This morning I decided to wake up slowly and lazily. I flipped on the TV and started channel surfing, enjoying having Tabby on my tummy and Mr. Meow curled up by my side and both of them as content as me to just hang out. (And it’s rare they decide to get along like that and tolerate each other so I wanted to relish the peace and harmony!)

I don’t know what made me stop on CNN. Dr. Sanjay Gupta was about to come on and something caught my eye about one of the stories he was going to cover. I don’t remember exactly what was said, but it had something to do with a new book out about the history of cancer.

It turned out to be a segment on The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee.

Dr. Gupta interviewed the author. Fascinating. Not sure why no one thought of compiling a book such as this before, but it traces the origins of cancer and this history of those involved.

At one point they showed a photo of the first child to receive chemo for leukemia. It was 1947 I believe. He was two years old. At that time a leukemia diagnosis meant you only had weeks or months to live. Due to a pioneering doctor’s idea, this little boy lived to be just shy of his fourth birthday.

They showed a clip of the mom talking about her son. While it was a great coup for medicine, it still resulted in a tragic loss for her. One she was bitter about, because they’d declared him cured. Yet, he still died.

That really hit home. That’s the thing most people don’t understand about “surviving” cancer. Remission, what I’m currently in, doesn’t mean I’m cured. It means I’m still healing. It means my cancer could reappear. Right now my body is showing signs of being healed and well, but it’s still too early to say cured. I understood why that mother was so upset.

Yet, to her and to the countless others who have lost children, spouses, siblings, and other loved ones I say this: thank you. Just as many soldiers never expected to truly fight in a war, people with cancer have been drafted into the ultimate battle.

Some, like myself, come out of it relatively unscathed. I had four months of chemo and another month of radiation, but I only had one hospital stay and no surgery. I know others who had to undergo far less treatment than myself, and others who’ve endured years of treatment. 

Every day I say a prayer for those going through cancer to find the courage to battle on and the strength for when theirs fails. But I also say a prayer for all of those who have gone before me. The ones who consented to be guinea pigs and test out new treatments. The ones who lost their lives in that quest for health. The doctors and researchers who study the disease and find ways to treat and cure it. The loved ones who have to stay strong and become caretakers.

But they never had faces or names. Some did. Like some of the people I’ve met along my journey. But the ones who were the firsts to do anything, like develop chemo or take it…who were they? Until The Emperor of All Maladies I had no idea. I just knew they existed, but not who they were. Now I do.

What a marvelous book. I’m glad Siddhartha Mukherjee felt compelled to create it. Now I have faces and names to put to my prayer.

Much to my delight, Wayne got me Sarah Ban Breathnach’s Peace and Plenty as one of my Christmas presents. He actually hates spending money on books when he can just check them out at a library, but there are books he makes exceptions for. Like ones we’ll refer to again and again (travel guides and such) or ones we’ll read again and again.

I have reread every Sarah Ban Breathnach book I own. Peace and Plenty will surely be added to that list. I’m only a few chapters into it, but I’m already in love. I adore her writing style. I think she’s marvelous at blending quotes she finds with points she’s trying to make.

And I feel so uplifted, inspired and motivated after reading her essays. It gives me a whole new perspective to ponder. I inevitably find new things I want to try and do and aspire to be.

After reading Peace and Plenty before bed last night, I woke up raring to tackle the day today. And boy did I! I got all sorts of things done, from shopping (even stocking up on some Christmas presents for next year) to cleaning the house and starting the Great Dejunking Project of 2011. Marvelous!

So, while I don’t really suffer from financial problems (knock on wood and hallelujah! let’s hope I can keep it that way!) I’m still already finding things to relate to in this book. I don’t know if it’ll have as profound an impact as Simple Abundance did, but at least I get to feast on Sarah Ban Breathnach’s prose. That’s always delicious soul food!

During my Christmas shopping I was overjoyed to learn one of my all-time favorite authors, Sarah Ban Breathnach, has a new book coming out! It’s called Peace and Plenty: Finding Your Path to Financial Seernity.

