Life

This post has nothing to do with racing, but more to do with the precious gift of life that we each are blessed with. My grandmother called me this evening to inform me that my best childhood friend, Mandy, committed suicide. We grew up together in a private Christian school, my grandmother and her mother were best friends and we played the piano together for years. She played the piano with such elegance and ease. She was very talented and she was very strong. She had a dynamic, slightly rebellious personality. I used to get in so much trouble when we were together. I was her "side kick". We went our separate ways in high school, but our families remained close.

Between my family and friends, this is the third suicide that I have had to deal with. All three shot themselves. I know that I can not put myself in their shoes and I have no idea what it feels like to be depressed to that depth, but I do know this much; I love life. Even when life gets hard, bills get high, time seems short and everything is going wrong, I love life. I thank God each morning for giving me life. I thank him for allowing me to race, to train, to help others and most of all to be there for my family. I can't imagine there not being life, I can't imagine not waking up every morning and I cannot imagine ending my life for any reason at all. I do know, that things must have been rock bottom for Mandy to feel like this was her only way out.

I hope with this blog, you take from it that life is precious. We are granted 1 life to live and it is in this life that we must live for God, take care of ourselves, love one another and take care of our families. I am completely aware that the sports that I participate in can be dangerous. I can tell you this; I do what I love everyday. In the event that God decided that it was my time to go, I know that I lived my life to its fullest and treated each day as though it were my last.