The Beauty of Being Blind

To my amazement, over the past year and a half, I’ve continued to receive Smile Cards on a regular basis to take to the Brigham. Sometimes they’re from friends or family but more often than not, they’re from individuals or groups that I’m not associated with or know personally. Upon returning from the Cape on Saturday, I was immediately greeted with two batches of cards from different people. After we unpacked, I started reading thru them and, as I always am, I was moved by the kind words these strangers were writing to patients. But as I was reading through them, my mind wandered to the many tragic events that have unfolded in our country and throughout the world in the past month. It struck me, quite poignantly, that the many children and adults writing these cards don’t know who they’re writing to so they certainly don’t know the patients’ race or religion or gender or sexuality. They just know that they’re a human being. A human being in need of some support and so they selflessly offer their love, prayers and healing thoughts to complete and total strangers.

I wish that we could all see the world like the people who write these smile cards do…blind to the labels society puts on people. Blind to whether or not the person is voting for Hillary or Trump, blind to what kind of car they drive or what God they believe in or whether they’re gay or straight or transgender. They’re blind to it all; all except the fact that there’s a human being on the other end of that card, there’s a human being in a hospital bed that has a family and friends that love them. In the end, isn’t that all we really need to know? A person, just like us, is in need… We should help. 
It’s time we see people truly for the heart that beats within them.
Thank you to every single person who has written a Smile Card over the past year and a half. You’re making the world a more caring place. Keep them coming!
Lots of love & light,

Jessy

A Little Story for the Heart

Today was a long day, I spent over 6 hours at the hospital and couldn’t connect to wifi so I couldn’t get a lot of things done for work that I needed to. So that put me to work until a few minutes ago. Booooo, boooo, boooo. I have a headache and I’m just feeling tired and whine-y. So today I feel far from a warrior princess, far from inspiring. But I wanted to write because I heard a story that made me smile and inspired me so I felt I needed to share with you all.

Today I met with Dr. Mandy. As we always do, we chatted about lots beyond leukemia. She has a 5 year old nephew that she loves dearly and let me tell you, is such a handsome little bugger. He was in the airport with his grandmother and there was a woman with dwarfism and as he passed by, he asked out loud why this adult had a “little kids” body? His grandmother quickly gave him the life lesson lecture about how everybody is different and how it’s not nice or polite to point out people’s differences, but instead we should accept people for who they are. He seemed to understand and they moved on. Later as they were boarding the plane, they went to get in their seats and as luck would have it, the woman with dwarfism was sitting right next to him. The grandmother got nervous as she could see his eyes widening and thoughts swirling around his little head… “Oh no, what is he going to say?” But then he looked at her and said “you know what? I think you’re beautiful.” 

You know what, I think you’re beautiful

This girl has probably gotten so many stares, people have probably made fun of her or bullied her in school. But on this random day, a little 5 year old saw what we all should see, that everyone is beautiful. We can learn so much from children and this is a great example. 

I just wanted to share this so we can all be reminded to look past people’s appearances, to give everyone the equal respect that they deserve, to be accepting of people’s differences. Simply put, it’s a reminder to just be kind to others. Just. Be. Kind. 

Lots of love and light,

Jessy