I had no idea it was World Cancer Day, and somehow I completely missed the fact that I was supposed to wear purple.  However, due to the sea of purple around me, I found that my mind wandered to cancer…and survival…and treatment…and a host of other thoughts associated with the disease, and my close face to face encounter with it.  Most of those thoughts are better put aside because they are painful still and lead only to fearful places.

Instead I sit and listen to the rain.  I let it sing over me and soothe me.  Later it will lull me to sleep.  I make note that though cancer took much from me, it also gave me a deep appreciation of the small things…like the rain, the wind, and the laughter of a child.  Things I haven’t paid much attention to since I was a child, like the moon, and stars, and clouds that make pictures in the sky.  I found more chances to smile, that laughter is a healing balm to the soul, and that tears are heart-cleansing.  I learned that friends both new and old are more important than I knew, and family is critical to everything I am.  The small details of life, the ones I used to roll right past in my busyness, are many times the places where God shows himself.  A child that needed a hug, a friend going through a rough time, a celebration of love, a sisterhood that ‘gets it’, a hike up a mountain, a painting, a story, a heartfelt song, a whiff of honeysuckle, a taste of strawberries…all of it, every moment, is beautiful and worth savoring.

I found that if you truly listen to people you can hear their pain and sometimes be a part of lifting it.  I learned that everyone has a story and we all have that fact in common.  I know that ‘stuff’ isn’t as important as it once was.  That the truly important things are immeasurable and cannot be bought. That being grateful, and recognizing how really rich I am…how blessed…is a treasure which is the gift of Cancerland.