I have received a card from a total stranger to me.  She is a neighbor of Mom and Dad’s and knows about my situation.  She has made the card using a ‘stamp’ she found and this is what it says:

What Cancer Cannot Do

Cancer is so limited…

It cannot cripple Love

It cannot shatter Hope

It cannot corrode Faith

It cannot destroy Peace

It cannot kill Friendship

It cannot suppress Memories

It cannot silence Courage

It cannot invade the Soul

It cannot steal Eternal Life

It cannot conquer the Spirit

-author unknown

This is so true.  Only WE do these things to ourselves, it is not the cancer.  I can see that my own situation is much, much better than many others, but mostly I see only people who exhibit the above qualities, regardless of their dire circumstance.

My desire is to be ‘changed’ by my experience, but not to be defined by it.  I am still me and cancer is only a tiny fraction of the story of Ardys.  At the moment it consumes a great deal of my thoughts and energies but soon I hope it will take its rightful place so that I can move on and add many new chapters to the ‘book of Ardys’.