Life is too short.

Today, the world lost a little girl FAR before her time.  In my hometown of Wadena, Minnesota, Jane Fiemeyer passed away this afternoon.

Jane, also known as the Princess Warrior, was diagnosed with Leukemia in August of 2011.  She battled hard and today she lost that battle just one day after leaving the hospital to go home and prepare for the end of her short life.  Jane was 8 years old.

So what does this horrible, horrible even have to do with The Inner Skinny Me?  I never met Jane, I haven't lived there in 10 years, she wasn't even born when we moved away.  But this little girl has had a powerful effect on me in just the past 4 short days.  Until Monday, I knew nothing about Jane.  I had seen some posts from some facebook friends about a Princess Warrior, but I truly didn't know what was up.  It didn't spark my radar until Monday.

Monday the family posted on Jane's Caringbridge site that the doctors had informed them that they had done everything they could and it was time to prepare for the worst.  They gave her from days to possibly months.  Little did we know it would be 4 short days.

Jane's mom, Jil Lorentz Fiemeyer, started a social media campaign to grant her little Princess her last wish.  The family had never contacted Make a Wish Foundation because they were waiting for remission so she could enjoy her wish.  Unfortunately, the news came so quickly, now there wasn't time to contact them and get her wish granted in time.

In comes the power of social media.  It started as a facebook plea and spread to twitter where it took off.  The hashtag #btrmeetjane spread like wild fire.  Jane's wish was to meet the Nickelodeon Boy Band from Minnesota, Big Time Rush.  By Tuesday there was a tweet from one of the band member's brothers saying a little bird had told him she should expect a message the next day.  Wednesday they discovered that BTR had made a video for Jane and were going to Skype with her on Thursday afternoon.  What they didn't know at the time was that BTR and the Make a Wish Foundation was working to surprise her with a visit in person next Monday at her house.

Jane saw the video they made for her, and it made her happy.  However, Jane died hours before her Skype session was to happen.

The power of social media.  Wow - in less than 3 days strangers from all over the country joined together to make this little girl's wish come true.  Hundreds of people (maybe thousands for all I know) banded together for a positive cause.  People of all races, religions, sexual orientation, political beliefs - just people!  None of the things that cause divisiveness mattered, they were fighting for a common cause, they were treating people kindly and working together to get something done.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we behaved that way every day?!  Not just in cases of tragedy, but every single day.  What would this country, or better yet world, be like if we attacked everyday life like that.  Not being selfish, not doing what WE want, but doing what should be done.

As a society we tend to be very isolated, we take care of our own.  We help those in tragic situations across the world, but we often forget those right next door.  Maybe their situation isn't "as bad" as others, but they need help.  We look at the world through our own lenses and tend to pass judgement on others.  We don't take the time to try to look at it from their perspective, or to walk in their shoes.  It's hard - we don't want to face the fact that we often neglect and condemn those around us for being different or not having the same ideologies as we have, we can't relate.  Since it's "hard" and we don't want to have those hard conversations and make some hard realizations, we ignore it and expect it to take care of itself.

In a case like Jane - it's not hard.  Everyone, regardless of their backgrounds can empathize with the idea of losing a child, sister, friend.  The idea of an 8 year old not living to see age 9 sends chills up everyone's spine.  And I truly find that pulling together, that working as a team awesome and wonderful.

Imagine what we could do in our own communities, neighborhoods if we pulled together like that for those "hard" situations that we don't want to deal with.  Can you imagine the world we would live in and the effect it could have on your lives?  If we put aside our judgements of others just because they have a different belief system than our own.  If we valued EVERY person regardless of their religion, sexual orientation, political beliefs, racial background, or financial status.  If we treated EVERY person equally and believed that we ALL deserve to be treated the same.

So I put that to you all who are reading my posts...can YOU work on yourself to stop judging others by your own standards and start accepting them for theirs?  It isn't easy, it may be down right difficult, but if we can do that and raise our children to do that...imagine the world we would leave for our grandchildren and their grandchildren.  A world where we all work together and accept EVERYONE for exactly who they are.

Be the person who does the right thing even when it's difficult. Be the person who stands up for the people who no one stands up for.  Be the person who fights for the rights of ALL people.  Help make our world a place our grandchildren and their grandchildren can say truly valued EVERY person.

And, hug your children, your family, your friends.  Be sure to tell the people in your life what they mean to you.  Life is fragile and we never know when someone will be taken from us.

In Memory of the Princess Warrior, Jane Fiemeyer.  May you fly with the Angels and Rest in Peace.