It’s an interesting story how “ANY ROAD” came about…one that I’ll share at some point, but since that is the title of my presentation, the theme of the talks I give, even the license plates on my car… it seems fitting that I start today with reference to a road in life I recently traveled. I’ve learned that you can map out, plan and try to control the “roads you will travel”, but we’re really not in control of any of it. You don’t always know when you’ll encounter a pothole, a storm, a flat tire, a detour. You can and should hope for things, but you never know where all the awesome fresh smooth pavement and rainbows will show up either! God chooses all of that for us. I’ve learned to find the courage to travel down ANY ROAD that is put in front of me, because sometimes it’s in the detours that the biggest blessings lie!

 

The other day I was on a road in South Dakota that was leading me to a meeting in a town a couple hours from us. In the last year, something extremely special was placed in the town I was headed to. Since that time, I’ve been to this town for a few of these same business meetings, but I wasn’t ready for anything but the financial meeting I was headed to. Until this trip. It was time. I was going to take a left and go there. Go to a place that I’m not sure anything along the road of life can prepare you for, and I’m also not sure that I’ll find the right words to describe. After my meeting, I was going to meet Larry, the man that received Austin’s heart in a transplant. Austin was my best friend Janell’s youngest son. Austin died in a motorcycle accident.

 

The road to the death of a child is one that I don’t think any of us would choose to travel. I received a call on May 23, 2009 from Janell that her 20 year old son Austin had been in a motorcycle accident, and it wasn’t good. Austin called me his “South Dakota Mom”, and Janell is the kind of friend that simply inspires you to be a better friend. The kind that never misses a birthday, or a chance to give you a smile or a word of encouragement, always right when you need it most. She’s also the kind of mom that inspires you to be the best mom you can be. I CHERISH her. Janell has 3 sons, and Austin was the youngest. My special connection with Austin was motorcycles. He LOVED them and couldn’t wait to get his own. He loved that our daughters, Erika and Karlee, and I all ride, and that we have a motorcycle shop. Austin would send us emails from college asking questions about bikes and gear. Janell and I have been close friends for many years, and wow have WE traveled some interesting roads together! Our kids are like siblings, and this trip wasn’t going to be easy for any of us. Austin was in Minnesota, I was in South Dakota, and Janell was in Kentucky. Karlee and I got in the car and we started the 5 hour drive to Minneapolis to meet Janell there. There was no question that we would go down this road by her side, and we didn’t have any idea what we would find.

 

Austin had his helmet on, jacket, gloves – all the right safety gear, and was on a friend’s bike just taking a quick ride. He wasn’t speeding, wasn’t on a dangerous road, and the weather was great. He stopped to have a sandwich and on the way back, lost control of the motorcycle. It could have been the dip in the road, it could have been a number of things, we will never know, but he hit a guard rail and was caught enough to be pulled off the bike and in that moment, the road of life for him and more people than we can ever dream or imagine, changed.

 

Austin had shared with his mom Janell that he’d recently taken a class about organ donation, and he was excited about being a donor. So there was no question that this young healthy boy was going to touch the lives of many. He had in life, and now he would keep right on doing that after his death. That ended up being a ray of light in a dark situation for Janell. Austin had a very dynamic personality – he talked alot, always seemed happy, and was really getting into playing guitar along with writing his own songs. He had dreams of heading to Nashville some day. So many dreams and plans that would make you smile as he’d talk about them because nothing was a boundary or barrier for him. He dreamed BIG. Austin’s dreams didn’t die with him, they are being lived out now by many organ recipients who cherish him, his family, and his dreams.

 

I walked up to Larry’s house and his wife Kelly walked out to greet me first. There were tears even before we hugged. We went inside. Larry came out and we stood embraced in a hug for many many minutes, not sobbing, just crying, just holding onto each other. What can you possibly say in this moment? What word could describe this? Then I asked him “can I listen?”. He said, “of course”. I laid my ear against Larry’s chest and I listened to the heart beat. I listened to LIFE. Life that Larry, who was in stage 4 heart failure previous, could now LIVE because Austin had died. How tragic and happy in the same moment. I was humbled. How could I be so blessed as to hear this heart beating life? I was there when Austin’s death was pronounced. Why did you choose me today God to be present in this? The why’s don’t often get answered, but I sure wasn’t going to waste one second. Brian and I sat and talked to Larry and Kelly for almost 2 hours. At first it was a little awkward, none of us had ever been in this type of setting or conversation, and then we shared our stories.

