03 Sep 13 Years Post-Cancer Treatment, Why I’m Grateful for this Day:

Standing tall today, because 13 years ago to the day I was not. 13 years ago, I was finishing my last round of radiation treatment at Yale New Haven Hospital, being treated for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. After months of investigation, treatments, IVs, chemo, scans, tears, and some smiles, the last day of being a cancer “patient” had finally come to an end.

I was tired, drained, pale, and exhausted after a long battle, yet still had an inner flicker of light that I was hopeful would grow with time.

Of course, the battle road doesn’t stop there, with follow up scans, doctor visits, hair, muscle and cell regrowth, and the hardest part, getting back to a sense of what normal “life” felt like.

In fairness, I don’t think that “normal” life was ever there, did it come, nor will it come. Haha, I like being weird in some ways, apparently—it’s my comfort zone of sorts. But there is a lot I can say I am grateful for today, to be alive, to have the opportunity to experience, and to feel what life really is.

Why I’m grateful for this Day:

• To experience health, in its many forms I deserve to live

• To experience love, and to find someone weird just like you to live, create, and share your weirdness with

• To find a passion, and delve your life in to it that you work 12-14 hour days and don’t care because what you’re creating is coming from the heart

• To see the world, stamp by stamp, city by city, person by person, and smile by smile

• To live in a city I love, steps away from the ocean, in a place I feel at home each time I wake up, leave for a trip, and return back

• To heal some hardships and loose ends that have lingered as crutches in my life for far too long past the ending credits were needed

• To feel proud of what I am doing and creating in my life, that this little weirdo does things a bit different, and to now know that’s “OK” to walk a different path (or create one)

• To smile more than I ever have in my life, because I’m falling in love with it more and more each day

• To loving Sara more, because for a long, long time that love was never there. It’s been a journey, double-digit years even, to get her there. But the time is now, and to love oneself is the greatest gift one can offer to him/herself, because when your cup is overflowing with it, you have SO much more genuine love to share with the world.

Grateful for this day, to be alive, to breathe, to teach, to lead, and share. To be a part of a relationship, a family, a team, a community, and a world of connections I am excited to meet, smile with, and connect to.

Cancer or no cancer, our time may come whenever the universe calls. Wake up and LIVE, for each day is yours to create!

With love, health, and inspiring thoughts your way,

Sara