people are amazing. every day i am humbled and fascinated by the people around me. they appear on the outside to just be average, ordinary people with lives to live, just like me. but i have realized that if you stop for a moment to take a look inside, every single person on this planet is worth loving. everyone has a story worth hearing. as i grow older, and hopefully less selfish and focused on mememe, i feel like i love people more. this also means i hurt more, i pray more, i hug more (even occasional frontal hugs) and i cry more. that all goes along with loving more, so i think it's a good thing.

lately, i have been very blessed to know someone who is fighting a battle against cancer. i hate to say it like that--cancer is not a blessing--but knowing this woman has very much affected my life. for one, she has amazing faith in God. i need that. i gain strength in my own faith just by reading her words (she is the one who got me started on this whole blog thing in the first place). also, i have been honored to be a part of a committee planning a benefit for her family. nearly every day i am blown away by some new generosity...someone wants to donate an amazing gift, someone wants to volunteer, someone says "what do you need? how can i help?"

as i look over a two-page list of silent auction items, all donated, my heart is full. it seems that this event has come together nearly perfectly so far. the generous dj happened to be available on a saturday in the middle of wedding season. a kind-hearted "angle" donor came forward with money to cover an expense at just the right time. it has even rained so that the softball complex is beautiful and green instead of brown and dead like it was just two weeks ago. i have known from the very beginning that God's hand was involved in this benefit, and in my friend's life. she herself has said that He will use this experience to make her a better person.

little did i know He was doing the same for me.

as a side note about amazing people, i just have to say that through this experience and the experience of being friends with the same awesome group of women for nearly 15 years now...there is HUGE power in girl power. when i read the blogs of my friends or get together to share life's struggles, joys and sorrows...i am SO GLAD to be a girl. i love my friends and my mother and my grandmothers so much...girl power. there is nothing like it.