I have a story that I've been journaling and talking about and it's one that I just can't keep from sharing when I get the opportunity.

I had been one of those people who had let their light go dim, for lack of a better definition. When my body would get the best of me and flare up, my mood would go down...which is very normal...but then when the problem would ease up, I would stay in the 'dark place'.

A while back I met a woman named Carla and she changed my life forever.

I don't know the specifics but Carla has a terminal disease. It's very complicated and rare as it started as a virus. As it progressed, in her case, she cannot evacuate so if she wants to eat food, she has to throw it up afterwards. She is always in a lot of pain and is on, obviously, high-end medications to ease her pain.

This is the same woman who, after going to outpatient surgery to have a new feeding tube inserted, went to work the following day. She didn't do much but she went. Efforts. Hers are monumental in my eyes.

This is also a woman who I saw double over in pain, go into the house to take some medicine and come out with her guitar in hand. She sat down, still in pain, and began singing, "Why me Lord...what have I ever done...to deserve even one...of the pleasures I've known."

It was a moment in time I will NEVER forget. That moment changed me forever and every time I tell this story my eyes fill up with tears at the amazing spirit of LIFE I witnessed that day in the country on Carla's front porch.

Carla was, at one point, 190 pounds but she has dwindled down to about 95 pounds these days. But if you didn't know her, you wouldn't know she was so ill. Carla is, what I like to define as, 'a lifer'. She lives every moment to its fullest and she taught me to do the same.

Her example gave me permission to hurt like hell, be overwhelmed by all my physical problems, be OK with having to take tons of medication and STILL live my life with MOXIE and SPIRIT.

I will be forever grateful to her for what she gave me, which is priceless.