Browsing the internet this morning I came across two inspirational posts. The first I have been attempting to abide by but to date have failed at – and miserably so! I think that it is time to embrace this first with both arms.
Ray is off to play Golf today, he was resistant about leaving me, but I have encouraged him to go, it will do him good and it should have been a two day Society event for him, the end of Season competition for the annual trophy. Ray won the trophy last year and has been looking forward to competing to hold it for a second year. I did suggest that he go for both days and that I would find someone else to go with me to my appointment with the Oncologist tomorrow morning but he wasn’t having it.
So as we sat in bed this morning having our coffee, I was thinking about what I needed to do today, the list is long, the house is a mess, it hasn’t been cleaned properly for months, I have plants I need to put in the garden that were given to us for our Anniversary in August (thank you Hannah & Andrew and Abi & Dave), there is the laundry to be done, food shopping and so it goes on. BUT – Ray is playing golf, so I WILL do things I enjoy today, I will do the shopping so we have something to eat this evening and the laundry so that we have clean underwear and clothing for the week ahead. I will finish the dreamcatcher I started making earlier this week and then I will choose another project to start on, whatever inspires me!
The second was an article on Huffington Post:
The 9 Essential Habits Of Mentally Strong People
9. They love their lives.
Amor fati is a Latin term that translates to “love of fate,” a concept derived from the ancient Greek and Roman Stoic philosophers that later re-emerged in the work of Nietzsche. And it’s perhaps the single most important key to mental strength.
“The idea is that you don’t just have to tolerate the things you can’t control — they could be the greatest things that ever happen to you,” says Holiday. “You can find the joy in not just accepting, but in embracing the things that happen to you.”
Mentally strong people are grateful and appreciative of obstacles because of the simple fact that obstacles are life itself. Shortly before her death, Seattle-based author Jane Lotter left that advice with her family in a powerful self-written obituary.
As Lotter put it, “May you always remember that obstacles in the path are not obstacles, they ARE the path.”
My Breast Cancer is my path, sometimes I think to myself ‘I have cancer’ it depends on my mood as to how this is expressed in my mind, sometimes it is a calm statement of fact, sometimes a frightened scream, sometimes a horrified whisper… Since my diagnosis so many people have told me about how they know someone who has beaten breast cancer, and I know two ladies personally who have done so, but this is irrelevant to me right now. I am at the beginning of this challenge and so much is unknown that hearing about other women’s success stories is unhelpful. This is not said in a pessimistic tone, I simply do not yet know what treatment I will need, how the treatment will progress, how I and my family and friends will cope with it. This will be a deeply personal journey, taken alongside my dear loved ones and friends, BUT it will be primarily MY journey. When/if I am offered choices about a treatment plan, I will take advice/opinions from anyone who is willing to give them but the final word will be mine.
And now I am going to put some washing in the machine and then start working with ribbons and beads, let the sparkles commence!
deerutty 