Thankful...

So I'm flying home tomorrow to be with my family. My Parren Tony (my Mom's only brother and my godfather) is in critical condition. He suffered a massive heart attack a week and a half ago - and as a result, the right side of his heart is not working and he's got a myriad of other things that have gone wrong. My heart is very sad.

He's lived a hard life - Vietnam veteran (suffers post traumatic stress disorder), likes Cajun Food, beer and doing the cay-ee-mon (it's a dance)! He's one of the kindest, most generous people you'll ever meet. And that's not an exaggeration. He would give you the shirt off his back or the last dollar in his wallet if you needed it - and without hestitation or wanting anything in return. He never knew a stranger and is always the first to step in to lend a hand. He never likes to see people angry or sad. And while at times it drives you nuts that he's always saying "why are you mad?" "what's wrong - don't be mad" and things like that - it usually did help break the tension and helped to make things better.

Unfortunately - this hard lifestyle of fried food, alcohol and stress is catching up with him. And I just hope that, because of this, the rest of my family will get a little wake up call and start making changes in their lives too.

Jimmy and I are health nuts - gym rats - whatever the label is that you want to put on it. And we've tried introducing healthier lifestyle options to our family. Some are taking notice and making baby step changes. Others make comments and continue on with the fried fried. I hope that through this process, we can help teach them little things to become healthier.

You can't blame yourself for other's lifestyles - but you take their hard lessons learned and use them to make good changes in your own lives so you don't end up down the same path.