Brave Heart, Brave Soul. She who is brave is free.

                        Sometimes we put up roadblocks, shutting down all the easy roads to us. I know I've been there a time or two myself. It’s easier to close ourselves off than deal with the noise and commotion around us. It’s not that we’re ignoring the havoc or don’t see the chaos. We simply need silence. I know when life hands me lemons I need to slow down and be still. But mostly I just need time to figure it all out. So, the barriers go up. I steal myself away until I’m ready to make lemonade.  Truthfully, it takes time to get yourself right. To sort it all out and accept where you are. That’s the key though really. Accept then act. None of us should force things. It only leads to more upheaval. Nothing happens overnight. And the art of making a great pitcher of sweet lemony goodness starts out with a bunch of sour lemons.   Hurt and pain don’t just wash away. Happiness just doesn’t show up and...

Can you hear the howling wind? I can. The trees are rustling and I am restless. Do you feel the chill in the air tonight? So many forces seem at play right here , right now. Do I regret my path, do I fear the journey ahead? No, but I feel weary already. Time seems to be standing still. I feel as if I have crossed into an alternate reality yet my feet are still planted right here in the ground. The minutes pass every so slowly and with every tick of the clock I grow more aware something is wrong, something is moving, festering, expanding within my breast. Yes the sun has risen in the east today but I know, yes I am painfully aware my life has changed. I am no longer living in youth's blissful denial. No today the call has come.... today I became one of just under 10,000 women under 40 in the US to be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer. That was 2006. This is 2009 and though many feared they would lose me here I stand. Today, October 1, 2009, marks the beginning of Breast Canc...

I recently came across this most beautiful picture and it took my breath away. Lady Marian stands behind a tree next to a stream. Her quiver sits gently against a tree while she holds to her bow. Lady Marian is watching a swan swimming down the stream as if she holds a secret. Has she lost something or someone close to her? Is she resting before taking up her quiver and bow again? As a child I grew up watching many of the old classic movies. I especially loved Earl Flynn's Robin Hood. I would pretend for hours I was Lady Marian and other times I would run around the back yard transforming myself into Robin Hood himself. There was no challenge too big I could not face. After all I was Robin Hood right? As the years passed and I grew older I would revisit my faithful friend from time to time when I was able to catch him on the AMC channel. But nothing ever compared to my days of romping through my own Sherwood Forest within the boundaries of my own backyard. Then recently I was intr...

As I sit and read some of the other stories…my eyes filled with tears.... In disbelief and in sadness of what others have gone through in their lives.My life’s experiences are not so deep . I’m not saying that I have lived a charmed life. But I can honestly say that I do believe I have lived a blessed life. We all have demons that we have fought in our lives...we all have cobwebs buried deep down in our mind… however some thicker than others. I choose to keep my cobwebs buried. I have learned to deal with what has gone on in my past… and choose not to dwell… with only knowing that there is now nothing I can do to change it. My life now has taken on a whole different way of living…we all at times have been forced to travel down roads we do not wish to travel down..These are life’s lessons.. . how we choose to ride it out is totally up to us… as for my experiences… cancer is the one that has challenged our family the most… Cancer has stricken my family three times.. I have lost an Aunt ,...

My Chiari Story... After 10yrs of unexplained symptoms, migraines and neck pain with doctor's visits of uncertainty, a simple MRI of my neck in June 2005 changed my life forever. Everyone pretty much knows their own body and when things start not to feel right or our mind doesn't think as quickly as once before, that is pretty scary. It is a constant battle of analyzing our ourselves to get to the truth. Remembering things was my forte and I found myself a clean blank slate waiting for the writing to reappear in my short term memory. I felt myself slurring more. My friends or family members would ask me what I said because they couldn't understand me. I struggle to talk slower and get frustrated because I know what I am saying and pretty much could understand myself but others could not. Finally with the right doctor, I was told in June of 2005 that I have a rare disorder called Arnold Chiari Malformation. Arnold Chiari Malformation is a rare brain disorder that causes crow...