Almost Gypsy Soul

[Linking up with Hayley and Lauren ] These two got a good idea! This link up is awesome because it tells me what to write about and I love it! Up this week? What is one tangible thing you have that holds intangible value to you? When graduating from Limon High School and as a Girls Track member, one could be sure to receive a black banner from Coach Grimes that read Limon Girls Track - Teammates Forever, Thanks Grimes.  Lots of you are probably wondering why a black banner is so important to me, why that would mean anything. At the Limon gym all state champion teams have black banners showing the sport, the year. Black = champion . In addition to black banners, there are white banners covering the walls of that gym in eastern Colorado. White banners are runner-up teams, showing the sport and the year. Limon has a long legacy of excelling in sports....all of them, football, volleyball, basketball, baseball, track and softball. Many are proud to call themselves...

So as I started out writing posts about Grimes, I was having trouble getting the words quite right. I took some time to shift through old scrapbooks and yearbooks. And everyone knows you can't pull that stuff out and spend just a few minutes. I read some notes on the cover of my yearbook with this one especially sticking out from the Assistant Pack Leader. And I asked some others for a few words about Coach Grimes......some footprints left by Coach Grimes: his loping run - he made it look easy. he took such damn long strides that it was hell for short people to keep up. his irritation and aggravation at the members of our team who didn't "get it" and weren't out for track to win. Those that were there for social reasons. (You know the ones on your team I'm talking about!) him nearly killing Shane Stone for hitting me on the inside of the knee with a baseball pitch when they were practicing inside. I had gone to get ice out of the concessions sta...

You remember those special people who have left this world, some way to soon, some having lived a full and wonderful life. Are you like me where your memories fade, you can't quite remember the specifics of the relationship? The one thing you will always remember is that they changed your life, maybe not in big ways, but lots of small ways that made you who you are today. Footprints were left on my heart by Coach Grimes (his footprints look more like track spikes) and I knew it while he was here and I REALLY knew it after he was gone. Today is the anniversary of this great man's passing and I couldn't be more honored to be "one of Grimes' track girls" Grimes believed in me even when I didn't believe in myself. He chewed my ass when I needed it, he encouraged me when I needed to know that someone believed in me, he joked with me when I was so nervous I couldn't speak for fear of throwing up somewhere on that infield and he was ALWA...

Even when I was the young age of 16 and getting my first drivers license I made the choice to be an organ donor, after all, if the question of if I am an organ donor was needed to be asked......its pretty obvious that I didn't need them anymore. It wasn't a choice that I gave alot of thought to, it just made sense to me. On Sunday, it hit me what my choice really means. It means that I will live on through someone else.  It means that my family can be proud of the difference that I could make in a stranger's life even through tragedy in our own. It means that someone else gets to spend more days, weeks, months, years with their loved ones. It means that a stranger might welcome my family into theirs and my family might welcome a stranger into our family. This weekend, Coach Grimes parents and Stacey got to meet the lady who was the recipient of his heart when he passed. They got to listen to his heart and heard the words "I am not the owner of his heart, I am merel...