Today I’m joining Emily at chatting at the sky to unwrap one simple word. Aware.
Awareness.
What does it mean to be aware or have awareness? It means you educate yourself.
How many of you really know what Multiple Sclerosis is? I sure didn’t. And why is it, we don’t feel the need to educate ourselves on something until it affects us or hits close to home?
So sad really. And trust me … I’m not pointing any fingers here. I’m as ignorant much to blame as the next guy.
But what a gift we have in all of the tools available to us … instantly, at our fingertips … to make us aware. To help educate us.
The National MS Society is hosting an MS Awareness Week {March 8-14} with ways to “move it toward a world free of MS.” I urge you to follow the awareness link to find ways you can make a difference {MS Walk, MS Bike, volunteering, donating}.
Other ways to raise MS awareness? Consider:
- Using one of the MS badges as your Facebook, MySpace or Twitter profile pic.
- Using a Twibbon on your current profile pic.
- Using one of these downloads as your email signature.
- Putting a banner, button, or badge on your blog or website and forward information to everyone you know to do the same. Heck, you could even post about it! ;)
- “Donating” your Facebook status and profile pic during MS Awareness week with the following status: {your name} is donating {his or her} status to MS Awareness Week: www.nationalmssociety.org/msawarenessweek
If you’d like to do any one of these things, but have questions or can’t work the download, etc. Please don’t hesitate to leave a comment, or drop me a note. I’m more than willing to help out!
One last thing … I’ve put together an MS Walk team … {stier}ing For A Cure … do you love it? ;) We’re walking on April 18. My beautiful friend wrote a post about it here. You can use her link to donate or join the team. Or you can go to my personal page to donate or join the team.
And … I realize not everyone can donate funds … but the very least we can and should do … is raise awareness. And quite honestly … I don’t mean just for my cause, but for every cause. Now that would be a gift we could unwrap for someone everyday.
I posted this video last August. Reading over that post … I feel like I’ve come so far. Minus the fact that, in that post I say that I haven’t cried that much about my diagnosis {while watching video}. since my diagnosis. Quite honestly, I just watched it again … and I don’t think I’ve cried as much as I just did {about my diagnosis}, since the last time I watched it.
I’m not sure what it is … but it just gets me. I really hope you’ll take the time to watch this very important video. And I especially hope that you’ll take the time to educate yourself and raise awareness on a cause that is new to you {whether that’s MS, a disease, the environment, the global water crisis, or even the local food shelter down your street}.
What a moving video! I love that it shows people living with MS, having productive, full lives. Sadly, I am terribly uninformed about MS but I’m off to do a little reading about it now – thank you for motivating me to raise the veil of ignorance.
oh that video! i honestly was about to look for it for my post and knew i’d be a wreck if i watched it again, so didn’t.
and it’s so easy to fall into the trap of only being aware of what directly affects us (or our own little world). i hope that more people take the time to educate themselves and become aware about any of the worthy causes in the world today!
great post tracie!!
I have MS and so appreciate everyone that takes the time to raise money and awareness. It puts us that much closer to a cure!
Thank you for this post. I couldn’t get the video to work here, but I was able to view it in your original post. I played the video for my kids so we could talk a little about MS. I thought of you last night when I was reading Joel Osteen– “When you rejoice in the misdst of your difficulties, your’ve giving the enemy a black eye. He doesn’t know what to do with people who keep giving God praise despite their circumstances. Make your choice to enjoy your life to the fullest today.” He must know YOU!!!!!!!