A small hero has died.....

Mattie Stepanek a 13 year old poet with muscular dystrophy died on Tuesday.. He wrote 5 books all poetry all stemming from his grief over his brother dying when Mattie was 3. He has 3 older siblings that have died from this same rare from of muscular dystrophy called dysautonomic mitochondrial myopathy, a genetic disease that impaired his heart rate, breathing, blood pressure and digestion, and caused muscle weakness. His first book titled Heartsongs within weeks of publishing the book reached the top of the best-seller list!! Wow, pretty impressive for a 3 year old kid!!

People like this are tiny hero's, angels if you will, sent to earth to teach the rest of us that you can fight for your life, but the time that you are here is to be spent teaching, helping, and reaching out to others. The smallest bit of good will go a long way in a strangers day. For example, I was having some big problems at work today.. I had several calls one after the other for basically 3 hours. I kept saying out loud "if this next phone call is about this or that I'm gonna just scream!"... yea, the last time I said that was when someone in a very pleasant mood called just to check up on something completely different.. upon answering the phone I must have sounded kinda upset/rude/hasty because you could tell she was trying to but the sweetness on extra thick even though there wasn't any reason for her to so. Regardless, her sweet tone, and asking simply, "How are you?" even though I would have never told her "I'm having a crappy day" was so nice.. she seemed relaxed and willing to let me simmer down just for a minute.. at the end of our conversation I told her how happy I was to hear from her because I was having a lousy day and she brightened it.. she said "anyway I can help!".. ya know.. you don't even know me and you are willing to take time out of your day to help my day! Geez.. I wish the everyone in the world was like you!!! Every person willing to take the 3 minutes out of the day to help a neighbor, friend, or even a stranger.

So back to the little boy.. I have to say that the courage and strength this 13 year old held is amazing.. I'm just wishing more and more of us could take notice to theroesttle heros' anamongl's amoutruly I truely believe that some children have old souls.. with this I mean that they have lived here on earth and if you pay close enough attention you may catch just what I mean.. Unfortunately, I feel that these kids carry that throughout their lives, but as the child gets older, they become their own selves and bury the every day wisdom of the old soul. Maybe we could tape record every minutechild'sery childs life and study it, maybe we'll have all the answers to life worked out if we could just pay attention. So next time you are waiting in line at the library or grocery store and there is a little boy or girl behind you, stop for a minute, just listen to the precious things they say, watch how they act, take some time to momenthe Heyment.. hey, you gotta wait for the person ahead of you to be done anyway!!