It's time to check your filter

Let's start with the big stuff. TWO DOWN!! That means only four more chemo treatments to go. I am dutifully marking the days off of my calendar and it just feels soooo good.

Yesterday, as I reported for chemo, I got a huge chuckle out of my nurse Maddie. As she walked me back, she asked me my full name and birthday (I've repeated this information literally a thousand times over the last few months - every check in, every nurse, every time - more on this later) and then explained dryly that they really don't want any impostors getting in. As if! No way I'm gonna let some one else have this experience (heavy sarcasm)!

Sitting in the chair, IV in place, looking out at the mountains outside my window, it occurred to me just how extensively my viewpoint has changed as a result of this experience. It is strange to think that for weeks and months and years, other people, each with their own very important stories, have been sitting here facing the same thing as me and yet I never ever gave cancer, chemo, infusion, radiation, surgery, tumors, side effects - any of it, a second thought. Oh sure, I knew people who had cancer and were facing these things and I felt very empathetic and compassionate for them. But, like anything, until you actually EXPERIENCE it, it's really hard to know exactly what it all feels like.

So, I truly do see the world differently now. And its little things. The sense of gratitude for the smallest things (which I've written about before). The notion that what you see on the outside of someone is just that - what they look like. It isn't who they are, and chances are there are some wonderful and fascinating stories inside that person too. I've become very interested in learning about what I put in my body - and its ability to help me fight to health and keep me there. I've been reading a ton about spiritual realms and healing, archetypes and the sacred contract we each have in this life - our purpose. I am growing impatient to see more of the world and experience the mind-blowing impact of travel to new lands and cultures. And most of all, I am realizing how quickly we pass through this life. There isn't a moment to lose.

So at the risk of sounding preachy, I would offer you something to consider.

Be willing to open your mind (clean your filter) - in fact find things that are way outside your normal patterns and do them - read them - taste them - listen to them - see them, and do so with an open mind. Aristotle once said "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." Even exposing yourself to these new things will open horizons for you beyond what you might have imagined. Of course, it has taken an extreme situation for me to find this truth - I would will the joy of it for all of you without the drama!