SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
We are going to be on TV this week. KNBC, our local NBC affiliate will be airing a segment this week on the MS Walk and living with the disease and we were interviewed. If you are in Southern California, please tune in and watch the news at 5:00PM. We don’t know what day it will air, so tune in daily. Thanks.
Part One – The Lesson
Asking for help may be one of the hardest things that we ever learn to do. We like to be able to do things on our own. We like it when we can help ourselves. We like not having to depend on others.
Living with a disability has forced me to learn to ask for help. I can no longer do all the things that I used to do, but I do as much as I can. Sometimes I stubbornly refuse to allow people to help me because I want to do it myself. I want to do as much as I can, as well as I can for as long as I can. Truthfully, there are times when I ask for help and don’t absolutely need it. As a practical matter, it is just easier, faster and better if someone helps me.
Having to ask for help has taught me a few things.
Everyone needs help sometimes. I just need more than others
Being nice is passive. Kindness never is.
The world s filled with kind people
People want to help someone who needs it.
Family and friends are happy to help….and so are strangers, too.
Having been the beneficiary of so many acts of kindness has boosted my faith in people. Knowing that there are so many kind and willing people ready to help has made it easier to ask for.
Part Two – We need help.
MS doesn’t slow down just because the economy does. As most of you know, our team, the JiggyWiggits, has been among the top fundraisers in the country for two years in a row. This year both our team and Gail and I as individuals will be lucky if we raise half as much as we did last year. We have asked more people, more times for more money than ever before and it is just not coming in. That is certainly a sign of the times………..and we are not alone. To date, the Southern California Chapter has not yet raised half of last year’s total.
So I am asking for your help. I am asking everyone for $10, $20 or whatever you can afford. If you can’t afford it, we understand. But if you can, I am asking for your help. The only way that we can cure this disease is by funding the necessary research and we cannot do it alone. But we can do it together. If everybody does a little, a lot will get done. We can cure this disease. We can change the world.
Make a difference. Click on the link below and help cure this disease. Thank you.
http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR?pg=team&fr_id=10168&team_id=140969
Participate. Make a difference. Live a life that matters.
It is always very hard for me to ask for help, I think I can do it myself. I have realized there are many people happy to help.
ReplyDeleteYou're a very cool guy, Michael! Having a positive view on life each day makes such a difference! I saw you on NBC this morning and just had to thank you for bringing hope to MS patients.
ReplyDeleteI've had recurring/ remitting MS since 1987 and have had several problems with it (blindness, paralysis, falling down, etc) except when I lived here for 2 yrs in the desert of CA from '91-'93, I felt I was magically cured so went back to Chicago to be with my parents, but the symptoms came back.
I'd read many books by patients with MS and one said that CLIMATE has a lot to do with it and I am now proof of that: I returned to the desert in 1998 and haven't had a recurrance ever since! My neurologists never told me this since they just wanted to sell me on their ABC drugs which I rejected.
I bought a little house on 6 beautiful desert acres and watch the many dozens of rabbits and quail walking by. I'm no longer blind or paralyzed so can see the clouds over the mts and leaving snow in the distance. I can walk to the backyard and leave food scraps for the coyotes thus giving my rabbits a break from their being hunted.
Every day is a blessing here and I thank God every day for this paradise which has kept my MS in check!
I live alone so have no choice.
Now I dog sit for my neighbors and that helps me keep a semi-job since I can't do what I did before (work as a State Officer for the criminally insane at a hospital).
God bless you, Michael, and your family. I'm happy for you all and your spirit is appreciated so much!!!
Love, Babs
Yucca Valley, CA
nessi92000@yahoo.com
It's no surprise to me Michael, that you and Gail have achieved the success with the " JiggyWiggets".......last year......and the one to come ! You're a very special couple, whose enthusiasm for life...........for an answer to the eradication of MS......a couple who gives hope......to thousands of people afflicted with MS.......by your sheer will and determination to move forward........I just have to applaud and congratulate you both for helping to raise awareness........and......money for this very important cause. So.......congratulations for a job...........very, very......well done !..........peace and love........Norma
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