Follow the Indigo Girl...

I'm back...and I cannot believe it has been almost one year since I have written in this blog.

I have a new address and I hope you will discover me there....

Indigo Girl

A Miraculous Milestone...

*photo originally uploaded to photobucket by nchauma

It's been over a month since I posted here on this blog.  A hiatus that seems to be lengthening and expanding and taking on a life of it's own. That's a good thing.

Change happens quickly even within one month.  As I sit here penning my thoughts and looking for an image to include with my thoughts, I realize how blogger has once again added and changed, taken away and revised.  It took me a few minutes to figure out how to do something so simple, something that I was once able to do very easily, without needing to think.  Blogger has now made it a little more difficult to upload photographs.  Good news for copyright on people's images, especially for those who are remiss in giving credit where it is due.  Not as good for those of us in a hurry to accomplish what we need to, want to do in a short period of time.  It does, however, remind me that life is filled with complications and stumbling blocks and little road blocks set up from time to time.  The challenge can keep our minds sharp and our skills sharper.  Or it can weaken us, and allow us to walk away, to leave the challenge and stay with what we know and hope for the best. I prefer not to stagnate and to move with the challenges.

♥

I've reached a miraculous milestone today.  Five years ago today I wasn't sure I would be sitting here, able to write these words, and yet I am.  And I give thanks every day for that.

It was 5 years ago today that I had the mammogram that changed my life.  It rocked my world and opened doors and windows to possibilities I had long forgotten I even desired.  It shook me to my core and roused me with a rude awakening from the life I was living to the one I was meant to be following.  I was complacent and looking for change.  I had no idea what change was in store for me that day.  Would I have chosen it?  Never.  It reminded me though that many of the changes that are presented to us are unwanted, unlooked for and chosen for us.  Why, we don't need to know.  We only need to recognize them as lessons of life.

Cancer is not something I take lightly.  Ever.  And I never forget that it's somewhere just over my right shoulder, watching me, waiting for me perhaps to stumble or lose my way.  But I'm ready for it.  I know what it looks like now and I know that if it ever comes ringing my doorbell again, I'll be ready and know exactly what I need to do.

Reaching the 5 year mark changes the statistics of survival in my favour even more.  I had an aggressive form of breast cancer and I took my aggressive nature and pummeled it and let it know I wasn't taking this lightly.  I learned my strengths and I accepted my weaknesses and forgave myself for those.  Then the weaknesses began to turn to strengths and my spirit grew and my soul began to swell and I knew that I was ready to live like there was no tomorrow.  No more "wishing" and "hoping" and "some day" for me.  It's now.  This is what I have, this day, each day.  Quite a gift.

"Healing may not be so much about getting better, as about letting go of everything that isn't you ~ all of the expectations, all of the beliefs ~ and becoming who you are." ~ R. N. Remen

I'm ready to move on now, back into the mainstream of life.  To be a "big girl" and know that I can cross the road by looking both ways and don't need to have my hand held for safety.  My oncologist is letting me go in January.  My surgeon will be there every year to make sure I've remembered "the safety rules".

It's time for me to take this bittersweet experience and allow it to change me into something more, something new, something unknown.  I'm not afraid of the dark.  My friends and loved ones have flashlights...they'll guide me along the way if I can't see.

I'm stepping away from the world of blogging as well.  Moving into my life that is outside these four walls and this computer.  To leave my mark in the wide world of where I am right now.

I’m no longer afraid of the storm for I am learning how to sail my own ship.

Louisa May Alcott

Until We Meet Again....

The Noticer...Are You One?

A few weeks ago while following this woman's updates on facebook, I was introduced to this amazing "little" (as in only 153 pages) book by Andy Andrews.  I began to read it just before bed, thinking I would read for a few minutes and by 2:00 a.m. I was closing the book on the last page.  

Interesting.  Inspiring.  Dynamic.  

From the flyleaf:

"Your chance to regroup, take a breath, and begin your life again awaits in the simple wisdom and heartwarming story of a man names Jones."

As much as I enjoyed the book, the philosophy and the many quotable phrases, there was something "off" about this book...for me.  I believe in the unseen and the possible.  I believe in the "could it be, might it be" of life.  I know I don't have all the answers and I know that I will never have all the answers.  It does come back to perspective, the running theme of this book.  Even with my "questioning" and finding something "off" about this, I still recommend the read.  What I question, you might not.  But I do believe in perspective and how looking at life with a different lens can make all the difference in the world.

A Thought...a Quote

In twenty years you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked.

Mary Schmich

Eye Candy Friday From Du Buh Du Designs...

 Take a little trip with me...to visit Du Buh Du Designs...

Christine Alvarado makes the most incredible one of  a kind art dolls.  Life like.  Beautiful.  Stunning.  Out of my league with price unfortunately, however, Christine has now made it possible to "almost" own one of her designs...in the form of museum quality prints in an excellently affordable price range.  From Frida to Trilby to gypsies...all are proof of this woman's talent.

You can see more of Christine's work on her blog (more outstanding eye candy!) and in her etsy shop.

*as always, these images are the property of Du Buh Du Designs and are not to be copied

Little Bee...

The mother of a friend of mine recommended Chris Cleave's Little Bee to me a few weeks ago.  Yesterday I had a moment to start the book.  A moment turned into a few hours.  I'm so glad that I read this book.

What's it about?

This is from the fly leaf...

"We don't want to tell you too much about this book.  It is a truly special story and we don't want to spoil it.  Nevertheless, you need to know something so we will just say this:  This is the story of two women.  Their lives collide one fateful day, and one of them has to make a terrible choice.  Two yeas later, they meet again.  The story starts there.  Once you have read it you'll want to tell everyone about it. When you do, please don't tell them what happens.  The magic is in how it unfolds."

One Photo To Say It All...

Where I am today.  Tomorrow.  For awhile...

*image from dietsinreview website

Swinging Into Spring

 

Love this season.  More than any other.  Hope, possibility, renewal, shedding and lightening of the heaviness of winter...Lake Ontario still on the cold side, bare branches coming into bud, sunlight glinting off the water...

 

A time to be outdoors to play with good friends, no matter what our age...

to swing forward and feel the sunlight that makes us say, "I'm so glad to be here!!"

Eye Candy Friday From Silke Powers...

painting that was gifted to me by Silke Powers - March 2010

 A few weeks ago I was thrilled beyond belief when my friend Silke Powers told me that I had been one of two winners for the giveaway she was doing of her work.  The painting arrived the other day and looks amazing on the antique secretary desk I have in my living room, and when I look at it I can't help but smile and think of Silke.


There is something about Silke's work that captures my sense of beauty and wonder and fills me with a sense of strength and soul power.  My own invention I believe, "soul power" (no play on her surname either!)...that feeling of growth and depth that comes from the centre of the body and emanates outward. 

It may be the eyes...what Silke sees when she is painting is reflected in the eyes of the women in her work.  The eyes that tell a story.

best friends

dreamer

wrapped in a gentle breeze

Silke is not only a painter, she crochets and knits and makes beautiful scarves. These two are examples of the different styles she creates.  The bottom one looks more like a field of ribbon or a field of flowers, but yes, it is a scarf!

All of these photographs are from Silke's etsy shops and are not to be copied or used without permission.

For Silke's paintings please click here.
For Silke's scarves please click here.