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

April 1-7 is the 5th annual National Young Adult Cancer Awareness Week If someone had told me two years ago that I would be diagnosed with breast cancer at 32 years of age, I would have told them they had the wrong girl. No way. Breast cancer is an "older woman's" disease, right? There was no way breast cancer would affect my life anytime in the near future.Well, that was then. It has been 15 months, 49 weeks, 400 days, 8,160 hours, and 529,000 minutes since I stood up, threw my hands over my mouth and recieved the not so coveted crown, and sash of the " totally unaware breast cancer so -not-want-to-be chic" tittle! After reading up, I found that in the U.S. on average a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer every 13 minutes? Every thirteen minutes? That is just unbelievable! Breast Cancer affects over 200,000 and kills over 41,000 women a year. Right now, there are more than 240,000 women under the age of 40 in the U.S. living with breast cancer. More tha...

Breast Cancer, the best teacher this woman has ever had! When this all first began, it was like being sucked up into a vacuum. It was pure chaos. Crazy does not even begin to cover it. There was no way to see the Forrest for the trees frankly. The words, "breast cancer," seemed surreal. It was just an elaborate hoax. There was no way I had cancer. But the truth was, I did. Suddenly all my fears were front and center demanding all my attention. Up until that moment, I had just been coasting through life. Yes, I needed to take better care of myself. Yes, I really should have dug myself out of the mommyhood trap, but I was content with life just the way it was. I had no real concerns about the future or how I looked to others. I was good to go in a T-shirt, jeans and a pony tail. I didn't take time to have my nails done, or have my hair cut. Lingerie was a thing of the past and just a fantasy of my husbands wild imagination. I always figured that I would have time for all ...

I was outside working in my garden the other day just taking some time to relax. I love to be in my garden. I find peace and satisfaction from toiling in the soil. Being in my garden was one of life's pleasures I truly missed while I underwent Chemo. Being outdoors, under the sun, feeling the breeze blow across my face was a gift. Being apart of the life around me was an inspiration to my spirit. It was like receiving a wonderful, yet totally unexpected gift. Life was breathing it's precious vitality back into my soul. I knelt there with my youngest Micah by my side in the dirt and opened my senses to the beauty of spring. A time when life renews itself and I allowed that wonder to take hold of my own body, spirit and soul. It was time to allow myself a complete renewal of my own sense of spring, acknwoledging this new woman inside me and a time to release the winter with all it's bareness. It was time to let the fear of loss go and time to embrace this new spirit of empow...