There were many things Christian talked about having tattoed on his body just to give his mother some grey hair and something to fuss about, but one thing he never mentioned was “Carpe Diem” and that would have been some of the most appropriate words he could have permanently inked on his skin. Christian woke up in the mornings looking for a way to wring some more life out of each day. I would wake up some mornings and he would already be out on the jet ski having the time of his life at 6 AM all by himself. Just him, God and the lake as he raced against himself and the sunrise. Never still for too long because that would be boring and life in Christian’s world could never be boring. Christian didn’t tolerate boring for very long. In his mind the day was too short and he had too much living to do in that day to waste being bored. Vonnegut summed Christian up…..
I want to stand as close to the edge as I can
without going over. On the edge you can see all kinds
of things you can’t see from the center.
We could sum up Magnolia Son’s year with “we’ve had a great year!” like so many have on Facebook but in some ways that would be dishonest. Because if I were honest… I would say I wish there had never been a need for Magnolia Son because that would mean my son was here and it was just another New Year’s Eve night with the only worry being that all my children made it home safe from their various celebrations…….but there is a need for Magnolia Son and our organization has been blessed with great supporters, donations and most of all friends. We have sold over 300 t-shirts since August with the help of friends, my brother, Harry Mayer and BellaG. We have had a successful fundraiser, we have obtained our 501(c) 3 status and most importantly have provided 17 kids with the opportunity to shop for their dream pair of shoes. Just today I took three girls shopping and I heard one of them tell the other girls
“I feel like a princess for today.”
I was glad that Magnolia Son could provide that feeling of being special if only for one day to a child. A child who had been abused and abandoned by her own family and had probably never felt “special” in a good way in a long time. It reminded me of the picture of Christian with the princess veil on and I told her the story of him in Books a Million making everyone laugh because he was walking around the store in a pink princess veil on his head. 🙂 Just another example of Christian making the most of every day. She sweetly said “Mrs. Rae you don’t have to talk about him if you don’t want to.” and I told her “I am OK with talking about him because he is still making people laugh with all of his cutting up and he would love knowing that.”
In true Christian style we have BIG plans for 2015. Chris doesn’t do small either. Christian got it honestly I guess. He has some exciting fundraisers in the planning stages for the upcoming year and I have new t-shirt designs and hopefully new items that we can bring into the Magnolia Son inventory. Our goal is to serve a minimum of 100 children in 2015 and have merchandise in at least 10 stores by the end of the year. Maybe a little ambitious but we plan to Live Life Large in 2015 and set LARGE goals. Christian wouldn’t want it any other way….
And instead of wishing everyone a Happy New Year
we are saying
CARPE DIEM … EVERYDAY this year!
Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering, ‘It will be happier.’