 

One of the crazy ironies in life is this…when you are on an organ transplant waiting list, and you are praying for a donor, there are moments when you realize that in order for that to happen, that in order for you to live, someone else will die. Stop for a second and just try to wrap your mind around that thought.

 

Janell has made contact with many of the recipients of Austin’s organs. I told her from the beginning that I knew that she would have so many new friends because there was not a chance that if they were willing, she was willing and she wanted to meet each and every one of them. I travel alot and at different times in different states, there have been people around me or in the car with me when I’ve received and shared about the calls from Janell… “I talked to the kidney recipient today!” or  “I talked to the lung recipient today!” Because of the way that she’s embraced something amazing from something tragic, she is inspiring people all around the world with this story. That is Austin. That is dreaming BIG and making a BIG impact.

 

Because I represent motorcycles and the motorcycle industry, and that was my special connection with Austin, I wasn’t sure what I would walk into when I arrived at the hospital. He died doing something he loved, yet there are many that would ban all motorcycles and never even dream of getting on one by just hearing that someone had an accident, let alone pass away. Riding isn’t for everyone, and there is risk involved. If you ask me, or I bet if you asked Austin, we would tell you that you’re right, it’s not for everyone, we each have that special thing that God has given us that makes us giggle – and it’s different for each one of us. I would also tell you that yes, there is more risk involved in riding a bike than in driving a car, so take the safety course, and do it right. But does that mean that something like this will never happen to you? No. It doesn’t mean you won’t get in a car accident either. We have to LIVE LIFE and Austin was an example of that. I often feel him with me when I’m out riding, I often ride FOR him or dedicate my ride to him because I know he loved it so much. And I didn’t walk into anything unforeseen that day. I walked into my best friend’s family grieving, but clinging to their faith and believing that God had a reason for this too. Cherishing that they got 20 years with Austin, and embracing every thought of every recipient that could live because Austin died. And they welcomed me in as family.

 

While I would have never chosen this part of the ride, not in a million years, I can’t even explain what I’ve learned and gained and been blessed with because of it. Don’t be afraid to travel down ANY ROAD that is put in front of you.

  Thats right if you are selected winner of the Ultimate Biker Makeover you will receive a gift certificate to Otterbox for a technology case of your choice.  How about a sturdy case for your ipod or blackberry?  

OtterBox was created in 1998 and built upon fundamentals of hard work, creativity and perseverance. Otterbox cases are dedicated to all the klutzy, spontaneous, chaotic, graceless individuals who have broken a device or valuable due to their active lifestyle, these cases will keep your stuff safe!  HURRY up deadline for entries for the Ultimate Biker Makeover is Monday May 10th 2010. Click here for all the info on how to enter. 

We stumbled across this on the Columbia blog,  22-year old Katie Spotz has a penchant for endurance sports, but her most recent undertaking, Row For Water, tops them all. Katie rowed across the Atlantic, solo, in order to raise money and awareness for clean water access. In doing so, she became the youngest person to ever row across an ocean. What’s more, she rowed from Africa to South America, a difficult route that does not benefit from the prevailing trade winds. Nice work Katie. We’re glad you’re out there. 

The organization Katie’s project benefited is the Blue Planet Run Foundation. A San Francisco based non-profit, Blue Planet Run funds safe drinking water projects for the billion people around the world in need of clean water. Unsafe drinking water is the world’s leading cause of sickness and disease, but it is a solvable problem. 

My life has been a yo-yo ride of weight loss and gain. I’ve lived like I’m indestructible and never really cared about my health. I was the person who would sit and watch the Biggest Loser while eating a Big Mac and large fries. Simply put, I was a mess!

