Hummingbird Light

Sip the sweet moments. Let your true colors glow. Don’t get your feathers ruffled over little things. Just wing it. Take yourself lightly. Keep your visits short and sweet! --unknown

More Light on Breast Cancer

For those of you who may I not seen this. Barb is a wonderful woman and a girlfriend.

Cancer survivors are thankful for every day
By Barb Guy
Salt Lake Tribune, Sunday, April 26. 2009

Suzy was only 33 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. I was 17 at the time. Looking back, there were some mistakes made in Suzy's care and maybe because of that, or maybe not, Suzy got worse instead of better.

Soon she was told her cancer was Stage 4, meaning it had spread to other organs in her body and it was still growing. Cancer and breasts were still pretty hush-hush topics back then, but Betty Ford, first lady of the United States, had breast cancer in 1974 and she had made the courageous decision to disclose her illness and treatment to the American people.

Suzy was inspired by Mrs. Ford. She did her best to fight as hard and be as strong as the first lady had been.

While Suzy was being treated but growing ever sicker, her sister found a lump in her own breast; then another and another. The strain on the two grown sisters and their parents was intense. Suzy remained the only one with cancer; her sister's lumps were all benign.

As Suzy took chemotherapy treatments she lost her hair and became gravely ill. She was known for her great sense of humor but the grim, unwelcoming waiting areas and treatment rooms were nearly as hard on her as the cancer. She told her sister that when she got well they should form a team, Suzy improving the aesthetics of the cancer patient's experience and sister Nan working on speeding the grindingly slow research on how to treat breast cancer.

Suzy didn't live to do any work on beautifying waiting rooms, but her grieving sister Nancy used $200 and a typewriter to form the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, now called Susan G. Komen for the Cure. The organization has raised more than $1 billion and become the world's largest breast cancer charity. The group's first fundraising Race for the Cure 5K run/walk had 800 participants. Today, organizers of the annual Salt Lake City walk alone are planning for 17,000 people.

Komen also hosts Salute to Survivors luncheons. In Salt Lake, it's a fancy annual affair at Little America. I went to the luncheon for the first time last year, only due to the pleading of my darling friend Jules, who is a breast cancer survivor. Even though I'm a breast cancer survivor, too, I didn't want to go. In the end, though, my love for Jules and the promise of a cash bar won out.

The luncheon is free to any and all breast cancer survivors; guests pay to join in. The event turned out to be a really nice time. There were good speakers, free gifts and a posh lunch. But then again, anything with Jules is fun.

Not long afterwards, Jules got word that her breast cancer had recurred and she had to go back into cancer world. This insidious disease and what it does to people I love makes me apoplectic. Jules is doing really well; she and I will be at the luncheon again this year, standing up when they call for survivors to rise.

I'm planning to participate in Salt Lake City's May 9 Race for the Cure, too, and only partly because I'm the honorary chair of the event. I'm forming a team of good-hearted walkers and I'll leave my comfort zone far behind to join in a very public display of healthy exercise with other people who want to kill off breast cancer once and for all.

Race for the Cure participants get white T-shirts for the event, except for the breast cancer survivors. We'll be the ones in pink, thanking our lucky stars for the day.

Barb Guy is a regular contributor to these pages. Her columns are online at: http://www.xmission.com/˜barbguy

Aging Light

Age is opportunity no less,
Than youth itself, though in another dress,
And as the evening twilight fades away,
The sky is filled with stars, invisible by day.
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Morituri Salutamus

We pray to the great Spiritual Power in which we live and move and have our being.
We pray that we may at all times
keep our minds open to new ideas and shun dogma;
that we may grow in our understanding of the nature of all living beings
and our connectedness with the natural world;
that we may become ever more filled with
generosity of spirit and true compassion and love for all life;
that we may strive to heal the hurts that we have inflicted on nature
and control our greed for material things, knowing that
our actions are harming our natural world and the future of our children;
that we may value each and every human being for who he is, for who she is,
reaching to the spirit that is within,
knowing the power of each individual to change the world.
Jane Goodal

I do not think that the measure of a civilization
is how tall its building of concrete are,
but rather how well its people have learned to relate
to their environment and fellow man.

Chippewa medicine man -sun bear

The Light of Music

There's music in the sighing of a reed;
There's music in the gushing of a rill;
There's music in all things, if men had ears:
Their earth is but an echo of the spheres.
~Lord Byron

Dreaming

We need time to dream. Time to remember and time to reach the infinite. Time to be.
--Gladys Taber.

For those of you who have not seen it, the video of Susan Boyle singing "I Dreamed a Dream" on Britain Has Talent is well worth watching. Made me cry and smile at the same time. It is on most of the news websites and of course You Tube. I haven't mastered the skill of upload or is it downloading video yet!

Lightening Up Breast Cancer

As I begin to get in shape to walk the 5k at the Race for the Cure on May 9, I give my thanks and gratitude that I am doing so as a survivor! For those of you who have not walked/ran in the race it is a great, positive experience. For more information go to www.komenslc.org.
Also there is a great site that I visit every day to click on for free mammograms for those women who cannot afford one. It is http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/

Sleep

Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleave of care
The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath
Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,
Chief nourisher in life's feast.
~William Shakespeare, Macbeth

Bunny Imposters

Just for fun

Spirit and Light of Easter

To me the meaning of Easter time/Passover is of renewal, rebirth, awaking, refreshing. A time to rejoice and love life.

Change

Charles Darwin:

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.

Circles

"Circles encourage connection and cooperation among their members and inspire compassionate solutions to individual, community and world problems. We believe that circles support each member to find her or his own voice and to live more courageously. Therefore, we intend to seed and nurture circles, wherever possible, in order to cultivate equality, sustainable livelihoods, preservation of the the earth and peace for all. Our aim is to celebrate the millionth circle as the metaphor of an idea whose time has come." Jean Shinoda Bolen

Fun Thought for the Day

Handle every stressful situation like a dog...
If you can't eat it or play with it,
Just whizz on it and walk away

I Deserve Joy

"I Deserve Joy!"

Many of us believe that we deserve to live in an atmosphere of "not good enough." Start doing affirmations that you really deserve, and that you are willing to go beyond your parents' and your early childhood limitations.

Look in the mirror and say to yourself: I deserve all good. I deserve to be prosperous. I deserve joy. I deserve love.

Open your arms wide and say: I am open and receptive. I am wonderful. I deserve all good. I accept!

All is truly well.
Louise Hay

Today's Affirmation

Angels of Light and Love
Coming down from Above
Touching your Face
With Joy and with Grace