Pandora Radio

Just a quick post to tell you about a cool site my friend Ames turned me onto. It's Pandora Radio. I put the link under my websites on the right. You register for free put in the artists or title of a song and they create a radio station for you of like songs. You can put a thumbs up or thumbs down to each song played and it only improves the selections they pick for you. Your can create several stations in different genres. Check it out http://pandora.com/.

Music is so great to have in your life.

Boob Art

My friend Mary, who went through Chemo at the same time I did, sent me this great link. It is artful and for a good cause....boobs!


http://www.quilters ofsc.org/ artfullbras/ artfullbras. htm

Wish I could think of something like this to organize....I'm thinking and thinking...

Give Love

A friend sent this out on Facebook....I liked it....

Give love

Give love, and you give strength. Give love, and you give life meaning.
When you desire to truly make a difference, let your actions be guided by love. Remember that even when all else fails, love grows stronger.
When love surrenders, that is its greatest triumph. Could anything be more miraculous or powerful or enduring?
Give love, and align your world with the highest and best possibilities. Expect nothing of love and you will have everything.
Love can never be fully comprehended. And so, it is an endless source of delightful and joyous discovery.
Give love, again and again. For you can always know it even better and experience it even more.

Ralph Marston

My friend is living with me!

My friend is living with me and it's nice to have another girl around! I have been the only girl in a house with a husband, 2 sons and a male dog forever and although I like being the princess at times. no one can relate to a girl like another girl!

No words need to be exchanged between us to know that despite the fact that no tears have fallen yet they soon will. We know immediately when the outfit we have on is making our day better (or worse). We understand a "clothes crisis" when we are unable to find the right outfit to match our mood, have thrown every article of clothing on the floor, basically had a temper tantrum and are determined tomorrow to explore the mall from top to bottom for new shirts since the 20 we have are just not right! We seem to know when one of us needs a pep talk, is having woman guilt or insecurities. We can show open enthusiasm for the arrival of the most current fashion magazines without feeling we should be just as excited to read the papaer.

Unfortunately my friend was in need of a place to stay to get her through a tough time and will be leaving in a couple of weeks. I'm sorry she was in pain, but actually a little happy to have had her here. Some things are surprising little gifts and I think even she would agree we have had a great time "hanging out". I like taking care of people, so I enjoyed making my son's room into hers for the short stay, making her dinner after her long trek to and from the city for work, long talks about whatever ailed her (or me), but the best was having her here for me in my emotional moments that I sometimes sweep under the rug while I try to help with homework or do the laundry. Thanks Ames for coming and staying with me.

What's good about Breast Cancer?

Well at first glance there's nothing good about breast cancer, nothing. It turns your life upside down. You end up scarred and sacred. You temporarily lose your hair, your eyebrows, your eyelashes and in some cases your nails and your breasts. Not to mention in many cases you lose your estrogen and consequently your fertility.....BUT you do gain some things that are ultimately life altering in a positive way if you can stay present in your life and not let the breast cancer define you.

• You learn patience as you wait for: results, chemo to be done, your new breasts if you reconstruct, radiation to start and finish, surgery day to arrive.


• You learn to slow down and appreciate relaxation as chemo, surgery and radiation force you to allow your body to heal.


• You learn the importance of determination to get through the day, the hour, the minute.


• You learn people are good if you let them in on your struggle. They will support you, encourage you and point out your strengths and how much you mean to them. You learn you really do matter in this world through them.


• You learn your kids can be strong and get through tough things.


• You learn your husband has what it takes (or not) to get through life with you.


• You learn your body is an amazing thing. Treat it well. Exercise it just for the health of it not to look like Heidi Klum. Have pride in it just as it is it can survive tough stuff and is stronger than you think.


• You learn that some of the things you thought were so pressing and important are small.


• You get a clear perspective about what is important to you.


• You get a chance to know, as only those that have been through a trauma know, that you choose the course of your living days and they are precious and there is no time like the present to make them count. Do "it" whatever "it" is for you. If you can't do "it" now make a plan to do "it".

Ultimately you learn that happiness is right there for you if you choose it... so choose it!



I know. I'm 40 and my 39th year was spent battling BC. I am at a one year mark since diagnosis, double masectomy, rebuild, chemo and hysterectomy. I still struggle with what Breast Cancer has done to my life view and my body, but I'm still making it through the emotions and I don't let them define me. My mom has had BC multiple times in her life as well and has chosen happiness over anger and fear in the end.



Let's talk about Breast Cancer here. Comment to me what you are feeling or have felt. I am going to post a series of emails I sent out during my journey on a seperate blog. They were sent to family and friends and reconnected me to many people I had not seen in up to 12 years. They seem to have inspired those who read them and those people (who I refer to as My People) encouraged me to get them out to the world. So this is my attempt to share those emails and to connect with others touched by Breast Cancer. check out my breast cancer blog at www.breastissue.blogspot.com.

