Warrior Girl, In Honor Of Breast Cancer Awareness Month

I AM A Warrior!

Breast Cancer has made me into many things... a fighter, an advocate, a survivor and a warrior. There have been many days that Breast Cancer has stomped the breathe right out of me, made me feel as if it was taking my life away with it's every daunting touch. But at the end of the day my fear has always been replaced by courage, my tears replaced by stubbornness and my pain by hope. For every inch of ground that cancer has ever tried to take away from me, I have pushed myself two more steps ahead.


So as I look out and see pink ribbons everywhere I turn right now, I feel a strong surge rising up, beating inside me. I feel the need to shout it out that this is a month of reckoning, and a time to put a real, very honest face on breast cancer. A time to stand together and fight with all our might to save our daughters, our son's daughters and our daughters, daughters daughter.

We are not just pretty ribbons or an admirable cause for just this moment in time. No, we are real women, with real lives and a very real invading enemy that is still biding for our very existence. And yet, even as this enemy advances from all sides, and all directions, we are holding our ground and holding onto real hope in spite of what we know lies before us.

The real truth is that Breast cancer is not pretty despite the delicate pink ribbon. It does not just come out of the closet for one month out of the year in a brightly colored package. No, Breast Cancer is a monster, a beast at best, that wages war all year long upon thousands and thousands. It's objective...to kill. Breast Cancer manes and makes it's mark upon mind, body and soul. Breast Cancer takes no prisoners, it plays by no ones rules. Breast Cancer does it's own bidding and if let out to play will continue on it's war path. I ca say from experience that Breast Cancer does not play well with others! This enemy is silent as it is deadly. It claws, gnaws and tramples it's way through your body consuming every thing in its way.

The woman I was before, is not the same woman that I have become. True there was once a time when I saw Breast Cancer as only an older woman's disease. How very naive I was before coming face to face myself with this beast. But now I stand tall, side by side with all women. I stand shoulder to shoulder with both the young and the old, those still naive and those wiser than I, to fight this war. I was once afraid, but now I have become seasoned and battle ready. I have put on my pink body armor and stepped over the line drawn before me. I wear my pink proudly, yet I am not deceived by it's luster anymore. I have donned my pink helmet, placed my breast plate on, laced up my boots, smeared the pink war paint across my face and taken up my sword. I am ready to march, to run, to race onto the battlefield. I am a WARRIOR!

Living in each day within this base camp we know that life is never certain, but hope is. We can beat this thing, even if it means living within it's claw. We are strong, and we are not afraid to face it dead on. Yes, we may feel our hands shake and our hearts race, but we are survivors, we are sisters, we are warriors. We will over come. It's past time to put our war paint on my dear sisters. The battle front is before us, and though the face of this beast roars loudly at us, we stand ... together, never retreating!

So again, I shout this call to arms, and call for the drums not to just beat, but to echo as loudly as they can for all to hear. I am not afraid of this breast cancer beast. I have and will continue to meet it with my sword drawn ready to fight to the end. My time has come to bleed PINK! Has yours?

Christina