It’s all about PERSPECTIVE.

A friend of mine has a beautiful outlook on life. We may not see each other or talk very often, but she inspires me with her own blog to think deeply and look at things more creatively through my own “lens of life”.

Speaking of lenses, she is a wonderful photographer and she is the one that gave me the inspiration to follow my passion of photography and just go for it. Do I know how to shoot manually? Nope. Do I know the perfect poses to put people in during photo shoots? Not really, but I am good at winging it. J Do I still have bad dreams the night before a photo shoot because I am nervous I am going to goof something up? You BET! Does that stop me? Not in the least. And why you might ask do I do it? Because I LOVE to take pictures, I LOVE  to try to capture people at their best…in “their own life’s moments”, and I simply LOVE the joy that I get from seeing other people’s JOY!  

Speaking of JOY (and my friend Tina), every year, she picks a “word of the year” to focus her energy on all year round. What a wonderful idea! It’s not a resolution per se, but a way to live keeping a certain theme in mind. Her word for 2013 is JOY. My word, I have decided is going to be:

PERSPECTIVE.

I need to keep things in perspective with my new diagnosis and I need to look at it from different perspectives.  Unfortunately, I often look at things from the worried/emotional view. (That can make life exhausting at times.) Fortunately, my life has been graced by an AHHHHHMAZING husband! For those of you that don’t know Aaron very well, he has a wonderful outlook on life. He is patient, calm, logical, confident and INCREDIBLY supportive and positive. He has this indescribable way of talking me through things logically and helping me to see the “non-dramatic” side of things. He is my lighthouse in the storm, always guiding me in the right direction. (LOVE YOU HON!) I could not get through this journey without him and without the love and support of my wonderful family and my extraordinary friends!

WOW, have I been simply overwhelmed and humbled by my friends and their support so far! I was telling Aaron the other day, I don’t think I have EVER had so many icons pop up on my phone at one time….Texts, Emails, Facebook Messages, Voicemails, Blog responses….I have to tell you, I felt a little bit like a rock star. J (Don’t worry, I won’t make you suffer through any of my singing. J You’re welcome.) This past week, I could just feel the LOVE from everyone and it really lifted my spirits. Love right back all of you ten-fold!!  

My blog has only been up a couple of days and it has already had over 500 page views. OMGosh….what?  No pressure to write something interesting…right? *smile* You know what that makes me think of? Wild hockey.

Have you ever been to a game? They always say that they are the team of 18,000.  Some people might think that is a little hokey….but I think it’s cool. Their TEAM consists of not only everyone on the ice and the bench, but ALL of the people in the arena cheering them on.  Their FANS are there to stand up and cheer by encouraging them to do well, hooting and hollering when they score a goal and heckling when someone messes with their team. From MY perspective, I have the best FANS in the world (my own team of ….ok probably not 18,000…maybe more in the hundreds). The number doesn’t matter though…it’s the strength of the fans that really counts….their resilience, their optimism, their encouragement. And although I am not always a fan of heckling, I give you my permission to HECKLE cancer all you want!! J Let’s DO this!!!

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Time for an appointment/medical update…

I attended a chemotherapy class yesterday to learn all about the joys of chemo (side effects, things to expect, etc.).  There are some not so pleasant side effects, but I am hoping that since I am young, maybe I won’t be AS affected by some of them. Here’s to hoping anyways… J

Wednesday, I will go in to see the surgeon to have a port put in.  For those of you that don’t know what a port is, it is something that they imbed under your skin to provide easier access to giving chemo and doing blood draws etc., so I won’t have to get stuck with an IV every time I go in. I believe it looks like a small round disk under your skin about that size of a quarter. They will put it in above my chest.

Friday, is the date for my very first chemo appointment. They told me to plan to be there a total of 6 hours. L The best part about it is that I get to spend the time with Aaron. J Here’s hoping it goes smoothly.

Again, thanks for taking the time to read my long-windedness.  This has been a very therapeutic way for me to just share what’s on my mind.

Love to all…

Nae