Weekly Round Up

My weekly round-up hasn’t been as regular as I would like this past few weeks, but I am back on track today and have a wonderful collection of blogs for you. These are the posts that have moved me, taught me something, inspired me, and which I’ve wanted to share with you. Just click on the highlighted links to read the posts. Don’t forget if you have written a post which you would like readers to see, just leave a comment below.

Let’s get the ball rolling (forgive the pun) with a baseball themed post from Pink Underbelly who is tracing the lineage of her son’s baseball skills back to her father. Now I have no knowledge of or interest in baseball, but nevertheless I loved reading this fantastic post and what struck me most was what a wonderful way blogging can be of preserving memories and taking a snapshot in time of our lives. The first blogs were just that – online journals – and at their best, they still are don’t you think?

Baseball is also the theme of the latest post on Bringing Up Goliath’s blog.

Jan is pondering if a comic hero or heroine can help us deal with grief or hard times.  She herself has a particular fondness for the character of Ziggy and tells the  heartwarming story of his creator Tom Wilson and his son, Tom junior.

Suzzann is celebrating her cancerversary this week, so stop by and wish her well! Of course amidst the celebrations, these times can also be very stressful as indeed can the annual check-up, mammogram or the more sinister fears when a new twinge or pain enters the body. Philippa has been dealing with what she likes to call Captain Paranoia lately and you can read her post here. And then why not pop across to One Wild Ride to read a beautiful post on how Katy has found a way to deal with her anxiety which she hopes will also help others.

One of the things we have to deal with when we have cancer, apart from the anxiety, the down days, the fears…. is the often cliched, sometimes crass words of “well-wishers”. Lauren has a fantastic term for this – klunkers (she spells it with a “k”).  “Sometimes, people will just open their mouths and a clunker will fall out. And you just have to be nice, and you have to be ready for it.” she writes. A great post to read for the next time you are faced with a klunker wielding well-wisher.

Terri is back from her African adventures, but continues to still draw inspiration from her time spent in that country. In her latest post, she recounts her experience at Victoria Falls, and how it led her to reflect on the ” beautiful contradictions each of us face every day. Isn’t life really about those moments of faith and doubt; hope and despair; joy and sadness; and courage and fear? Moments like the pain and joy of childbirth, the fear and hope we feel when fighting cancer, the joy and sadness of falling in love, and the excitement and apprehension about changing our lives in either a minor or a major way.”

And still on the theme of joy…what a joyful summer-filled post by Sarah this week (complete with a mini-round-up of her own!)

Jackie has written a moving tribute to Betty Ford, who passed away last week. Best known for the founding of the Betty Ford clinic, she was also a breast cancer survivor and Jackie praises “her openness and honesty (which)  did more to raise awareness of breast cancer than a million pink ribbons could ever do”.

Kathi expands her own tribute to Betty Ford to a wider discussion of mammography and the confusion and debate that surround its role in cancer prevention. And speaking of debate and controversy, check out Nancy’s latest post on the FDA’s Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee’s decision to withdraw its approval of Roche/Genentech’s drug Avastin for the treatment of some advanced breast cancers – a thought-provoking post on what happens when science and emotions collide.

I’ve written before that when I log onto Brenda’s Blog, I never know what I will find and I wasn’t expecting to find a lesson on marriage this week. Brenda has written a wonderful post to remind those of us who are married or in a relationship what a precious thing it is, something which needs careful nurturing and tending. Brenda’s post is made all the more poignant by her memories of her own precious marriage to her beloved James, whom she lost in January this year.

A post very close to my own heart on the terrific Breast Cancer? But Doctor I Hate Pink  blog (the clue is in the title for those of you not familiar with the thrust of Ann’s blog). Ann writes that she is often asked to promote products on her blog (me too!) and outlines her philosophy on why she will/won’t comply. Loved it! 

Finally, I leave you with the post that I found most moving this week  from The Cancer Culture Chronicles – the one in which Anna R becomes Rachel. If you haven’t already done so, do please read this post which on the surface appears to be a post about how we protect our identities online, but is really about something so much more than that. Rachel you are one of the bravest, most beautiful women I have met online and the blogosphere is a richer place for you xxx

Have a great weekend everyone and keep on writing!