One of our closest friends was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. She is young and gorgeous, a wonderful wife, mother, daughter, friend and one of the best hosts I've ever met - you should be lucky enough to be invited to her house for dinner!The news affected us deeply for all the reasons you would expect, compounded by the fact that she is an ocean away.
Our first reaction was to go out and buy some books we felt she and her family might find useful. As a result, I’ve been reading “Crazy, Sexy Cancer Tips” by Kris Carr. It’s such a treasure - joyful and inspiring and visual. It looks like someone’s journal (well, someone brilliant and very creative.) It includes many invaluable tips (from the importance of decorating the hospital room with things you love, to always getting multiple medical opinions, to finding yourself a patient advocate to help you navigate through doctors, treatments, medical insurance, etc.).
A few pages into it, it occurred to me that I (and everyone I know) should be following the advice in this book, with or without cancer.
It's not just that we could all use a support group or the creation of a sacred place or that we should be making lists of things we want to do before we die. It's that the minutia of our day blurs what we all know to be true. So here is a reminder: life is precarious and precious. We should be celebrating it more often.
1 comment:
Life is indeed precious and precarious. We should say a prayer of thanks for every new day of living, every good night's sleep, every good book we read, every accomplishment or insight or other expression of divine guidance and inspiration. And doctors should be more cautious about the hormones they prescribe to women, before, during and after menopause. Maybe we would also cut down on chicken, who knows? Meat is brutally slaughtered, fish has mercury or artificial nutrients, and chicken is injected with hormones, therefore forbidden to women on breast cancer programs. Grains are bio-engineered. Fruit is full of pesticides and microbes. Life gets more precarious by the minute. Still, moving to the Sudan, the Caucusus or even lovely New Zealand, is out of the question.
So back to being grateful for each new day.
CM
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