Silence and Relay ...

                 The Maine coast line - Walker's Beach - 

5 min drive from where I grew up and my favorite place in Maine.

Amanda, Sam, Arlo and Otis have headed off on a trip to Maine. Matt stayed here, he couldn't get away with work. Yes, she is crazy and we all know this. 3 boys all 6 and under, in a car... oh did I forget to mention she is driving (see crazy) for a two day drive to Maine. She did get a little smarter and brought her babysitter/good friend's daughter with her. Lindsay will help occupy the boys while in the car and watch them once in Maine. This is a great experience for Lindsay, she is 13, traveling away from her parents, through Canada to a state she has never been for 10 days. I am a bit jealous. I love going back to Maine, there are a lot of good friends I miss there. And I love showing new people "my" state. Most of all I am jealous because they are all on vacation during the hardest two weeks of the year at work.

Since I have been living here Matt, and Amanda have taken the boys on trips twice and the quiet has always been welcomed with open arms. Like I stated in my last post, it has been a transition moving in with a family of 5. I knew this time I would be working a lot and I thought what better time for them to go. I could work late hours and not feel bad about not seeing the boys. The past two nights I haven't been home before 8 and once I got home I came straight to my room. But once I am up here I find myself wondering: "Where are they?" " How did the day go?" "What exciting things did they see?" etc...etc.

They really could not have picked a better 10 days to go away. I have back to back Relays. I am quickly approaching my third Relay of the season (tomorrow at 3pm it starts, I start at 10:30am tomorrow). The end of this season feels near yet so far. Last year I had 4 Relays in 3 weekends, it was fast yet furious. I think I like that schedule better. You have no time to think, no time to realize how tired you are, until it is all over. And then it is all over so you can just take a breath and relax.

 Luminaria at a Relay spelling out why we Relay - HOPE

As much as Relays have my heart and my passion. They are exhausting. But it never fails, just when I think I can't go anymore, when I am in a gym after evacuating all participants from the track due to tornado warnings, at 2am and I am ready to call it in and send everyone home, I look up and see a survivor in their purple shirt walking the track, pushing hard. I remember why I got involved, why I do this.

I decided back in March of 2007, 3 months after my mother lost her battle, that I needed to Fight this disease. I needed to fight for all the people, who like my mother, never had a chance or opportunity to fight back because the disease took them too quickly.

Every day at work I have my stresses, I get frustrated, annoyed, and angry. I have heightened emotions because of my love and passion for the cause. I have had plenty of jobs where I didn't care what happened on a daily basis. Here I care!

Tomorrow is the Relay For Life of Mason. This year is a new and exciting year for them. In this, their 13th year, they have changed locations and Relay will be around the town square. I am excited to see this event take place, I am proud of all my volunteers involved in making this transition and I am glad that I will only have one more left at Saturday. WAHOOO!

 

The first luminaria bag I ever made for my mother.