It is my 4th New Year’s post breast cancer and this marks the first New Year in which I have felt a shift occur. A shift in energy; a shift within me. You see, with each new year since my diagnosis comes the inner battle of I hope this is a year I remain cancer-free immediately accompanied by a fear…
Surviving Cancer
All the challenges, fears, anxieties, and struggles that come with surviving cancer; as well as insight, hopefulness, blessings, and useful advice.
I wish I had more time to write, but this whirlwind month has my head spinning and my heart aching. Christmas truly is a wonderful time of the year, but it always arrives with a little bit of nostalgia. We celebrate – we come together with those we love – but as time passes and we grow older we recognize…
Today I want to celebrate a remarkable lady. Her name was Margaret Anne Hall. Annie. She was my Little Grandma. I got to know my Little Grandma during her own fight against cancer. I was young and impressionable, and in the time that she lived with us, she taught me many lessons. She taught me how to iron and…
Surviving cancer. It alters so much about who you are: your values, your hopes, your mindset, and your ambitions. You become acutely aware of what truly matters in life, and perhaps, not surprisingly, the things you once placed value on and gave all your energy and time to, were not the things of importance. My son was 12 months…
This summer by the river at the cottage – a place of healing and serenity – I was fortunate enough to have a heart-to-heart with a very special person. She is someone I cherish who has traversed her own breast cancer journey. She understood my fatigue, my adversities, and the side-effects, because she too experienced her own, and she gently…
I did not survive breast cancer so that I could become a victim to road rage… There are far too many incidents and too many shared stories about reckless drivers disobeying the rules of the road. The rules are basic. Adhere to the speed limit. Obey stop lights. Come to a complete stop at a stop sign. Check your…
Oh yes, here we are, in the very early stages of the Foolhardy Fives. As Bette Davis famously warned ‘Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy night [ride]’. She wasn’t kidding. She must have been a mother to a 5 year old… Let me begin by expressing to all that I am no expert on child psychology or…
In my recent post This Is Grief I spoke about acupuncture, and the flood of emotions this form of treatment unleashed within me. I was not prepared. As a result, my summer months were spent reflecting upon and traversing through the overwhelming depths of my sadness, my anger, my grief. These dark and tumultuous feelings hovered under the surface of…
I thought that after 3 years, this journey would get easier. However lately, I have found myself weeding through dark and muddled emotions – feelings of frustration, of anger, but mostly, of grief. Grief. I realize that I have not grieved. I have not mourned the life I once led and the losses that I have faced. I…
Last year, in my post Baby Steps, I reflected upon my 2yr Cancerversary – the baby steps that I had taken and the ones I still needed to take. I discussed moving forward from the strife and outlined what I needed to do. And so, as my 3yr Cancerversary fast approaches, I want to take a moment to reflect on…