Tag Archives: beautiful

I Love Birthdays

31 May

Survivor Lap

Last weekend I was able to walk and sing at my first Relay For Life event and it was an amazing experience.  The survivors were given purple shirts which read ‘Celebrate, Remember, Fight Back.’  What a great mantra because that is what we were all there to do.  There were so many survivors, all different ages, colors, genders, cancer knows no bounds. During my trip around the track in the Survivor Lap, I was overwhelmed with joy at the fact that my fight is currently over and I have won.  I couldn’t keep a smile off my face.  At one point my mom (who walked the lap with me along with my family) turned around and said, ‘I want to cry’.  I was walking with fighters; people given no choice but to stand up and fight for their lives.  We are told we are strong when in fact, we rise up and do what we need to do.  The sign that impacted me the most in that lap was one that read ‘I love birthdays.’  I was overcome with emotion and just couldn’t stop the tears. The thing is, is that I have always loved birthdays.  As a child, even though I didn’t have many birthday parties, my parents made me feel like the most important person on that day.  It was a celebration of me.  After cancer, birthdays are all the more important.  The first surgeon said my diagnosis was poor and wasn’t sure how much time I had left, and with the cancer continually coming back I wasn’t so sure myself.  Every birthday since that diagnosis has been a milestone for me.  I tear up every year at the significance of a birthday.  It has also been a time to reflect on the past year and its events.  After the survivor lap I was asked to sing which was overwhelming.  I made it through ‘Over the Rainbow’ and as the crowd of survivors, walkers, and supporters, all people touched by cancer, applauded, I wept.  I was told I would never sing again and here I was.

Me and Audrey (with her red painted hair)

Me and Audrey (with her red painted hair)

 

singing

singing

Something fun that I did this week was to go on my second lipstick consultation trip.  I shopped with a friend to help her find her perfect shade for this season.  It turned out to be a new Armani long wear lipgloss in Plum.  It’s a light plum gloss with great consistency and not too much shimmer…I bought one too!  That will be my color this week…light plum; highlighting your natural self and adding a little bling, enough said!

I love birthdays!

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True Beauty

15 May

Aphrodite

A couple strange things happened this week. A few days ago I had an eye exam for new glasses.  After the exam I was working with the tech to find new frames.  After she measured my eyeballs she said, ‘Wow, you’re perfectly symmetrical, that’s a big deal.’  When I asked her why, she said, ‘Well, most people are not symmetrical and there have been studies relating symmetry to attractiveness and beauty’. Hmmm.  I looked it up and yes, there have been studies, but they also say that bilateral symmetry is an important indicator of freedom from disease.  Well, as a child I had scarlet fever, chicken pox, chronic tonsillitis, and as an adult, allergies and of course, cancer.  In terms of attractiveness, I was not asked to too many dances or dates in high school; I was even set up for my senior prom by one of my teachers.  Perfect symmetry has not helped me much.  Another strange thing this week was the story of the 8 year old girl getting Botox from her mom. What?  How have we become so obsessed with outer beauty?

I’ve had the privilege this year of celebrating the life of two 90+ year old women, one for her birthday, and the other in her death.  The birthday party was in a nursing home and it was a celebration.  Ms. Louise wore a tiara and pale pink lipstick.  She gave a speech after blowing out her candles and said she’s had a good life and just wished for a good rest of her life. So simple, the beauty was in her eyes and the life she had lived so far; and of course, Grandma Lucille from my past blog.  In her passing, we reflected on the life she lived.  She was a beautiful woman because she loved people.

What is beauty?  After cancer, every person is beautiful to me. Here are my thoughts:

  • Beauty comes from our history
  • Beauty comes from knowing that we are each a unique creation; in being confident in how we are wired
  • Beauty comes from the depths of our soul, how we treat people and love even our enemy because we know they are also a unique creation and that they also have a story.

True beauty comes from within, and I don’t mean from within tubes of lipstick or jars of anti-aging lotions (although of course, those are fun to play with).  No amount of make up can change who we are on the inside.  True beauty comes from our story,  the pieces we pick up in our journey that continues to mold us into who we will be tomorrow.  Soak it all in; the good, the bad, and everything in between.

Today, I’m wearing YSL Golden Gloss #7.  It’s sheer, warm, sparkly gold, just how God looks at us, like precious gold.

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