Thanksgiving

I guess I should have posted this when it was the holiday, but I worked the holiday and weekend so didn't think of posting then. I also went to see the Chicago Symphony Orchestra directed by John Williams with my daughter followed by a night in a Chicago hotel after the holiday, so it wasn't all work, it was also some play that delayed this post!

I am thankful for so many things. I'm thankful for the family times I am able to share with my husband and kids. I'm thankful I am here to watch my kids grow up. I am thankful for my health. I am very, very thankful to be an almost 7 year survivor of what some call "the kiss of death", signet ring appendiceal cancer.

But what I am especially grateful for is the opportunity and purpose my survival has offered me. I struggled as a survivor for a long time not so much with survivor guilt as with an obsessive need to find purpose in my survial. I drove my best friend and a few others nuts when I incessantly talked about needing to find purpose in my life.

When I finally made the decision to muddle through creating a web site, I never knew, I never thought for a moment of the gifts I would be given in return, the people I would meet as a result. I never anticipated the purpose I would realize as a result of my having had cancer. So many of you who have contacted me have inspired me greatly and given my life a new meaning. I'm sure this sounds strange to some, but I wouldn't go back to my before cancer life if I could now. My life is so much richer now than it was before cancer.

I thank all of you I've met while on this journey, you've all enriched my life and given meaning to what was once a very tough journey.