Putting things in to prespective...

Normally on a Monday morning I would write about the epic rides of the weekend, how hard we trained, or maybe some cool thing I came across on the internet over the weekend. This isn't going to be one of those posts.
One of the Virginia Cycling Association members posted a link to his blog about the wife of a blogger/cyclist named Elden who refers to himself as The Fat Cyclist. The link on his blog took me to a post titled "Like Dandelion Seeds". At first what I thought was going to be a completely innocuous post turned out to be heart wrenching story about his family's ordeals as his wife fights cancer. I had not previously seen Elden's site so I was completely taken by how openly he writes about having the discussions with his children about their mother's illness. Another post titled "Gratitude" discusses what it is like to now to know your loved one is going to die, but not know when, and not have the abilities to do all of those "gotta do it before you die" things such as travel to exotic locations and skydiving. He goes in to depth about a lot of topics that most people would try to internalize.
Prior to reading Elden's posts I didn't know him or his family but now they feel like friends. Reading about his wife's battle and then listening to a friend's stories about their battle with recently diagnosed cancer has got me thinking about how grateful I am for those around me, my health, and everything else.  As I sat there at the game with my wife watching my son, who is on the honor roll, play baseball and the game went a little longer than planned, that was alright, I was with family and all is well. This weekend really opened my eyes to the fact that everything could change in an instant and I should really cherish what I have and not be so concerned about the other stuff.
On May 19th The Fat Cyclist will start selling some cool cycling jerseys with all of the profits going to help support his family and his wife's medical costs. For $70 the jersey isn't priced too high and you will know where the profit is going. So seriously consider picking one up in the 19th. If the $70 jersey is too much there is also a paypal link on his site.