What are you thankful for?....and ramblings...

I have been thinking about all the great things in our life and wondered if you have done the same lately?
Yesterday I was very thankful that I was able to golf with Jamie before he headed home. That lead to being thankful for having a job that allowed me to take the time off on Friday to golf and then I go in to work and finish up what I needed to do. After days of dodging thunderstorms I was very thankful for a sunny and warm day to golf! One of the most wonderful things on Friday was that when Jamie and I got home from golf -Callum had lunch ready! It was such a nice surprise. Today has been no less marvelous - a warm sunny morning greeted us as we enjoyed drinking coffee and reading the paper while sitting on our deck. The sky has been nearly cloudless all day. Callum sounds like his regular old self today and joined me in a mega shopping ordeal at Costco and Sobeys. He even washed my car! He is planning one of his famous cooking days tomorrow - big batches of chili, chicken gumbo soup and spaghetti sauce to freeze. It is so wonderful to see him feel better. We see the radiation oncologist about the whole brain radiation treatment on Monday, July 28 and by Wed. the 30th we should find out if he is accepted for gamma knife surgery and where he is on the priority list for it.
I was saddened on Friday to hear of the death of Randy Pausch - the guy who is now famous for his "Last Lecture". He was 47 and passed away from complications of pancreatic cancer. He had a fabulous attitude and I believe his legacy will teach many people about how to live with, not die from, cancer. If you haven't checked him out yet, here is his home page: http://download.srv.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch/ . There is a link there to both the Last Lecture and his update page if you are interested in his story. I have bought his book and found it quite interesting - it is a quick easy read and really is mostly about some of life's lessons, and not focused on cancer.
I have done a bit of browsing on Lance Armstrong's LiveStrong website and ordered the Survivorship Notebook for people with cancer. It is quite an interesting book and full of both practical and support information. It is almost like a wedding or baby album as there are places to put your immediate family information, along with the health and treatment information, and a place to list important documents and where they are kept. I think this will be a great historical book for us as we will be able to document the type of cancer and the treatments given. Given the difficulty in accessing health information many years after the fact I am hoping this may be helpful to our family members in the future.
It is kind of funny that when I first read Lance Armstrong's book I felt he was really an arrogant and pompous kind of guy. But I now find wisdom in some of his words. Just the other night I was asking for the strength I would need to get through the months ahead. The next day the notebook arrived and in the forward he says:
"If there is one thing cancer has taught me, it's that we are stronger than we think. When times get tough, we find a way through. When we think we've had all we can take, we find the will to go on. When you believe in your strength and know how to tap into it, you LIVE STRONG. It's about trusting that your strength will be there for you to fight cancer, to race, to love, to take risks, to dream."
I then realized that he is right - the strength will be there. I do not worry about that anymore. Whatever I need will be there. Sometimes it will be a friend who calls or emails; it might be some alone time in the sauna; it might be coffee on the deck; it might be a scoop of ice cream; whatever I need.....will be there. And everyday I will be thankful for that.

Til next time...