In need of a few profound words

Last weekend, we participated in the New England Coalition for Cancer Survivorship's annual Take the Lake event. It is a family friendly fundraiser - 25 mile bike ride or 3 mile run/walk around a local lake. In my normal healthy manner, I convinced my husband to walk around the lake for the exercise while I took care of fundraising and selling raffle tickets at the event.

As an incentive to all the fundraisers, anyone raising more than $500 got a commemorative brick in Boston's Garden of Hope in conjunction with the Conquer Cancer Coalition. That seemed a little far off for me but we actually did raise an ample amount to get a brick. Now the question:

WHAT THE HELL DO WE WRITE ON THE DAMN BRICK?

It will leave a eternal lasting impression in Boston's City Hall Plaza and will be seen by many people over the ensuing centuries. Or maybe I am too optimistic and I should say decades. But still it will be brick and be here for a really long time.

We have 12 days to figure this out. I need inspiration. Four lines, 21 characters (including spaces) each.

All I have come up with so far is:

Remembering Those
Who Went Before Us

And then our names (which do not fit on one line)

What would you write? Its not about us. I know too many people who have died of cancer to list them all and to list only one or two would be skewed.

Go be inspired

Stephen Sutton died yesterday morning in his sleep at the age of 19 in the UK after being diagnosed with bowel cancer in September 2010. He had a Facebook page and a website with a blog and a bucket list (mostly completed) and you can follow his timeline to learn what he did.

He accomplished a lot in his short life including raise over 500,000 pounds for charity. He should be remembered as someone who did some pretty amazing things. Go read about him and be inspired to get moving in your life.

On being an inspiration

Yesterday I went to the wake for a friend, Sue, who had been diagnosed with breast cancer 21 years ago. When I met her in the breast cancer support group I used to attend probably around five years ago, she had been stage IV for a number of years - probably more than a dozen.

She was quiet when she started attending the support group but then started to open up about her story. She had a cheerful smile and a twinkle in her eyes. No matter what she was going through you would always smile. Over the years, I helped convince her to go on a Casting For Recovery retreat and watched her learn to fly fish - we never caught anything but it was the fun.

I stopped attending the support group several years ago but would still see her at events hosted by the center which runs the group. She was always smiling and poised, never letting the inner stresses dampen her spirits.

I met her family yesterday. Her husband, who I had never met before, asked how I knew her and I told him about the breast cancer support group. He said that it was a wonderful little organization and told me the story that she had told him. One of the other members of the support group came up to Sue and told her that she was an inspiration to her on how to live with breast cancer.

I thought about that and decided that I agree. She had late stage cancer and greeted the world with a smile and a twinkle in her eye. She didn't let it stop her from trying something new and having fun. I am inspired as well.

Being an inspiration

Some people have said I am an inspiration to them. I have never really figured out why. Maybe its the two cancer thing. I don't get it. The only inspirations I ever have are how to be more lazy and take a nap. I have not saved the world, raised millions for cancer research or anything so profound. I can be whiney at the drop of a hat (ask my husband for proof).

I am also not someone who celebrates cancerversaries. I dont think they are worthy of notice. But every so often we run into events which are worth noting - like birthdays - they always deserve notice.

However here is a woman who is an inspiration. Jill over at Dancing With Cancer: Living With Mets just celebrated ten years of metastases. Many people when they first think of metastases that this is the end. However we have Jill as living proof that metastases are not the end. If you don't read her blog, you should. She is a normal person dancing with cancer, living with mets.

Again I am not inspired

I am not feeling inspired this morning. Maybe because I have attempted to be a normal person for the past few days by working full days and then doing things in the evening other than sitting like a blob in front of the TV with my laptop. That cat likes me better when I spend a lot of time doing that.

I was so tired yesterday I wanted to go home from work and take a nap. Well, I got to lie down for half an hour and then go out to dinner with my family. Then when we got home my back hurt and I couldn't fall asleep so I took a pill and did sleep and feel somewhat better today. But of course something has to hurt - my tennis elbow is acting up so I am typing with a stupid wrist brace which leads to frustration and typos.

I did want to sleep late today but we are having a home energy inspection where our house will be checked for any way we can have energy savings. We already have new windows and use CFL bulbs but we have no idea what we have for insulation and our water heater is well aged and due to go shortly. A little professional advice might be helpful here. But I will have to take lots of notes so my little chemo brain doesn't have to remember everything. And I will NOT sign up for any expensive work to be done without consulting with my husband first. The good side is if we do any of the work they want, we get a 75% rebate up to $2000 if the work is done this year. Not that we have any spare cash because of vacations and kitchen upgrades. We'll just have to see what they say.

My level of inspiration is also lowered by the fact that my back hurts (what a surprise), I have yet another stupid skin rash (a souvenir of chemo), and there is a little bitty storm headed our way which will ruin all weekend plans of going to the beach. Maybe I should just take a nap and forget about everything but I have work to do meeting a friend for a walk, and then acupuncture for my elbow.