You Don't Send Me Flowers Anymore

Two years ago my husband stopped sending me flowers for Valentine's Day. 

Our favorite florist has not gone out of business.  The magic is not gone.  We have not gotten a cat like my childhood one who eats the flowers and then throws them up all over the house. 

We just decided that the following is true:

Flowers die.  Children shouldn't. 

The Spare a Rose, Save a Child campaign asks us to donate the cost of one Valentine's Day rose ($5) to Life for a Child, which is part of the International Diabetes Federation.  Life for a child's mission is "Saving the lives of children in the developing world." According to their website, Life for a Child is currently helping 17,000 children and youth with diabetes in 46 countries.  Also from their website, the program aims to provide:

Sufficient insulin and syringes

Blood glucose monitoring equipment

Appropriate clinical care

HbA1c testing

Diabetes education

Technical support for health professionals 

Can you imagine being unable to access insulin for your child with diabetes?

Can you imagine dosing insulin with no access to a glucometer or test strips?

Can you imagine being handed insulin and syringes with no meaningful education on how to use them?

Can you imagine seeing your child ill and suffering and subsequently die from undiagnosed diabetes?

I can't quite imagine any of those scenarios, but I know that they're happening in at least 46 countries around the world.  And I'm certain that if there's anything I can do to help even one child have access to basic diabetes care, I need to do it.

So once again, we'll spare a dozen roses their Valentine's Day fate. 

Please join us, and save a child instead.

Things To Do For February

  is THIS MONDAY, February 3rd.

Artists in my life have taught me that there is great value in expressing oneself through the visual arts.

Though the finished product may not be museum quality, the experience of creating is the valuable part.  You'll use parts of your brain you may not ordinarily access.  You may be surprised where the process takes you.

So I encourage you to take a few minutes this weekend, or on Monday, to create art.  It could be a complicated sculpture.  Maybe you'll create a multi-media collage.  Or it could be a simple drawing with pencil and paper.

Create your art, photograph it, and share it on the Diabetes Art Day website.  Last year I made this little guy:



Once you've created your art and posted it, don't forget to spend some time perusing other people's art. There's a children's gallery and an adult one.  The contributions range from whimsical to deeply emotional and everywhere in between.

Secondly, I sent a link to my husband this morning about:

Here, from their website, is the crux of the campaign:

Lack of access to insulin is the most common cause of death for children with diabetes in many countries around the world. In fact, in some parts of the world, the estimated life expectancy of a child who has just developed diabetes could be less than a year. *

This Valentine’s Day our community can help change that.

Through the Spare a Rose, Save a Child campaign, we raise awareness and donations for Life for a Child, an International Diabetes Federation program which provides life-saving diabetes supplies, medication, and education that children in developing countries need to stay alive.

Spare a Rose, Save a Child is simple: buy one less rose this Valentine’s Day and donate the value of that flower to children with diabetes. Your loved one at home still gets flowers and you both show some love to children around the world who need it.

One rose, one month of life. A dozen roses, a year of life for a child with diabetes.

Eleven roses would be eleven more than I usually get for Valentine's Day, and perhaps that's the case for you too. (We're more of a romantic dinner out couple, though I never turn down chocolate.) It matters not.  We can still honor the idea, which is that the $5 cost of one rose can provide a month's worth of insulin for a child.  Maybe you'll buy a less expensive box of chocolates, or a slightly more modest piece of jewelry.  Maybe you'll skip an appetizer at your romantic dinner out, or choose the wine which is on sale for your cozy dinner in.    

Love comes in many forms.  We can express it romantically, per the Valentine's Day tradition.  But it's broader than that.  Sharing our art with the diabetes community is a loving act.  Giving up a bit of our Valentine's Day gift so that a child can have life-sustaining insulin is another.  

I hope you'll enjoy these opportunities to share the love this February!