Post Secrets

If you haven't heard of Post Secret it is a really interesting community art project that has become a national event. People create postcards and reveal a secret anonymously and send it off. The postcards are collected and published on a website and compiled into books. It's very interesting to peak into the secrets people keep from the frivolous to the very serious and realize how secrets effect our lives. It's also evident that setting the secret free is very liberating, as so many have sent these cards off into the unknown.

It's another place that you can go to see the similarities there are amongst all people. It also strikes me every time I read these posts that we never know what pain is behind the nasty teller at the bank or the guy who cuts you off on the freeway. Compassion towards others who are showing their ugly side is hard to give, but these cards remind me that their anger may be pain in disguise. If you wait long enough and have compassion everyone shows you their good side.

Check out the link under websites!

Recession Be Damned

I am the eternal optimist and I do think we choose our attitude, but I'm also realistic that sometimes things get tough and out of our control. It's then that you need inspiration from other's to help you find the strength to be happy where you are, make the best of the bad and walk over life's hot coals without needing the ER!

There's no denying our economy has put a damper on everypone's financial and career future. Our parents are watching their hard earned money burn up and fly away in the stock market. Our peers jobs are smoldering out as layoffs continue. I myself was laid off in December! We tend to forget that there are those coming out of college with a bright shiny new degree ready to use their really expensive new knowledge to fulfill their dreams only to find they can't find a job to get started down the road to success in their chosen field.

I got a forward from my friend Ames today that found a college grad in just that predicament. He didn't burn up in the recession fire. He decided to make the most of it and set out to see the country while working lots of odd jobs. To be exact 50 jobs in 50 weeks in 50 states. He didn't see any job as beneath him, but rather as an experience, a chance, an opportunity. He literally is riding out the recession in his Jeep. Check out the full story here... http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/02/07/BU1215MNT6.DTL. I also included his personal website to the right on this page so you can check out his progress on his website Living The Map.

Kids Volunteering

It seems more and more volunteering is being required of kids in schools or needed on a college application to show community involvement. Here's my problem with that...there are only so many hours in a day and kids seem to be getting more and more homework, throw in a sport or other group activity and a fundraiser and there's no time for dinner let alone volunteering. I'm also not sure volunteering just to record your hours for a college application is necessarily the spirit in which we want our kids volunteering. Required volunteering...those words don't seem to go together.

I admit that I have not done a good job of getting my older son to volunteer. I try to show through my actions the importance of caring and helping others in need or just to make their day. However, my example is set by helping with friends and family in need. I'm a believer in taking care of "My People". Those in the circus ring with me! As far as putting that on a college application...I don't think that will count. Max, my older son, is very caring for a 16 year old. He asks me how my day was everyday, helps carry in the groceries and waited on me when I needed him during chemotherapy shit days, but I don't think that will count as required volunteering.

I am, interested in finding something for my younger son as he is much more interested in the concept of volunteering outside our home for genuine reasons. As I was searching the Internet for ideas I happened to see an add on CNBC for City Year. Unfortunately, there isn't a location close enough to me to participate, but I thought the site was worth sharing as there are plenty of other locations .

City Year is an organization that brings kids together to better a community and help in schools. There are opportunities for elementary, middle and high school students. Kids commit to 10 months of volunteering on weekends and breaks, but what appears to be different to me with this organization is that as well as putting the kids to work there are meetings to help them understand the underlying social and economic hardships that they will be improving and how their volunteering individually and as a group can Spark a change!

Check it out if you have kids that may be interested! There's a link to the website on the right hand side of this page.

T

What's This Blog About?

Where to start???? 2008 was an interesting, tragic, transformative year for me. I was diagnosed with breast cancer in January 08 and my life just got more and more interesting from then on! With the help of family, friends and a set of journal emails that I consistently sent out I made it through the year in good spirits and became a more enlightened person. Sometimes going through hell and coming out the other side inspires you.

I was inspired by the people all around me during my year from hell to be a stronger, better and a more gracious person. I was touched by the generosity of spirit that flowed from people near and far. Some of those people I saw everyday, and some I hadn't seen or communicated with for 12 years! As these people surrounded me like a cloud and helped me float through the year of treatment (instead of free falling on my own) what I had always known was confirmed... I need people and people are good.

It's such a simple concept... people are good and they need each other. However, we lose sight of that!. As I wrote my journal emails simply titled Update. I got lots of encouragement to "do something" with them. They seemed to have inspired those reading them, as much as the people reading them inspired me to keep chugging along! It makes sense. Most life traumas we encounter have us run the same set of emotions. Although I was working my way through cancer, others were working their way through divorces, death, pregnancy, break ups, etc. We all need to know others understand us and relate.

So there it was the opportunity to create a place online to all come together and Spark each other to be stronger, better and more enlightened! Those Sparks are little moments of connection with others that lift our spirits, help us cope, teach us and help us understand life more clearly.

So let's Spark each other! Let's talk about the big and the small things that bring joy to life. From the smallest to the largest topics. Let's not be a doom and gloom blog let's talk about how to be happy from the inside out! This is the place to learn to make every moment important. Think of it as using fine china at the kids table...hell why not...what are we waiting to use the fine china for!

Let's go...let the Sparks fly!
T