Many people see the new year as an opportunity for a new beginning.
Many people see the new year as an opportunity for a new beginning. They view it as a time to begin that diet they have been putting off for far too long, or starting that exercise program they have been talking about forever. Others resolve to finish their education or find a new job.
For those of us who’ve had breast cancer, our new beginning started the day we finished treatment and knew that nothing would ever be exactly the way it was before breast cancer. How could it be? How could we go through a life-threatening illness and not be changed by the experience? If would could, wouldn’t it mean we hadn’t learned anything from that experience?
Given the ongoing follow-up that lay ahead after finishing active treatment, first every three months, than every six months than yearly, it seemed we could never get far away from something that reminded us of our breast cancer.
The trick was to push cancer thoughts from our conscious minds so we could live our lives and not be controlled by fear. At first, our breast cancer was often our first thought when we awoke and the thought that often interfered with our getting to sleep at night. Little by little, what we went through and were terrified of having to go through again faded from our daily thought until one day we realized we hadn’t thought of our breast cancer in days! Days became weeks and weeks months until we could look back in wonder and gratitude at what we able to come through.
Breast cancer, like any potentially life-threatening illness, causes many of us to take stock of how we are living and what we are doing with our time.
Most of us do make a new beginning in our lives after breast cancer. Time becomes the most important commodity in our lives because cancer has taught us that there are no guarantees in life. It has taught us what people who have been spared a life-threatening experience don’t know, can’t know. Breast cancer has shown us that no one is guaranteed enough time to do everything they want accomplish or experience.
Most of us make that new beginning happen. Some of us give ourselves permission to live our dreams. Others of us make changes to improve our quality of life and the lives of others. Still more of us come to use our time in ways that are important to us such as spending more time with friends and family and experiencing new things.
