Simplifying life

The older I get, the more I like simplifying my life. At first, I fought this concept as a way of allowing more peace in my life. Today, whenever I am having a grouchy day or I am out of sorts, it is the days that I remember to see the beauty in simple things that I return to a feeling of grace and ease. Simple things, hearing children laugh, reading a great book or watching an intriguing movie, trying a new food, and just relaxing. Most likely I am a type A personality and love having many things going at one time, but yet, in the quiet simple breaths of my life is when I feel the most connected with my strengths. Simple strength, it is what takes me through each of my challenges in my life. I just have to take a quiet breath and remember it is there.

Awe-full or Awful?

Are you around very many people that find the awful in everything, or dramatize things worse than they really are? I know I have caught myself many times making things sound worse than I know them to be, and I ask myself, why did I just do that? I ponder if I needed more drama or more action in my life and if something is worse than it really is, if this awful event makes me feel better in that the awful doesn't apply to me.

I have heard it said many times that we are the sum of the five people we hang with. I don't like hanging with people that awfulize life. I see people that find the awe and joy in their daily lives - this helps me to find more awe and joy in my life every day. I have recognized that people, including me, that when we awfulize that it is something we do almost in an unconscious way. I know when I catch myself awfulizing, I stop and reflect what is the marvel in the situation that I am refusing to see, and I look again at the situation. I look again to see the good in the awful thing, and this habit of being a pollyanna in seeing more good in the world is serving me well.

I find I am so much happier when I am awe-full and when I see the beauty in life that is always present for me, than when I see to dramatize and be more awful.

Yes, there IS awe in the diagnosis of breast cancer. When I was diagnosed 17 years ago, I didn't know how to find it or how to see it, but with time, my ability and my vision to see the awe in my life started changing. I started seeing people differently, and I started seeing my life differently.
I became less cynical, more joyful.

I started a conscious choice to see the AWE every day. I made it a practice. I probably drive my friends crazy, but I see more of who they are also. I see our strengths that lie in each of us. Breast cancer will certainly test our strengths, many times they will be tested over and over. But until we recognize we are a strong being, the testing remain, until we get it that we are stronger than we saw and realized before.

It is a choice, to see the awful in our daily lives, or to seek the awe that life holds for us every day.

Life is full of awe-- can you see it?

Looking foward to the cruise

Just finished talking with Shelly Williams, our travel agent for the 4th Annual Breast Cancer Survivors and Thrivers Cruise. We've added another group shore excursion for the cruise - on Grand Caymen, we are headed to Senor Frogs for lunch and fun. The servers will be decked out in pink just for us, and ready with pink drinks to quench our thirst.

We are also going to Hell that day - that's right! Hell, and you thought you had already been to Hell when diagnosed with breast cancer. We can mail our loved ones our postcards from Hell before boarding back on the shuttle. Let's take some group shots while there so we can show everyone we have been to Hell and back.

P.S. I hope to find real vanilla while out n bout doing some shopping. I love the real vanilla that I bought last year and haven't found anything like it in the states.