AnneLyze

I'm thankful for so much this year. I'm thankful to have Sam home, safe and healthy. I'm thankful to have Ben in my life, as exasperating and sweet as he is. I'm thankful to have them in my life. I love them both so much. Martha, thank you for being my big sister. I love you. Thank you for taking such good care of Mom. I thankful that Mom still remembers us and is still with us. I'm thankful to have Nancy in my life. I love having you as my sister and I love you. I am thankful to have family that I love and who love me. I'm thankful to have a job where I get to care for the most amazing women. They show me daily how to deal with adversity and death. They do it with a strength I can't begin to fathom. I'm thankful to fall asleep every night with my big gray cat. He loves me if I feed him every day. I'm thankful to my friends who stuck with me when life was bad. And who are still with me now that I am better. I'm thankful that I rediscovered my phy...

I recently was a guest speaker at a support group for women with Ovarian Cancer. They asked me to speak on quality of life issues. Most of the participants have had cancer for a while and have experienced multiple rounds of chemotherapy, so I spent time on things other than side effects from chemotherapy. At one point, I asked the group this question, "What do you do to honor yourself?". I was curious to know how they honor themselves despite the fact that their bodies weren't cooperating. One woman said ironing her husband's shirts (what?), another mentioned getting a Massage or a Healing Touch Treatment, another said going for a walk and quite a few looked at me like I was crazy. It got me thinking. What do I do to honor myself? To honor something means to recognize it as special or worthy, to treat it with respect or reverence. Today I honored myself by going for a swim. I swam a mile. For all those who like numbers, that's 88 lengths or 44 laps and 176 pushes ...