it’s hereditary, it can affect pretty much any system in my body and it all stems from my own immune system attacking me.

Good times.

The way I explain it to kids is that when they have a cold, their body sends little Pac-Man cells to eat up all the bad germs so they can feel better again. My body gets confused and can’t tell the difference between the bad germs and the rest of my body, so the Pac-Man cells just attack everything. And that ends up making me feel sick and in pain.

To grown-ups, I simply say my immune system is ignorant. The Pac-Man [also known as the HLA-B27 antibody] started out by attacking the joints in my sacrum [low back], spine and neck. As the joints are attacked, inflammation occurs and scar tissue forms around the joint. The goal of the disease is to keep attacking until that scar tissue forms into bone and fuses the joints together. The process of attacking/fusing is what causes a great deal of pain.

There was a time, not long ago, when doctors believed this was purely a man’s disease, but there is more research now about the affects of the disease in women, and they are discovering that the disease can progress differently in the genders… but the truth is that it’s different for every person. Some people fuse quickly, and after fusing the pain burns out with the disease process. Some fuse slowly or not at all, some have many systems affected, some only have certain joints that cause problems. There’s really no rhyme or reason and there is certainly no predicting it.

I’m one of those people who deals with inflammation all throughout my body and systems. I have pain in my joints 24/7, feeling them every moment of the day. Some days certain areas are worse than others, and different joints flare more at any given time. There are days where I can be walking behind George [my walker] without a problem, and the next moment I can’t put pressure on one of my ankles. That may last 10 minutes, that may last 10 days. I honestly never know and never count on anything, just dealing with what comes as it does.

I can have inflammation in my eyes [iritis], inflammation in my lungs, problems with my digestive system, fevers, chills, night sweats, nerve pain, you name it. I have leukopenia, which means my white cell count is low and goes lower when I’m sick, so if you come to my house with a sniffle I could get pneumonia. I take medication so I can eat, breathe, sleep, move, go to the bathroom, deal with pain, migraines and a host of other issues. My lungs have become more of an issue because my ribs don’t expand as much as they used to, which means my air capacity is [at maximum] around 60%.

The other problem having to do with my lungs, which I’m dealing with now, is that allergies are directly connected to the immune system as well. As my disease has progressed I have found myself allergic to almost everything… smells, allergens, cleaners, wool, flowers… and now I’m simply allergic to the air, hence my confinement to my home. No open windows, no going outside, no warm sunshine on a beautiful day.

The pup can’t go outside anymore either, as he carries the air in on his fur and causes reactions for me. It’s definitely an on-going process and I am constantly learning to adapt to each new thing that arises, but I will say that as time has gone on the adapting process gets easier and happens faster. Acceptance comes more naturally with practice.

Now that you have a general idea of the illness, I’ll address the million dollar question: why can’t they fix it?

Well, there are a lot of new medications out there that have made huge differences in people’s lives. Some that have been living with the disease have seen improvements, and patients who are just developing the disease are able to take medications and avoid a lot of issues, or at least have the development slowed down.

I have tried every medication at my disposal, and I am only able to take one medication that has any impact in fighting the disease. The n-saids, which help with inflammation, nearly destroyed my digestive system. I took methotrexate, which is a chemo drug, and withstood migraines three days out of every week for as long as I could, but eventually my rheumatologist pulled me off of it. [Thank God.]

There is a newer class of medications, you’ve probably seen the commercials for them: Enbrel, Humira, Remicade, Orencia. These are fantastic drugs that have made a huge difference for a lot of people. I have allergic reactions to them… the kind where my throat starts to swell shut. So, those are out.

The one medication I take for the disease [other than the pain killers] I can only take in a limited amount before my white counts drop to a level the doctors aren’t comfortable with.

In other words, I’m stuck. And I’ve exhausted every option. And yes, I’ve tried homeopathic things that were worse for me than any drug I’ve ever taken. I spent years fighting, and I will always try what I can in the future, but accepting what is, living with it, embracing it and finding joy in it is the only way I know how to live a productive life. And as much as this disease has taken from me, it’s also given to me and taught me and strengthened me.

But I’ll tell you more about that over the next few days. This post is plenty long enough already. :)

Now, since you’ve made it through all those fun details, I feel it’s my duty to provide you with a photo to leave you smiling for the day:

You just gotta love that ‘hawk.

Alright now, blog peeps… don’t forget that you still have work to do. Next Monday will be brought to you by the letter “B” … and you have to come up with the topic. Now go to the comment section and fire away!

Only A Savior

Hello, sweet peeps…

Running a bit slow today, so in the absence of my words I thought I’d leave you with my voice.

05 Only a Savior  by  gitzengirl

Hope you enjoy it and have a beautiful weekend… I’ll meet you back here Monday for our first “letter sponsored” post. :)

Dan the Piano Man

People, I have met the Dog Whisperer’s long lost American cousin. I have no real proof that they are indeed related, but since I’ve never seen anyone tame my ornery pup so quickly and easily, I figure it has to be something in the blood.

Meet Dan. Otherwise known as Riley’s new BFF.

Dan was my birthday present from those faith sharing girls I introduced you to yesterday. Ok, well DAN wasn’t my present, but his handy piano-fixing skills certainly were. Dan the Piano Man, as I have just now decided to call him, had virtually no experience with player pianos… but we quickly discovered we are like-minded in our approach to fixing things: if we take enough things apart we’ll figure it out eventually.

