“Everybody’s got Something”

REMEMBER THIS ESPY SPEECH? Do yourself a favor and click the above link to watch Jimmy Valvano accept the Arthur Ash courage award. Wether it’ll be for your first time or the 100th time. This speech is great & will never get old for me.

It seems almost every day I have at least one “woe is me” moment where I’m pissed or sad that this is happening. Then I follow it with “suck it up Dixon” my usual self-pep talk. (Yes, I revert to the maiden name when yelling at myself and often in competitive moments, like needing to sink a put or beat Maria’s boyfriend in pop-o-shot:).

Sports have been a big part of my life. I love to play, watch and coach all things sporty. Maybe I’m the original “sporty-spice” undiscovered? I have grown from the athlete to that annoying side-line mom that yells to much or coaches from the stands to much, hence why I usually just volunteer to BE the coach.

I love how coaches inspire, like Jimmy V’s speech. I love how athletes inspire. And now I appreciate more than anything how any human can inspire. So many men & women have come into adversity and won. Have won battles with cancer, heart disease, diabetes, loss of a loved one, many forms of rough patches in life have been conquered. Sadly, plenty of battles have been lost too, but after a fight. Humans are built to be strong-willed even if we don’t know we have it inside.

So many folks have reminded me how strong and tough I am. Ok, they’re right, but I can be a buck-05-weaky inside quite often. In those “woe is me” moments I hear the words of many calling me a bad-ass and use those words & Jimmy V type videos to remind me that the battle will be won sooner than later.

This month has some tough memories that were led by tough battles. Today would be my cousins 47th birthday and next month will be the 3rd anniversary of his death. The 21st is the one year anniversary of our young neighbors suicide, followed by what would’ve been my fathers 77th birthday on the 26th. There will be tears shed for all but they all left so many smiles, memories and forever footprints ? on many peoples lives.

One lost to chemical addiction, another to a mental health battle, and last, although he passed in his older years he battled heart disease, addiction, and mental health. The reality is everybody’s got something! Robin Roberts accepted her ESPY Arthur Ash award stating just that…”Everybody’s got something” which later became the title to one of her books.

It’s so true! As I’m binge watching “Bloodline” on Netflix – that family has a whole lot of “something’s” yet look picture perfect to the rest of the world. (I highly recommend watching this show BTW). Whatever our “something” is we just need to own it, fight it, and hopefully beat it. If the “it” belongs to you or someone in your family or a friend, try your best to understand and not judge. Tough love isn’t a bad thing either if/when needed.

Two phrases my mother has always loved saying are to give “tough love” and “unconditional love” which are difficult yet needed in many phases of life. She often started or followed somewhere along the lines with another fab phrase “do as I say, not as I do” ? But those go without saying many-o-times for us parents as our children reach teenage years and beyond!

So today as I lay around recovering, planning my life around chemo and completing other cancer-related tasks in addition to the usual home & work to-do lists, my goal is to nix the self-pity thoughts and embrace the “you’re a bad-ass” cheers.

After months of cancer talk becoming kitchen table conversation and simply just part of life now, I chose to put this VIDEO together of NON cancer-related moments that we’ve enjoyed since I was diagnosed. Life happens & throughout the bad stuff we’re still always making more fantabulous memories!!!