Slipping On Ice
I slipped on the ice, hit my head, and it got me thinking.
One, it can always be worse; two, I am so grateful each day I wake up and open my eyes! Truly grateful! Three- I have a tough head, and four; maybe I should wear cleats outside. My post isn’t really about slipping in the ice-I’m fine…and I’ve been through worse incidents than this, Lord knows. It’s about how regardless if someone’s got cancer or facing other challenging circumstances, we can’t take one minute of this life, or the people who love us, for granted.  Life is precious, a gift, and fragile, and we’ve got to make every day count,  not just for ourselves but the people around us.
Yesterday I didn't see the ice beneath the snow on the porch steps. I slipped and fell hard; my head bounced off the concrete, and I realized as I lie there in the minus whatever the heck degrees cold that I could've died in an instant, but or maybe it could’ve just knocked me out unconscious- I could have frozen to death laying there until my husband got home and found me.
It was sudden and very shocking.
I thought about a lot of things. When something like hitting your head and lying on the ground in a very quiet neighborhood happens, you can’t help but  think about life.
I realized how fragile it is and how short too. I am grateful for each day I wake up. I must keep my guardian angel busy because I’ve escaped some dangerous situations. Whew! Thank you, God, I won’t take my life for granted, and I promise to be helpful!
I also thought about the shocking irony of life.  I lost my aunt Irene, my godmother, in a car accident. She was on her way home from visiting my other aunt Jeannie, who was in the hospital and had cancer.
None of us saw that tragedy coming. We were all focused on aunt Jeannie, who was sick. Hearing the sudden news of my aunt Irene was like a punch in the stomach.
I lost my precious cousin Isaac in a sudden accident. That was like a punch in the stomach for our family.
Most people who reach out to me for the first time on Facebook or in an email have cancer; some are newly diagnosed, and some have been trying to heal for years.
It changes you when you get a cancer diagnosis; your life is never the same, so I understand the fear and feeling overwhelmed. I had stage three and stage four cancer, and it was scary. Cancer is an illness, and we struggle to figure out how to heal ourselves.
Here I am, now passed my 11th anniversary of beating stage 4 cancer, and last night it hit me that more than at any time in my life, I’d say when I got a cancer diagnosis, this is when I thought about death daily. I was terrified and had to make a conscious effort each day to feed my faith to be stronger. Every day is precious and risky too. We must have faith and encourage one another.
We need to be there for each other “mutually.” I post about my husband and me, my dog Angelo, deer, and other happy things hoping to cheer people up because many of my friends on Facebook are dealing with cancer, and I want to be part of a reason people smile, laugh, or get distracted from fear.
I also hope to increase the faith in others to inspire and lift people going through rough times.I encourage you to feed your faith daily; don’t let fear rob you of happy times. Both fear and Faith can grow; whichever one we feed the most will grow. Decide to do what you want each day to make yourself happy and to grow your faith. Decide again tomorrow what you want to do if you’re overwhelmed with fear. Make decisions to feel happiness despite extraordinary, challenging circumstances.
Life is shorter than we realize.
