Before I get to today’s post, I want to share with you the newly established Kelsey Wynne Harris Foundation. The website is still under construction and the foundation is just getting under way so keep your eyes on that site to learn more about the foundation and what it will accomplish. However, at the site as it is, you can already find Kelsey’s story and read some of her writings.
Kelsey’s number one key while she fought her cancer was to maintain happiness. When asked how she could always be so happy, she said with maturity beyond her years, “Life’s more interesting when your happy.” That has become a mantra for many who knew or were touched by Kelsey. The goal of the foundation is to help promote happiness in other cancer patients. They will be giving free gifts prompted by this quote to cancer patients, plus providing scholarships for others to attend Kelsey’s favorite summer camp. Who knows where else this will go to give encouragement, comfort, and happiness to others afflicted with this most depressing and debilitating disease.
If you would like to help the foundation, you can do so by purchasing t-shirts and other memorabilia emblazoned with Kelsey’s quote, “Life’s more interesting when your happy.” I think the quote can help no matter what you’re dealing with. Not to mention when you purchase this reminder you are helping spread happiness to others who are suffering.
By the way, none of the links on this page have any kind of affiliate program going on. None of the money from your purchases will be wasted on greasing my pockets. It will all go to help Kelsey’s foundation. So, feel free to use the links on this post with impunity.
Eating Something Worth Tasting
(If you need to know what this is all about, start with the first post in the series and click through the succeeding links. Also, as posts are added links will be placed in that first post to each one.)
Today, I want to…
Eat Something Worth Tasting.
Does this sound familiar?
“Where do you want to eat tonight?”
“I don’t know; where do you want to eat?”
“I don’t know; what sounds good to you?”
“I don’t know.”
The conversation goes back and forth, you begin to list all the restaurants in the area. Despite the delicious offerings each restaurant represents you just can’t seem to decide what your taste buds want. This is choice overload. This past Sunday was Fathers Day. My family and I drove around trying to decide what to eat. The really sad part about it was the number of restaurants we checked off our list because that would be just like going out when we normally go out. We wanted something special, something different from the norm.
There are folks in huge sections of the world who just can’t fathom this massive amount of choice that we Americans have when it comes to eating. There are some folks whose goal today is hopefully just to get to eat something. But we have a greater blessing. We get to choose what tastes good to us.
I know why this made the cut on Kelsey’s resolution list. Kelsey, following in the footsteps of her dad, loved to check out local flavor. She was an amateur restaurant critic. She loved to try the new. After all, she never knew exactly when she was going to eat something really worth tasting. In fact, Kelsey and her dad had a rule on vacation—never eat anywhere they could eat while at home.
I’m actually kind of envious. I’m more of a creature of habit. I look around and see restaurants I don’t recognize and think, “Oh no, what if I don’t like that.” They stepped up to the challenge as a way of life. When I go out to eat later tonight, I’ll probably order the exact same thing I ordered the last few times. Why? Because I know that is worth tasting.
Interestingly, what I get from this is we both want to eat something worth tasting today, but we come at it from different angles. I’m sure on all the points of this resolution list, I see things a little differently than Kelsey did, but on this one, we are at opposite ends of the spectrum. Perhaps we can get Simon, Kelsey’s dad, to do a guest post some time to help us see Kelsey’s desire to eat something worth tasting.
For me, this statement just makes me think about the amazing blessings in our lives. Of course, the amazing thing about the internet is that people from all over the world can read this. Perhaps you don’t enjoy these blessings, but my American readers do.
I get to have a handful of favorites because we have the same restaurants all over the place. Kelsey and her dad could continually try something new because there are seemingly endless choices.
Amazingly, for all of this, we still try to act like we are so poor. We gripe because we don’t have so many different things. We act like God has withheld so many blessings from us. But think about it. We can have “I want to eat something worth tasting” on our list of goals for the day.
Here’s the challenge for today. Make today a whine free day. Make it a day where you do nothing but count your blessings. Make a list of the many ways in which you are blessed. Can you see? (You are reading a blog.) Can you hear? Can you talk? Can you breathe? Have you eaten? Do you have clothes on? Are your clothes clean? Were they cleaned in a washing machine? Do you have extra clothes in your closet? Are you reading this on a computer? Did you drive your car today? Can you walk?
Do you see the point? How blessed are you?
Don’t take the simple things for granted. God doesn’t owe them to you. He could take them away at any moment. Count your blessings today and give thanks. In fact, make that a daily exercise. Write out a gratitude list each day of 5, 10, 20 things you are thankful for. See how that doesn’t change your view of your life. Somewhere on the list, you may want to include that you got to eat something worth tasting.
(Come back next week for a guest post by Simon Harris, Kelsey’s dad, about this same topic, eating something worth tasting.)