Awhile back I posted Kyle’s Story. About a little boy that was a friend of ours who passed away from a very merciless childhood cancer. Please read his story when you get the chance.
Today would’ve been Kyle’s 12th birthday. On Kyle’s last birthday on earth, 4 years ago, he asked his mom if he could have ice cream all day. And he did. Kyle passed away a few short weeks afterwards from a Diffuse Pontine Intrinsic Glioma. A very rare, very deadly brain cancer.
We keep our friend Kyle alive in spirit with doing the things he loved. Remembering to find the joys in those we have with us.
So pick your flavor and dig in!
The following is the story Kyle’s mom posted to her blog after he passed away. Neither of us wrote it, so you know. But it captures loss and grief so clearly.
Waterbugs and Dragonflies
Down below the surface of a quiet pond lived a little colony of water bugs. They were a happy colony, living far away from the sun. For many months they were very busy, scurrying over the soft mud on the bottom of the pond. They did notice that every once in awhile one of their colony seemed to lose interest in going about. Clinging to the stem of a pond lily it gradually moved out of sight and was seen no more.
“Look!” said one of the water bugs to another. “One of our colony is climbing up the lily stalk. Where do you think she is going?” Up, up, up it slowly went….Even as they watched, the water bug disappeared from sight. Its friends waited and waited but it didn’t return…
“That’s funny!” said one water bug to another. “Wasn’t she happy here?” asked a second… “Where do you suppose she went?” wondered a third.
No one had an answer. They were greatly puzzled. Finally one of the water bugs, a leader in the colony, gathered its friends together. “I have an idea”. The next one of us who climbs up the lily stalk must promise to come back and tell us where he or she went and why.” “We promise”, they said solemnly.
One spring day, not long after, the very water bug who had suggested the plan found himself climbing up the lily stalk. Up, up, up, he went. Before he knew what was happening, he had broke through the surface of the water and fallen onto the broad, green lily pad above.
When he awoke, he looked about with surprise. He couldn’t believe what he saw. A startling change had come to his old body. His movement revealed four silver wings and a long tail. Even as he struggled, he felt an impulse to move his wings…The warmth of the sun soon dried the moisture from the new body. He moved his wings again and suddenly found himself up above the water. He had become a dragonfly!!
Swooping and dipping in great curves, he flew through the air. He felt exhilarated in the new atmosphere. By and by the new dragonfly lighted happily on a lily pad to rest. Then it was that he chanced to look below to the bottom of the pond. Why, he was right above his old friends, the water bugs! There they were scurrying around, just as he had been doing some time before.
The dragonfly remembered the promise: “The next one of us who climbs up the lily stalk will come back and tell where he or she went and why.” Without thinking, the dragonfly darted down. Suddenly he hit the surface of the water and bounced away. Now that he was a dragonfly, he could no longer go into the water…
“I can’t return!” he said in dismay. “At least, I tried. But I can’t keep my promise. Even if I could go back, not one of the water bugs would know me in my new body. I guess I’ll just have to wait until they become dragonflies too. Then they’ll understand what has happened to me, and where I went.”
And the dragonfly winged off happily into its wonderful new world of sun and air…….
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I’m afraid of trolls.
I’m not talking about the kind with the crazy pink hair or even the ones in Harry Potter or nursery rhymes. I’m talking about- blogging trolls.
Not these trolls. (Couresy of jeteye.com)
or this troll.. (courtesy savagedcharacter.blogspot.com)
I don’t like them. Nobody likes them. They are the playground bullies of the blogosphere. The bitchy housewives that snark at you like on a reality TV show.
I am lucky not to have had any trolls yet. My blog is relatively new. I imagine with the more visibility and popularity one gets that trolls are part of the landscape. I know some bloggers out there that have had some on their page. They post critical, nasty remarks. They love to whine in multiple paragraphs of what makes your blog stupid, or rag on your parenting choices or diss comments made previously by other readers.
I will put up my invisibility cloak to the blog trolls. Okay, that’s impossible. But still, I really wish there was a way to hide from them.
Someone’s comment summed it up best on another blog I read. They wrote- “If you were at a party and someone said a joke that was not really funny. You wouldn’t say, ‘that was the dumbest joke I heard. Why do you even bother? Gosh you’re such a moron!’ You would feign laughter and walk away to get another drink or something.” So let’s be courteous page to page like we are face to face. If you did say those things at a party, you’d be invited to less parties in the future.
The Bearded Iris recently posted about a blog post she wrote that was ‘trolled’. Iris took The Pledge to not allow that kind of stuff on her blog, to address it respectfully and promise not to participate in judgement and degradation elsewhere either.
Snoring Dog Studio also had a troll that she starved. They want attention. Trolls love when they can cause a fight. They shouldn’t be called trolls really, they should be called pot stirrers.
So click on the picture on my right hand feed or here: The Pledge , if you are interested. It’s okay to be nice.
I would like to say thank you to all the kind followers of my blog so far. I appreciate your comments and your support. I feel like a rookie in the blog world and there have been so many of you offering your encouragement and praise. And this needy Leo needs that like she needs air to breathe. So thank you.
And I guess, thank you to those that stop by to read and hate it and don’t say nasty things. I appreciate that too.
"If you can't say something nice...don't say anything at all."