I’m not super crazy about the subject matter. Thanks to Wayne I feel I have a pretty good grasp on financial responsibility.

However, I love her writing. And her first book, Simple Abundance, was released in a very similar climate. (The recession of the easrly 1990s.) I’m sure she’ll have many witty insights, wonderful quotes, and thought-provoking anecdotes like she’s had in all of her books.

I’m just excited to read something else of hers. Simple Abundance was nothing short of a life-changing manual for me. It’s one of the only books I’ve read more than once. (About seven times in the last 10 years.) I’ve been sort of craving her sage prose and I’m super happy to know I’ll soon have something new to feast upon!

I love to walk, but ever since we moved to Nashville in 2005 I haven’t been walking as much. The hills in our neighborhood deter me.

EXCUSES, EXCUSES

However, there are lots of parks around with flat paths. Trouble is, then it requires getting in the car and going somewhere…any excuse to get out of exercising (even walking which I enjoy doing), I’ll use it!

Although, that’s not being fair to myself. I love taking my dog Murphy for a walk. But in August 2008 he busted up his leg and needed a major surgery. He’s just now recovered enough from that so we can do mini-walks again. (Meaning about a mile, whereas we would do 2-3 miles easy…even a couple of times a day.)

But to go by myself…boring. Plus, then I’m in my own head. Dangerous. I either stew about some perceived injustice done to me, or end up plotting 40 different things to do with my writing, my blog, my life in general…basically, I overwhelm myself with good intentions!

However, as the weight’s crept back on after chemo…first to 165, then 170, then 175, now over 180 again (even though I tried desperately to maintain!), I know I have to do something. Walking has always helped in the past. And music…that used to keep me company on my 4 and 5 milers back in Jax.

Then at some point my little MP3 broke and I just never got around to replacing it.

AN IDEA IS BORN…

But I bought one for Wayne for his birthday back in September. An RCA Pearl. He didn’t like it. It’s small, but his old one, which he adored, was teeny tiny. Like only as long as his pinkie and not much wider. It was battery operated too. He didn’t want the recharge via the computer kind.

Well, I decided to keep his. But I only broke it out of the box this week. That’s when I discovered it’s battery operated too. And it has a handy built-in USB…no wires to keep straight!

Also, it said it was Audible.com ready, and it came with an offer for a free Audible.com audio book. (Which I only discovered once I opened the package.)  I had seen an ad on TV for Audible.com a few weeks back, and that’s when the idea started to form: something else I really enjoy listening to is audio books. In Jax I used to rent them from the library and listen while I did dishes, housework, tackled various painting projects (I was forever painting that house!)…it always made the time go faster and I really enjoyed experiencing the books that I rarely had time to actually read. What if I listened to books while I walked like my friend Nila does? How fun would that be?

BREAKING THE “BUT” CYCLE

Ah ha! “Fun.” Key word. If I like it, I do it. I make time for it. I end up losing weight effortlessly…

I also found that I really like walking in Lenox Village, which is a 3 minute drive from our house. (Before that, Owl Park was my top pick. Less than 10 minutes from home, flat path, nice park, but…the path’s only like .7 around so I have to do laps. Which is okay, but I’d rather see a change up in scenery. I could always walk in the neighborhood that borders the park too, but…that’s just it. I always came up with a “but.”)

However, not anymore. I’m determined to break my “but” cycle! Yesterday I finally took my MP3 out for a spin, with World War Z loaded on it. Or so I thought. I didn’t know how to load it up right apparently.

LOCKED AND LOADED

But after a few (yes, a few) hours today trying to figure it all out, World War Z is finally loaded properly. This afternoon I’ll head out for a walk in Lenox Village and see how it all goes. Hopefully as good as yesterday’s walk. I was frustrated I couldn’t get the audio book to play. I kept fiddling with it, then finally gave up and listened to the samples they had on already before changing to music. I ended up having a wonderful walk!

Now I’m eager to go and do it again today. Especially because it’ll help ease all the stress I’m feeling about my dad.