Showing posts with label prostate cancer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label prostate cancer. Show all posts

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Just enjoy the ride...


My cup runneth over with random thoughts and emotions. So much so I don't know where to start.

Yesterday was the Ovarian Cancer Of Florida's annual Holiday Party...a small group of the finest people I know. I am so inspired by the women I walk beside and truly grateful that I am along for the journey. Whenever I am around them, I am reminded of my purpose. I am here and still alive because I have a message. A message to young women all of over the world. A message to minority women. A voice for those who are undeserved and often left behind or left for dead. So much has transpired over the last few years and sometimes I just want to sit and be still. If I make no moves, there's a good chance I can avoid all disappointments.

I was talking to my mom the other day and she told me an interesting story about my dad. My dad just finished treatment for Prostate Cancer and it seems his passion for giving has quadrupled. She ran across quite a few envelopes with donations in them...all ready to be mailed to various organizations and people in need. The surprising part for my mom was the number of envelopes he had ready to go. They like most of us have their list of go-to charity's, but it seems that this years list had exploded. As I listened, I realized that my dad's eagerness to take care of the world is a side effect from being a survivor. I equate it to being so thankful and grateful that you are here, you want to do whatever you can to help others. As survivor of anything you realize up close and personal what the alternative to surviving is and for a lot of people that thought remains a figment of their imagination for a really long time. It's something you wish you could bottle up and distribute to the world in a lovely glass bottle, a feeling you wish people could experience and execute without having to go through a life threatening illness.

Another side effect for me is that not only do i want to help the world, I want to do everything now..like if I don't I will run out of time. I want to fast forward to a successful business, fantastic trips and voyages with Dan, family, & friends. Advocacy work that MAKES a difference in the lives of women all over the world. And last but never least, maybe just maybe a family of our own, be it conventional or unconventional, I know that we can make a difference in the life of a child.

I'm praying that God gives me the strength and courage to tackle all that I want to achieve and even if I stay a bit along the way, I will remember to enjoy the ride!!

Wishing you all many blessings this holiday season!!!

Thursday, October 15, 2009

A OKAY on the check up front...

As I walked into the cancer center for my 8:30 appointment on Tuesday, the moment was a bit surreal. Not because of my looming appointment where I would find out it this ugly beast was still minding it's own business, but because my father who lives some 500 miles away, was walking into some building of his own to face his own beast, his first radiation treatment for prostate cancer. Even as I write these words, it's still unimaginable to me that cancer can strike not only once, but twice in the same family at the same time. We're not alone in this journey, there are millions of people in the same predicament all over the world. It doesn't make it any easier to digest, in fact I'd say it's equally annoying at best. The good news is that I'm still kicking cancer's butt and my dad is too!! It's funny, now that I know the word cancer I find myself hoping and praying that if anyone I know gets it, that they get a kinder more gentle version. Something manageable,something beatable...a kind version + a great attitude= a win win situation. Funny how our perspective changes with firsthand experience.