Ready to Say I Have Cancer

Today I had a change of spirit.  I decided that I needed to stop hanging on the fringes, to stop trying to get away from the fact that I am someone who has breast cancer.  I need to stop being a stinker about pink . . . about showing, even in a small way, that I am one of those directly affected by the disease.

I opened the mailbox this afternoon to get our mail.  In there was a package addressed to me.  Like the other package, this one came from MD, from another friend of mine who has been dealing with breast cancer.  Ironically, these two women I have heard from the past few weeks, women who sent me gifts, are two I spent time with when I was between flights from DC to Europe in 2008.  These ladies were at one time my teachers at Capitol Christian Academy.  As adults, we three shared an interest in education, as we were teachers.  We had an interest in Christian education, as we were teachers in a Christian schools.  Now we share a common disease.  They have a handle on theirs; my battle has just begun.

In the package from Carol today I found two items plus a letter.  There was a bracelet  (silver and pink) with a charm that stated “Love Heals” and a book, Savoring God, a book written by a breast cancer survivor.  The story of the bracelet and that fact that it has been passed on to me is what caught my attention to the need of changing my response to my disease. 

Sure, I am accepting of the fact that I have breast cancer; but I have not been accepting of all the other things that come with it – identification a little more obviously as being one of those battling the disease.