Weekly Round Up – The New Year’s Edition

Time for this week’s round-up of the best of the blog posts which I’ve read over the past week. These are the posts that have moved me, taught me something, inspired me, and which I’ve wanted to share with you. Don’t forget if you have written a post which you would like readers to see, just leave a comment below.

Welcome to the first round-up of 2014. Being the start of a new year, some of you have been exploring what you hope to achieve in the months ahead. If you are still wondering what to aim for, Beth has  an inspiring post on how she sticks to her goals – by making them attainable and meaningful to her. Martine has written a letter to the new year.  Victoria shares some thoughts on her resolutions for the new year and Ronda Walker Weaver shares her thoughts in the latest Living Beyond Breast Cancer blog.   Perhaps the best New Year’s resolution of all is to take a leaf from Lori’s book and live for today, and then follow Catherine’s delightful advice to us:

 May you dip into what makes you smile today, and for much of your time in 2014

I asked if you would like to choose and share three words that you would like to focus on for 2014. This has been something that has happened in the blogosphere over the past few years, and no one has been so committed and consistent in this exercise than Philippa who shares her thoughts about how this exercise has worked for her over the past 5 years. More three-word blogs from Dr Bryan Vartabedian and Dr Deanna Attai.

As we left the old year behind, I encouraged you to share your favorite blog posts of 2013 (you can still add them here). Looking back on what we have been through the past year can open up old wounds, and Elizabeth movingly captures this in her blog. Looking back also shows us how far we have come in 12 months and Eileen has certainly come far. She reflects on the joys and sorrows and the lessons she has learned in the past year.

I write often about the universality of our experiences and I found this confirmed for me again when reading the latest post on Ever Upward (a blog about infertility) in which Justine categorizes the people we encounter into fellow warriors, true friends, limited supporters, and incapables. Her categories can be equally employed when it comes to those who understand our breast cancer experience – and those who don’t. And Yvonne too, writes of feeling supported in her grief by “the kindness of people who have walked in my shoes, who feel my pain.”  And who among us can truly understand the deep longing with which Katy writes about wanting to live to grow older, while in another time and place, Sarah writes an incredibly powerful poem to her husband who is suffering from severe depression and no longer wants to live.

I don’t normally comment on the US healthcare system – I think it is inappropriate of me to comment on something that I don’t have direct experience of – but it is hard not to express my dismay when I read Scorchy’s latest post on the crippling high cost of her healthcare.

Dr Elaine Schattner, a physician and breast cancer survivor is someone I admire very much as the voice of reason in what is often a confusing online space of information, advice and opinion. In her latest blog she weighs in on the mammography debate – always a hotly debated topic.

Elsewhere in the blogosphere

A guest post on Audrey’s blog from Todd, for husbands on how to support their wives through breast cancer.

Jo recounts her experience of being diagnosed with breast cancer.

The Cancer Geek shares his top 4 cancer heroes of 2013.

Anne Marie is kicking off the New Year with a project on sex and intimacy  and she wants your help.

Tami is anticipating the release of her new book, Miracle Survivors later this year.

Finally, this week, I leave you with these words from Dr Kathleen Hoffman’s blog to start our new year together.  It starts with a quote from Abraham Lincoln “I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day” and concludes with Kathleen’s own words:

This is all any of us can do…to do our very best and I think reaffirming this at the end of one year and the beginning of the other is an important ritual that I begin now.

Until next week.

Let’s all do our best..together.

Yours with love

Marie xxx