Saturday 20 October 2007: HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANNABEL! And Sarah loves her kid's school photo this year!

Sarah says:
So rare not to be wearing my glasses in a photo on here so there you have it. I am really tired. Beat. This darkness is doing that. It's so dark, so early. You just want to crawl into bed. It's also cold now. Winter coat weather. It makes the head change. Sleep is such a joy at this time of year. I am such a bad, bad sleeper. But last night I slept right through and I might tonight too! That's what the cold and dark does for me, it knocks me out and sucks any last energy out.

Today we visited a good friend of ours who is undergoing chemo for very serious cancer. We were so glad to see him and to be able to talk openly with him about a lot of stuff. This morning I was reading up on some blogs, including his wife's and my sister-in-law's.

My sister-in-law has a blog about her experience with breast cancer. She posted the following reflection last week, which is something to think about:

Because Cancer exists

Time for a check:

How have you spent your time today? This week? This month?

How often have you done things that gave you joy or were deeply meaningful to you?

How much have you been close to the important people in your life?

At those times when you had a choice, how often did you choose to pursue connectedness and passionate engagement, versus rote activity that bores or deadens you?

When you were working, how much of your work did you invest with commitment, and how many of your accomplishments do you look back on with pride?

How much have you moved your body, felt your muscles and bones equal to the challenges you set for them? How well have you guarded your health and made choices to exalt your body?

How have you loved? How have you been loved?

If you felt bad, did you embrace the experience and live with it?

Who knows how much life any of us has. We have right now. One of my lessons from cancer was to live right now, and not wait to live years later.

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Sarah adds:
In totally unrelated news, my daughter's school photo is great! Don't you think? What a cutey!