These days you won’t find me dwelling in the past or looking ahead to the future much, but today I will reflect on where I was one year ago. Aside from the fading scars and the strategically, tiny, dotted tattoos that now reside on my body, you wouldn’t look at me and think “Oh, she had cancer.” I still feel so blessed to have an amazing surgeon, whose warm heart and healing hands removed the cancer that invaded a tiny space in my left breast. I am so grateful for his compassion and consideration when making the incision that would mark this event for life.
Mark this event for life. Those words just struck me this moment…. That moment was a new starting point, and a shift happened at my core. Life, such a force, so fragile and fleeting. I can’t really explain the new-found freedom I have to actually just BE, and I am not sure why it took a life event like a cancer diagnosis to flip that switch back on. I have felt from the first day of the diagnosis until this moment that cancer gave me LIFE, it taught me so much about myself and what I am made of. It stripped me down naked to my core.
When you have cancer, people are curious, they have lots of questions. If I could tell you one thing about having cancer it would be, cancer is an individual experience, it is a personal, intimate journey, from the diagnosis, to the decisions about treatment, to going through the treatment and everything after and in between. The next thing I would like to tell you is if you know someone going through treatment for cancer the best thing you can do for them is be there, be still and listen. You will figure out what to do to “help” by just listening. Be there, they need you.
I am thankful for each and every one of you. For all of the love and support I have received over the course of the year, and to those that went that extra mile, you filled my heart with peace and love. Thank you for listening, thank you for your friendship, thank you for being there for my family.
Embrace today…. this moment. Live and love unconditionally. Play, gosh learn to play again. Laugh, find joy in the little things!
Let love surround you and lift you up!
Much love always,
Natalie
rawlifeliving 