In the spring of 2009, as I was thinking of our Sturgis trip in the fall, I decided to try P90X and change my eating habits. I worked hard at it and was seeing results. Weight was dropping off me. I was excited with the lighter me that went to Sturgis that year. I had lost about 20lbs. When we got back from the trip I posted photos from Sturgis on my blog and on Facebook. People kept asking who the skinny girl was. I thought nothing of the comments because I had been working out a lot before the trip. About a month after Sturgis my vision began getting blurry. It got to the point that I was having difficulty seeing so I decided to have my eyes checked. The eye doctor at Lenscrafters was very concerned and told me that I needed to see my family doctor that Monday. He told me that he believed something was wrong with my health. I went to the doctor and he sent me to an eye specialist. The specialist told me that he felt I needed to have blood tests and he also wanted me to see another eye specialist. That specialist also thought I needed to have blood tests. I made another appointment with my family doctor to have blood tests. My husband Dan drove me to the doctor because by then I wasn’t able to see well enough to drive. I went in and had the blood tests while Dan waited in the car. As I was returning to the car a nurse came out after me. She said I needed to come back and see the doctor. I walked to the car and told Dan I needed to go back in. He went in with me to wait for the doctor. The nurse told me that my hemoglobin level was so low they were surprised I could even walk. The doctor told me he was sending me right over to John Stoddard Cancer Center because he believed that I had Leukemia. 

The ride to the hospital was the longest of my life. I was crying, I was dumbfounded. How was this happening to me? I met with the Oncologist and his nurse, that my doctor referred me to. I was admitted to the hospital that day. That day I received 9 blood transfusions and I also received platelets. A few days after being admitted my Oncologist finally came in and diagnosed me with having Hairy Cell Leukemia. I was moved to the Oncology floor of Methodist Medical Center and spent 29 days of my life there. I underwent 7 straight days of chemotherapy. 

During my stay I had a lot of time to think. I thought of how I haven’t lived my life to the fullest. I thought of how unhappy I’ve been throughout my life with how I look and never being “thin” enough. I thought of all the times I’ve sat and watched when I should have been out there living. 

The day I went home was so scary. A person really becomes attached to the health care providers that they see everyday. I swear I took my temperature every 1/2 hour. Day by day I became stronger and would make myself walk around the block. When you are not active you lose allot of strength. I needed to get that strength back so I decided to begin working out again. I lost 40lbs because of Leukemia. 40lbs that I needed to lose but having Leukemia wasn’t really how I wanted to lose it. I turned it into a positive though, this was going to be one of the good things that I got out of all of this. I vowed to get healthy. Dan and I purchased a treadmill and I started walking on it daily. One day Dan was showing me some Pod-runner Pod-casts. One of the pod-casts caught my eye, it was called Intervals 1st Day to 5k. At that moment I decided to train for a 5k run. It was slow going at first. I’ve never been a runner. I was always the slowest kid in school when it came to the Presidential fitness 1 mile run test. The first week I was able to run a mile in 18 minutes. When I got to week 5 I was at 13 minute miles. I made it to week 10 and am now able to run a 5k on the treadmill in 40 minutes. What a huge accomplishment for me. I’m feeling the best I’ve ever felt. I’m on my way to being a healthy, sexy, strong woman. The woman that has always been inside me but took 41 years to find. No one is stopping me now. Currently I’m working on the Pod-runner Pod-cast Gateway to 8k. 

This bump in the road opened my eyes to life. We don’t realize how much we take life for granted. A person needs to be in the mindset that one can’t put things off until tomorrow because tomorrow may not come. DO IT NOW! Become the best person you can be. Don’t wait like I did because a disease like Leukemia smacked you in the face. I was lucky. I got a second chance. Take your first chance and run with it. Live your life NOW!

How would you like to be sportin’ a new pair of 7 EYE riding glasses? Well if you send in your submission for the Ultimate Biker Makeover you could win a pair just like these along with a ‘gazzillion other prizes. So get your submissions in before May 10th 2010. Click here for all the info. 

a little ditty about  7 Eye.  

7eye is dedicated to enhancing our customers’ experience by providing eyewear with superior protective properties and extraordinary performance. We use the most advanced lens technology, powered by NXT®, to deliver first-rate clarity and color management in every lens in our line. Our patented frame designs feature Airlock, a non-air-permeable shield against wind, glare and airborne irritants that maintains a comfortable environment for your eyes. Airlock performs wonders for people with dry eye symptoms or for those who engage in activities where their eyes are vulnerable to high doses of wind and glare. 7eye gives people the freedom to do what they love better, longer and in greater comfort.