Reminiscing and Recycling

Good day, Friends!

I remember as a child, going to my local library on Saturday mornings and thumbing through the vinyl records, 8 tracks and cassette tapes available for check out. I felt so grateful living in a city with a library that allowed me to bring these home for a week. I've always appreciated the various genres of music to choose from, learning along the way every time I checked out an artist I had never heard about. The more I listen to Pandora, the more genres I learn about. It's an exciting time to be living where the diversity of art in all it's expressions can be easily and instantaneously accessed through the Internet, a simple google search, or a trip to your local library. During my last chemotherapy weekend, I decided to hunker down with all the movies that won academy awards this year. So I checked out the movies Lion, Fences and Collateral Beauty to watch during my recovery time. I am once again reminded of the power of the creative arts to move and deeply change us. These films were passionately brought to life with fierce acting, Universal truths, and story telling of real life bravery. Despite this being only my opinion and not a professional movie review, I strongly recommend you see these films.

Here are some pieces of insight I've gained from watching these films. We all long for love. We all yearn for more time. We all fear death. We all know about collateral damage. In fact, we could all learn more by considering the collateral impact of our choices, preferably before we make them. People tend to pay more attention to worry, negativity and fear than we do their opposites. We're not in the habit of attending to the positive, the good that can come from adversity, how pain has the potential to pull us closer to one another and grow us in ways we've not considered. This is known as 'the collateral beauty'. This kind of beauty grows from the place of experience...a place we arrive at through the challenges of our own assigned suffering if we choose to allow it. Our assignments often differ. Yet, if we meet them with raw honesty and vulnerability, we too will arrive where the collateral beauty abounds. Life can be hard...really, really hard! This second cancer journey has been hard. However, the things of life that bust us wide open can lead us to a profound sense of connection to everything and everyone. That's where the beauty and magic happen!

We learned last week that I am in complete remission. We have one treatment left and two years of monitoring, so we aren't at the end quite yet. However, our hearts are light and full of gratitude for so very much. We've met some wonderful people through this journey. And we've been stretched beyond our comfort zone, as well. However, we are better for all of it. Our hearts are bigger, too! And we will keep paying it forward. It's been a gorgeous day today, sunshine and calm winds, in the mid-to-upper 70's. I'm listening to a variety of music and reminiscing. I am always amazed by the power of a song to take me back, a smell to recycle a feeling, how vividly I can remember by the sights and sounds around me. These happen when I am mindful and present, focused in the moment and paying attention. I finally took the Easter decorations down and am replacing them with my Spring decor. We have a chickadee nest, now with six little eggs (there used to be four) laid in one of my wreaths hanging on the exterior of our home. Spring is coming, new life abounds and the promise of Easter has just arrived. During this Spring, may God's light guide your path, may God's love grace your heart, and may God's sacrifice strengthen your soul!!

Namaste'

Lisa