I have a wonderful job. Every day something amazing crosses my desk (or monitor, to be more precise), and typically it’s completely unexpected.

Today’s miracle was an inspirational calendar to be posted on our website. Fashioned in Faith covers 18 months and features the stories of African American breast cancer survivors. Its beauty isn’t just the attractive layout and colors; it’s the spirit behind it.

You read, for example, about Sister Mattie Pratt, who “refused in no uncertain terms to let breast cancer take abundant life from her – or from us. As she would often remind, ‘I am just moving right along.’ That was the lesson she wanted us to remember – to keep moving right along – despite breast cancer, through breast cancer, and beyond breast cancer. Move right along to victory over breast cancer.”

To me it doesn’t matter than I’m not a breast cancer survivor. We’re all human, and the calendar speaks eloquently to the essence of the human condition. It speaks to triumphing over death. What’s more I see great love and dedication behind this work, and am deeply touched to be a part of it, however small my role might be. My heartfelt thanks go to Sisters Network, the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center Office of Minority Affairs and everyone involved in its creation.

Every holiday season, Vanderbilt’s Health Plus urges employees to Hold the Stuffing. Staff who participate are weighed in the week before Thanksgiving and weighed out the week after New Years, with a goal of gaining no more than two pounds.

I’d never participated before, but this year, given pants that were ever tighter, I got with the program. Today was my day of reckoning. And I made it. Woo hoo! Now I just have to not eat all of the lovely chocolate that’s still hanging around my house. And so my mantra must be…. A healthy web diva is a happy web diva. Thank you, Health Plus, for helping this unrepentant chocoholic.

What a feeling of accomplishment to adapt Drupal to look like another site. That’s the first major Drupal project I’ve done, aside from simply getting Drupal to work in the first place. My enthusiasm for Drupal is, if anything, even greater than it was before.

Not only that, there are more and more web developers and designers where I work (Vanderbilt) gravitating to Drupal. It looks as if a group of us will be gathering soon and developing our own site. And Gill Murrey has started her own Drupal site listing great resources and blogging news.

It seems to me these are the two keys to success.

1. Just dive in and do it.
2. Find others to network and brainstorm with.