Five Year "Cancerversary" = Observations and a SALE

When there are 'no words'...... offer encouragement: please share the image!

Today's an amazing day in my life. I'm typing from the Orlando airport terminal at Gate 125 on my way to CALIFORNIA! From sea-to-shining-sea! All in one day! I'm headed to an amazing PK1 event to give a 'mini-keynote' on Sunday! AWESOME! Celebrate! WhooHoo!!!

Today is also my dad's birthday! He's 86 and VERY much at the helm of this four generation family. Spending time with my parents just a couple of weeks ago puts 'everything' in perspective: time and legacy woven together as one. The fact that dad shares this day with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. makes it that much more special. I have written about that overlapping previously.

YET, even more than all of the above, is the landmark which becomes my own personal reflection when I see the fifteenth of January on the calendar. 2015!

TODAY IS MY FIFTH CANCERVERSARY (from my second diagnosis.)

{Yes. It is a tad bit challenging when the clock has stopped on two occasions with an early stage Breast Cancer diagnosis, trying to keep the 'versaries straight and marking the milestones.}

FIVE YEARS in cancer-land is a big deal! FIVE YEARS TODAY!
A special shout-out to ALL of my Team January sisters, each marking their 'fifth' this month. What an amazing support system we've developed. It has been such a joy to meet several of you "SISTAHS" in my travels! 

Think of all that I have experienced in the last five years. WOW! Or go way back and start the clock from the original diagnosis and I am nearly 8 years out! But FIVE is particularly special in the land of survivors. Five years and you get to exhale. And mean it. At least kinda-sorta. As a two-timer, I realize there are no guarantees, no matter the math involved.

So many emotions. 

So many on Earth are called to 'survive' the unthinkable. Situations that we never dream could unfold, do and there we are suddenly starring as the heroine of the unforeseen. There are times when words fail. How do you offer support to someone in the midst of the 'surviving?' What was meaningful to me? What continues to be meaningful. A few thoughts.

1. Offer your presence, no need for presents. Be there. Even when you have no idea what to say... or especially when words fail. Being there is a very big deal. 

2. Offer to hold the situation up in prayer. I continue to be grateful for those who offer to hold me up in prayer. When I was on the daily roller coaster, I could gather my wits when reminded others were holding me in their hearts and prayers.

3. Remind the 'survivor' to take EXTRA lengths at 'self-care' in the midst of the storm: healthy foods, extra sleep, allowing MORE time for the simplest of errands. 

4.Offer to pitch in with the mundane, while the big issues are being dealt with else where. Coming home to find the sidewalk shoveled can be just the boost needed in a time of crisis. How amazing if you can do something nice in an anonymous manner. 

5. Smile and share some uplifting, comical relief. Even in the midst of a disaster, it is helpful to have a foundation of light-hearted reminders that this is just but a season.

6. Share a favorite Bible verse. Here's my "Go-To" for the tough stuff. 

Full article over at this image's source. 

To celebrate, I am wearing my newest happy socks. Thank you musical brown eyes. I am going to put ALL of my digital materials on sale! For the next several days! Help me celebrate! Use my songs. Create some smiles! Kick up your heels and do a little jig. Give someone else a compliment. You never know what the person next to you in line is facing, or may face. 

I'm wearing my new HAPPY SOCKS today and they are bringing me good luck!

P.S. For years and years in the BCO chat room, when I didn't know what else to type, I'd type: "Strength and courage. Strength and courage. Strength and courage." Like a signature of sorts. At the time our pastor had a way of saying things three times and I liked that sort of repetition. 

Just last week I left this little trinity of words for a sweet friend whose extended family has just been in a dramatic car crash. Just after I made the graphic today, while sitting next to this tarmac, I received the message that my simple typed cyber words were 'heaven-sent' in their arrival, in her life at that moment, and are actually repeated three times in the Bible's book of Joshua. 

 6 Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.

7 “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. 8 Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

There are times in every journey when we must rely on others to help in the manufacture of new and additional strength and courage. Recognize those times will come. Reach out. Tell folks what you need: a hug, a call, some cheer leading. Home baked cookies. Whatever you want. 

In the words of Stuart Scott, in the midst of his acceptance speech for the Jimmy V award: 

"When you die, it does not mean that you lose to cancer," Scott told the audience. "You beat cancer by how you live, why you live, and in the manner in which you live."

It takes strength to face the unknown. It takes courage to realize that you can NOT control the circumstances now unfolding. It takes a village when times are tough.