One Journey Many Paths

Most of us know by now that October is Breast Cancer Awareness month.  This designation began back in 1985 and so for many young people they do not even remember an October that wasn't Breast Cancer Awareness month. Some times we take it for granted, see someone wearing pink and go on with our every day life. We don't always see what is right around us.

Everyone I know has been touched in their lives somehow by breast cancer and so when we talked about writing these posts there were a number of stories that ran through my brain.  Do I talk about my college Lil Sis who recently had a double mastectomy? Do I talk about another friend of mine who has three kids and a strong family history of breast cancer and so she is deciding what she wants / needs to do now?  Do I talk about my 97 year old grandmother who is a breast cancer survivor?

I put this all on the back burner figuring I would run some errands and that the right story would come to me when it came time to finalize this post.

So I buried myself in the activites on my to do list and started working through the hectic schedule I had set for my day.  In the afternoon I left my house on my way to pick up my son from Cross Country practice and then take him with me to a Chamber of Commerce event before joining my daughter at the high school for a Homecoming spirit week event.  But for some reason I decided that because I was 5 minutes ahead of schedule I could fit in one more tiny little errand before 5pm rolled around.  So I pulled into the Post Office and began walking to the counter to pick up some oversized mail.  I was still in the zone and I was concentrating on my to do list and all of the tasks I had not quite completed over the span of the day.

There were a couple of other people in the post office but I wasn't paying alot of attention.  I needed to pick up my package, pick buy some stamps and be on my way. Just then I heard a seriously cheery voice say my name in a most heartfilling way.  I looked up and it was a dear friend that I hadn't seen for a long time. It had been too long. I looked up at her and she gave me a great big smile and introduced me to one of the cutest dogs in the world. She was babysitting him and taking him with her everywhere.

The important part of this story that I have not mentioned yet was that she had a double mastectomy a long time ago and is now technically a Survivor. But other than small talk, you really can't get into a full on nitty gritty conversation at the Post Office. I had to admit to myself that I am not up to date on her path.  Is she fully recovered or is she living with a constant threat of this terrible disease coming back?

She was as gracious and cheerfully as anyone could ask for anywhere.

It donned on me at that moment that, of course, we know people in our lives that have been touched by breast cancer but even more important we are surrounded by people all over town that we may or may not ever know who are fighting their own silent battle every day.

We don't know their battle. We don't know their journey.



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This post is part of a group discussion inspired by the video above. So, even though I didn't talk about the mixer in my post at all, or the fact that kale is really actually delicious but really turns any mixed drink TOTALLY green, this giveaway is part of that discussion.  You can enter to win an amazing Vitamix below:


a Rafflecopter giveaway




This giveaway is part of a blogger group cooperative and not a compensated post. The prize has been donated to the group for this giveaway but no compensation was paid to any of the bloggers participating.
CLICK HERE for more info on the Vitamix mixer.

For more information on St. Agnes and for more resources on Breast Cancer awareness month visit any of these links below:

https://www.facebook.com/SaintAgnesMD

Follow the discussion on your favorite social media platform using the hashtag #ABB

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