My other life
I touched on this a little bit in last week’s Weekly Round-Up by featuring Sarah’s puffins story and my own starling post, as a little reminder that we are so much more than our diagnosis and we have so much more going for us in our lives than cancer. Then serendipitously I read this post on the Accidental Amazon blog and my blog radar went off.
So I am thinking…wouldn’t it be great to learn more about our lives outside the BC blogosphere? Who are you when you aren’t writing about breast cancer? What brings you alive? I know a little about some of my blog sistahs, but I want to know more. So..why not join me in either writing a blog post on your own blog entitled “My Other Life” and then leaving the link to it in the comments below, or just leave a comment anyway. If you are tweeting your story use the hashtag #myotherlife.
Then I will have a special round up next week with all your posts and comments.
What do you think? Are you up for it?
It’s funny Marie but I think of having had breast cancer as my other life. Let me explain, going through breast cancer was a year carved out of growth and maturity in my soul which helps me do my real life.
I am a wife of 30 years to the same guy, a mom of a son 34 and daughter 20, with 5 grandchildren.
I am a Professional Human Resources Manager with a manufacturing background who believes if we treat all employees with dignity, respect, listen and act we will retain great employees. My strengths are employee relations, performance management and turn around situations. I’ve lived in Germany and Japan for a total of 10 years immersed in the economy.
I am a firm believer that Jesus Christ is my Lord and never for a minute has he left me in anything I have gone through. He is for me, loves me and nothing is impossible with Him! Thanks for asking! I am interested in learning more from your readers Marie. Have a blessed day
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Oh Luann, what a beautiful comment – thank you for sharing and I find the fact that you lived in Japan, so utterly exotic!
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What a great idea..looking forward to seeing another side to everyone 🙂
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Since being diagnosed and getting past all the surgeries and recoveries, I have felt a surgence of creative energy. Things that I had no idea how to express are suddenly flowing out of me. I am now drawing, writing, and sewing all sorts of beautiful items. I feel this need to ‘get things out’ and sometimes this scares me. Even though my prognosis is good, there is always the thought that the cancer will return, that maybe time is short. But who knows, none of us know how long we have. Live fir today,
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Oh I really understand this! And I also share your feeling that cancer heralded a burst of creativity in me too…it’s an interesting development. May you continue to be creative and heal well as you journey beyond cancer x
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LOVE it–I’m in!!!! Can’t wait to see what everyone writes. I’ll send my link after I write mine.
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Oh fantastic! Come to think of it, I know very little about your other life Jackie – so can’t wait to learn more.
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I love this idea, Marie! I will definitely do that. We are certainly more than our breast cancer and usually post about not being defined by it.
Jan
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I am convinced Jan your other life is as an Irish queen 🙂
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Hugs & smooches, Marie. It helps to remind ourselves of who we were, who we still are, and who we might yet become.
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Love it!!!
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This is cool, Marie:) “My Other Life” is one you’d recognize I think: a writer/reader/gardener/quilter and armchair traveler. I’ll never get to all the places I want to see in my lifetime.
The greatest difference, that you wisely pointed out, before and after is my cycling. I took it up after cancer. I took up quilting after cancer. But we would have recognized each other when we were in junior high, I’m quite convinced.
Love,
Jody
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Oh how lovely *big smile* xxx
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Love this idea Marie and hope to get a post written in time but not sure i will for this week.
It gives me a lot to think about and I first think about my running and my coaching and both of those things came ‘after cancer’ but I feel I have defined my true self so much more now than I ever did before.
“My Other Life” is one I haven’t reached quite yet but I am so on the verge. With my diagnosis and the recurrence I felt consumed for so long but as I wrote in my last post I am MORE than ready to move on.
This idea of yours gives me impetus to ponder and write and ponder some more. So thank you:)
Looking forward to reading about puffins, starlings and art in the mean time.
Love, Deb
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I’ve watched over the past few months as your other life has taken wings..so excited for you and anytime you get to write this is fine..just looking fwd to reading it xxx
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I love this idea, Marie. I’ve been playing around with something similar for my blog recently, but find it’s difficult to connect my other life with this breast cancer life, so the post is not coming easily. I think your idea may just be the needed kick in the pants to get it done. Thank you for that and for the chance to learn more about my favorite bloggers. I often wonder about their other lives.
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I know – me too Stacey! i love when I glimpses of their other life. Hope the post starts to come easily for you. I will post mine soon and that may give you a little heads up on a direction.
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What a great idea! I’m in!!! I can’t wait to read the posts your idea inspires!!!
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Looking forward to learning your story too!
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This is wonderful Marie – I am so looking forward to getting better acquainted through your post. Ironically my “other life” means that I can put something together only at the weekend. However, I recently wrote something which reflects back on the fact that I had plenty to say as a Feisty Blue Gecko before diagnosis, and the new blog. This post is on http://feistybluegeckofightsback.wordpress.com/2011/03/20/introspection-%E2%80%93-extrospection-through-the-breast-cancer-lens/
So that is a starter………..
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It’s a great start 🙂
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This is awesome and I can’t wait to participate and to read everyone’s story’s.
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Looking forward to learning some more about you Kim 🙂
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Awesome idea.
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Hmmm… i feel a blog coming on, although I addressed this in the pink dress blog briefly, about how cancer is not my identity..good thought and love the seligman blog BTW, his book on learned optimism is terrific…indeed if we can learn helplessness we can learn optimism…
good stuff marie…
Lauren
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I do hope you do another post on this Lauren 🙂
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Marie, my latest blog post describes my other life. You are a gem to let us all know about each other. It’s fascinating to see so many blog-posting and blog-reading survivors from all walks of life, all ages, and all places around the world.
Jan
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I absolutely agree Jan – thanks for being part of this global community of survivors 🙂
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Just wrote my blog post about my other life — thanks so much, Marie, for reminding me that I used to have a life free from cancer and all its attending stresses.
http://www.pinkunderbelly.wordpress.com/2011/06/06/my-other-life/
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Looking forward to reading all about it Nancy 🙂
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You’ve inspired me, Marie. I wrote something about my other life and the reconnection I was recently lucky enough to find. This is fun, thanks.
http://www.bringingupgoliath.com/2011/06/heading-uptown.html
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Thank you so much from me too for the inspiration. I have been thinking about this and ended up writing one main post and a smaller post. The wordy one is on https://feistybluegeckofightsback.wordpress.com/2011/06/11/do-butterflies-get-wet-in-the-rain-my-other-life/ and I have put together some random snippets in the post before that. What a wonderful journey this is, learning about each other. THANK YOU! xxx
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I agree Philippa – it’s been wonderful to learn more about the bloggesses 🙂
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I’ve just written mine! http://inthelandofnewnormal.blogspot.com/2011/06/my-other-life.html
Thanks, everyone.
E.
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And I just read it 🙂 Thanks for taking part – it was great to find you. Marie
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