For the last two weeks, I’ve been on a kind of vacation from cancer.

It’s the honeymoon period between surgery and treatment where you just keep feeling better and better.

Three weeks past surgery I finally felt like myself again.

Sure, I would still hit a wall and need to stop sometimes, but I was back at 100%.

Back to facilitating strategy on the whiteboard in meeting rooms!
Back to private client calls outsmarting career and general life obstacles!
Back to that sweet motherhood mix of being loved and taken for granted!

Best of all, our conversations stopped being colored by cancer.

For example, two weeks earlier, my seven-year-old son dressed up as George Washington for a biography project at school. Just as he’s about to go out the door, he tells me, ‘you know, Mom, George Washington’s mom died when he was seven.’ Bummer.

A huge burst of nesting instinct hit.

Perhaps it’s the act of not dying that gets you all fired up for living? It’s almost like having a baby, where everything must be cleaned and all in good working order, NOW. My intolerance for things broken or decaying is suddenly nil.

In that spirit, I gardened like crazy, and co-opted the kids into ‘redesigning’ our house over spring break– this is like clean up, but with a trip to Target for throw pillows. They bought this enthusiastically for about four hours into a twelve-hour project, and by then it was too late and they were my minions.

It’s not over, but you can see it from here.

Next week I’ll share my treatment plan with you – I don’t know it yet either – and I’ll share what I’ve learned you and I can both do to keep cancer out, out, out.

The thing about living through something that seems like it’s going to break your heart, is that if it doesn’t kill you, you find a new normal a lot faster than it seems possible. Two months ago I was working on my will and feeling exhausted. Today I’m working on the Easter menu and feeling encouraged. That’s in HUGE part thanks to wonderful friends who are walking with me through this time.

Your strength is such a comfort, I can’t even begin to say.

In the meantime, I hope you’re enjoying some vacation this month too!