Today is National Wear Red Day – to raise awareness about heart disease in the United States. But let’s get up close and personal:

“Heart disease, the leading cause of death for all American women, takes a disproportionately heavy toll on Native American women. American Indian and Alaska Native women die from it at a rate 20-30 percent higher than non-Native women, and Native Hawaiian women at a rate 100 percent higher.” – To read more about this at the source of the quote from the National Institute of Health click here.

We all know this. We see it in our communities. Maybe we see it in ourselves. I sure did. At 48, I had the wake up call. Change your diet, exercise, get it together, or spend the rest of your (probably shortened) life on Rx statins.

I’m still a work-in-progress with very good results, but I’m not entirely out of the woods. And it really scares me.

Let’s all wear red today. AND have real conversations about this threat with ourselves and with our families.

But let’s also commit to get moving some today. Take a long walk. A jog if you can. Be mindful of what we are putting in our bodies.

Some of it is genetics. A whole lot of it is not.

Sending love to you all this morning. Let’s do what it takes to stay alive and support each other.

Live, love, lead.