Wednesday, February 25, 2009

inspiration

I was talking to a girlfriend yesterday about how I'm "friending" a few writers lately and the old dream of being a writer was bubbling up a little bit. She has a similar writing bug and we both talked of our blogs, how we enjoyed writing, even for bits at a time, and how neither of us have touched our blogs in months. In my case, it's been nearly a year!
I think sometimes it's easy to fall into a rut, it's easy to get too busy, and it's hard to come up with material deemed good enough to write about. I've decided to take some of the pressure off. I'm hoping to just post about things I'd like to remember, or enjoyed reading, or just made me stop and think. I have plenty of things like this, but I'm going to try to stick to one a day (or so).
Today, is the word "Remission". A friend of ours was surprised with a large tumor in his colon - actually he wasn't all that surprised, what was surprising was that it took so long to be discovered even after spending time in the hospital and being diagnosed with diverticulitis. Months after that hospital stay, he was still feeling ill and a coke-can-sized tumor was found and removed from his body. They also found cancer spots on his liver, which meant he had Stage IV cancer (Stage IV cancers have often metastasized, or spread to other organs or throughout the body.).
His prognosis was pretty grim, and considering he was a pretty healthy-living 44-yr old with two young sons, this was a big shock.
He had no intention of giving up or giving in.
He went on an all juice diet (read more, and more), started running/training for a marathon, went through two rounds of chemo (with one more to go) and is now hearing the word "Remission" as his current diagnosis.
Amazing, inspiring, heart-warming, stunning, and a million more words I don't have the vocabulary to write down.
I'm honored to know this person, and inspired to do things that matter, that make me happy, and that keep me close to the people I hope to keep close to me, in times of happiness, sadness and everything in between.
until next time...

1 comment:

Aleece said...

Wow - isn't it amazing that just taking care of ourselves (eating well, exercising and keeping a good attitude) can really make a difference? I'm so happy for your friend. :)