Did I mention Riley fell in love with Dan the Piano man? Yes, he did, and he was more than willing to be Dan’s happy helper through the entire process. Just so you know, I wanted to put Riley on a leash, but Dan was getting a kick out of him. He even brought his wife back to meet the pooch after the piano was fixed.

I know where to look if Riley runs away from home.

I was totally enthralled with this whole process. And I think Dan was pleased to have someone he could explain his work to and show the details that impressed him. The fact that this piano is over 100 years old and working so well kind of blew both of our minds. Apparently the old adage, “They don’t make ‘em like the used to,” is absolutely true.

In the end, other than a desperate need for a good tuning, fixing the player wasn’t all that difficult. He found a hose that had an old piece of dried up tape falling off of it, so we replaced that tape with good old black electrical tape. Hey, if someone else thought tape was a good idea, we were happy to go with it, too.

Then Dan the Piano Man realized the bolts and screws [or whatever those things were] that held the roll of music in place had 100 years of gunk built up on them. So, he took them to the sink, washed them up with Dawn soap, and VOILA:

The player piano started playing like a charm. Gives new meaning to the term elbow grease. And it’s proof that Dawn dish soap really does cut through the toughest grease… truth in advertising, people.

Yep. I don’t think it’s the music Riley was adoring. Dan the Piano Man/Dog Whisperer can apparently fix pianos and tough dogs.

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I loved reading about your friendships and the ways people have loved on you through the little details… there is no doubt that time, love and attention are the main gifts we all appreciate so much.

Now, for the winner of yesterday’s canvas:

Mandy: I LOOOOVE details!! I say "the love is in the details" all the time when I'm making something stupidly detailed for someone.
The first thing that came to mind for me was my bridal shower - my incredible neighbors put together a gorgeous bridal shower, and one of them made this crazy banner that said "Jack and Mandy" in script, another made a bustier cake, and another wrapped plastic-ware in napkins and tied ribbons around each one!! It totally made me feel loved.

Congratulations!!! Email me at gitzengirl@gmail.com with your mailing address and I’ll get it shipped out to you!

HDG: Love is in the Details

If you’ve been reading my blog very long, you’ve probably noticed me referring to my Faith Sharing Girls… and now you get to see their cute mugs for yourselves! Meg, Susie, Deb and Leslie are phenomenal women who show up at my house every other week to participate in faith sharing, chatting, eating and just being all around great friends. I’m so incredibly blessed.

This is a photo of Susie’s mom, Linda, and Meg. Linda is the one who gets my groceries for me every week and puts up with Riley’s constant longing for attention every time she walks through the door. Because Meg is the only one in the group that doesn’t have a May birthday [Leslie and I were actually born on the same day], she and Linda decided to do a lovely surprise birthday dinner for the rest of us.

I was in on it, of course, since it was at my house, but the other three girls didn’t have a clue. Being in on it was kind of a present to me, because I SO love being in the know. :)

Linda used to run a bed and breakfast before she moved to town, and showed up at my house with her own dishes, silverware, dainty glasses and everything. She loves collecting antiques and has the loveliest things… and it certainly changed the look of my table.

The linens were given to her by her friend Dixie, who had brought them back from a trip to Italy. Trust me, when I found that out I was tempted to move my plate to my lap so anything spilled would land on my jeans instead of the table cloth. That Linda is obviously a trusting woman.

I’m sure some of you are looking at that table and noticing the fine stitching on the linens, the value of the plates or stemware, or the delicate pattern on the fork. And they are precious. But what I see is the love in the details.

It’s present in the way Linda and Meg thought about us, how they took joy in making us feel special. How each table piece was chosen, not to display Linda’s pretty things, but to display the affection she feels for each of us who love her daughter.

Each one of my friends that sat at the table that night have the same qualities about them. They love in the details. They show up at my house every other week, not because they don’t have someplace better to go, but because they don’t want to be someplace better without me. When we sit in my red room to go through the chapter we’ve read, they sit in the spots where they know I’m not comfortable and leave the comfortable chair for me.

They leave their busy lives and faster pace behind them at the door and settle into my slower moving way of life. They don’t rush me if I’m out of breath while I’m talking and they fill me in on conversations they all understand because they see each other and out and about, but I miss while I’m here in my home. They show their love in the details, and they do it in an unassuming way that could easily go unnoticed.

But I notice. Every little bit of it. And I am grateful.

Susie was giving me a hard time because I was taking photos of everything… the food, the salt and pepper shakers, the linens. I was capturing each detail to show all of you, and also so I would never forget them myself. Some may simply see a plate of food, but I see the love in the details.

And apparently, so does Suz. I loaded photos from her camera onto my computer later that night so I could see pictures from a friend’s baby shower I had missed. She took detailed photos of another friend’s new home, of people and decorations and… yes, the plate of food they were served.

My first thought: “Oh, I’ve taught that girl well!” But really, I haven’t taught her a thing. She was just loving me with the details, as they are all so good at doing.

A friend is one who strengthens you with prayers, blesses you with love and encourages you with hope.”

I can’t imagine any details more important to friendship than prayers, love and encouragement, which is why this canvas fits my friends so perfectly. I’m passing it along to one of you today so you can hang it on your wall as a reminder of how to be a great friend, or pass it along to someone who has been all of those things to you. I’m lucky I didn’t need the quote to teach me a thing… I learned it from the best of them.

To win today’s canvas, leave a comment telling me how someone has shown you love by paying attention to the details. Make sure you comment before midnight CST, and I’ll post the winner tomorrow. [Only one comment per person, please.]