I PAINT EVERYDAY

I've been doing one small painting a day for a year. Yesterday was my anniversary and the Patriot Ledger did a fantastic article complete with photos.

When I was interviewed, the journalist asked if having cancer had anything to do w/the painting a day project.

When you get the Big C - everything thereafter is kind of related to having it and getting over it. Somehow. I declined this correlation though because sometimes it's nice to forget.

Okay, that was a big contradiction. What I'm trying to express is, after thinking about it, everything is a product of survival. Because it's the little things, the things you get to do everyday. The perspective you gain, the ability to be able to leave your mark. . .

Click here to read the article

Alluring Artists - Hull

The Big C Visual Journal will be mentioned on the local cable station's new show, "Hull Alluring Artists." I was so nervous, I've never been interviewed before let alone for television. The stardom definitely went to Brie, the dog's, head though - she kept flitting in and out looking for her fifteen minutes of fame or more peanut butter (her pacifier), not sure which, probably the latter now that I think about it.

The months I didn't have it

The spring, these are the months I got better - - and it was fitting, it was springtime - these months are not marked by anniversaries, big or small in my mind and it's easy to forget about the big c visual journal project, but then I'm suddenly reminded - so here goes!

"Five Scary Words"

I was on Twitter, trying to figure it out, all the while the line from that song from Sound of Music coming to mind, "I flit, I float, I fleetly flee, I fly" in my rendition it goes, "I twit, I flit, I tweetly tweet, I. . . " well, you get the drift.

So while twitting and tweeting and fleeting and flitting I came across a posting by LifeAfterCancer;

"Just heard those 5 scary words from my surgeon: "Get on with your life." I think I need a 2nd opinion on that..."

Those were five scary words, I'm still revising my plan, never too far in advance for fear of jinxing myself.

The first few years, I kept trying to figure out why I got cancer, not why me, but as in, how did it fit into the grand scheme, how would it alter the path I was on? Because I kept thinking and still do, I'm living on borrowed time. . .

So, with that stated;

How do you plan to get on with your life?

Other news; I just had my yearly exam and I'm still a young adult cancer survivor. . .

And thanks to the author of the comment from mid-December, I haven't given up. Happy Holidays.

Cancerversary

It's my 7th Cancerversary - okay, I admit, it's the first year I've known about this term. . . not that I hadn't always celebrated somehow.

A Cancerversary is the day you choose to celebrate surviving cancer.

Not that everyday isn't a celebration, of course, but maybe it's the date you were diagnosed or for me, the date of my last chemo - whatever the date, it's just important to celebrate.

Be well!

Well said. . .

Here's the latest virtual postcard 'mailed' - that much closer to 11.9 million.

I can't even remember life before cancer. I don't remember how I acted, or thought about things. All I know is that I am nowhere near the same person. Cancer has so deeply affected me that even to this day, 4 years since being diagnosed, not a day goes by that I don't think about it. Some days it is thoughts of fear of recurrence, others is disbelief that it happened to me and that I came out of it. Occasionally I think of how things would be if cancer never touched my life. But ultimately it comes back to the same idea,I am who I am today because of cancer, and in some sick and twisted way, I am grateful.I received an amazing gift from cancer, a new life. I have this great outlook on life that I could not have received in any other way. I have such a deep pride in myself because of all I have

overcome. And while others my age are complaining about the little things that bother them, I am able to smile and laugh quietly to myself as if I have a secret. Because I know that there are bigger battles in life and I can now appreciate even the moments that cause me tiny troubles. SamChup. stage 3A hodgkins lymphoma survivor.

It's been a while. . . I still have visions of this working. . . and haven't given up.