Friday Round-Up

Time for the weekly round up of blogs.  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.

I am starting off with some happy anniversary wishes to Jackie of Dispatch from Second Base.  Congratulations on 36 years of marriage Jackie! She has written a beautiful tribute to her husband’s love and devotion, and shared a wonderful poem to celebrate.

“Add disillusioned breast cancer survivors and the power of social media together and you have a storm brewing against the mother of all cause marketing – pink ribbons and breast cancer”  so says Breast Cancer Advocate, who takes up the baton to “challenge the breast cancer status quo, change the conversation, present smart alternatives and bring real change for women and men with or at risk of breast cancer and their families”.

Pink Underbelly has been writing about British Open golf champion Darren Clarke, who paid an emotional tribute to his wife, Heather, who died from breast cancer five years ago.

“As much as I hate to admit it, I have a long history of trying to animate corpses”, so says Terri on her blog, A Fresh Chapter. See what she is talking about here.

Lauren has been feeling “rather crusty and curmudgeonly of late” and this has led to her latest post Barnacle Girl, a reflection on her annual “salty sojourn”.

Great information on Mourning Has Broken on chemo-induced menopause and Nancy has written a thought-provoking post on the subject of words and their meaning, specifically the use of the word “whole” when describing the choice to undergo breast reconstruction (the implication being that those of us who don’t are somehow less whole?).

I wrote this week about the social stigma associated with depression and I am so pleased to see Katie tackling the same subject on her blog Uneasy Pink and opening up this highly personal but a most necessary discussion on mental health.

Finally, Kathi’s post was the one that moved me to tears this week as it resonated at a very deep level with my own experience. It is a richly layered post with much to reflect on and I really do encourage you to read it, but for now let me leave you all with these words from Kathi:

The best thing, maybe the only thing that really matters after these three years, is that I can say that I’m still here — asymmetrical, imperfect, not my old self. But I am present, and in that presence, I can still strive to be estimable. And that is perhaps all that any of us need do.

Words to live by indeed!

Have a great weekend everyone and keep on blogging!

Marie xxx