Black Belt Living

Ties and Unties

Recently, an online friend of mine experienced a terrible loss. She and her husband lost their precious little eight week old baby, Ian, to an aggressive brain tumor.

 

I have never met Tricia in person. We were both part of a group of moms on an old AOL parenting message board. Those boards are gone, but a core group of us still remain as friends who are now connected on Facebook. While we could discuss the merits of "electronic relationships", I can say with certainty that a good handful of people that I initially met in an online environment have enriched my life tremendously and I truly love and care for them, and I know that they care for me. 

 

Our online group was both shocked and saddened to hear of Tricia and her husband Brandon's loss. One of the pitfalls of the online world is not being available to really help in a time of need, and I know I speak for many of us, we all felt helpless and really wanted to be able to do something to help Tricia. I never get political here on my blog, but it's always been my mindset that we the people should be doing more to help each other than expecting somebody else (hello...the government) to take care of our fellow citizens for us. 

 

This is my attempt to help Tricia and Brandon. I can't imagine the pain that these people and their family must be going through. If you're reading this today, you're part of my online community of friends and today I'm asking you to help me help Tricia and Brandon. 

 

Tricia has started a blog about her experience and the unusual path that this journey has taken her. I really hope that you'll read her story and maybe even contribute a dollar of two. If you can't do that, then please just leave her a comment and some positive thoughts. 

Here is Tricia's blog and story:  Want To Be Untied  It is truly a story of love, loss, and a chance to move forward.

I truly believe that the kindness of people combined with the power of the internet can make miracles happen. Please help me help Tricia.  Thank you for reading and thank you for being my online friend. 

Photos courtesy of Tricia Vlasek.

Digi Dares are Back!

Hello, hello.....is anybody out there?  Probably not, which means that I'm now talking to myself, but that's okay. I'll post about that later. Right now I'm struggling with whether to come back from my hiatus. I really have mixed feelings about it, but my advertisers are giving me the big poke to get rolling, so I know I have to make a decision. I'll do that soon...probably this weekend, I promise (and I will keep you posted either way!).

And speaking of coming back from hiatus, The Digi Dares team has been on holiday for about a month, but we're back again starting today. Come check out our new look, our new sponsors, and our new dares, of course.  Here's the link:  The Digi Dares  This week's dare has a multi photo theme, and here's my layout:

Isn't that group shot just a hoot?  I'm glad I wasn't the photographer trying to position over 130 people at one time!