Like a running back

Watching football today, with all the players wearing pink and the NFL pushing their breast cancer awareness campaign, made me want to write a special salute for my friends who have been dealing with breast cancer. We all have had different diagnoses and have chosen different solutions. But we all have had to face our fears and the uncertainties this illness brings. At the beginning, we are shocked human beings who can't understand what's happening and can't barely grasp what the doctors are telling us. Then, we become super humans who gather strength and energy from the depths of our hearts and souls to deal with it all. At one point or another, we are told our courage is admired, but we struggle to determine how doing what seems to be our only option is courageous. We simply do what needs to be done. Like those running backs, we hold the ball and push through, because moving forward is the only way. We are all at different stages of our journeys. Some of us are still dealing with medication's side effects, some of us have just finished chemo treatments and some of us have just done a double mastectomy. Some of us are finally getting hair to show! But all of us have leaned on each other. Even when some of you have never met in person, you have sent each other emails and made calls. You have offered solutions, alternatives, and tricks to get through treatments. You have offered encouragement and hope. We were thrown into an undesired vortex that now binds us forever. I am honored to be part of your lives. I can't say I hope the future is easy, because we know it won't. But I hope you never forget how strong you really are. I hope the determination that helped you made it through breast cancer helps you face your day-to-day challenges, realizing that every problem has a solution. The frailty of life, which was made so clear to us, is what makes each of us so precious. Let's never forget that.