Celebrating hope and life.

Cancer has been a teacher and an eye opener to me. It taught me lots of lessons in the journey of life, the value of life itself and also how to live life to the fullest counting the little blessings and joys sent my way. Every single day is a gift. Whenever fear comes to meet me I try to flip it around to love it.

This is for all those who have gone through and going through the journey of cancer. The challenges of cancer are far more complicated than one can ever imagine. It tells of one's struggle to come to terms with everything that life throws in the path to recovery and thereafter. It  explores the events of illness from within,  the transformation , the pain, the wonder, and the  recovery documenting the complexities of what each one goes through with grit and determination. The life after cancer is not a smooth path for many with lots of pain and problems cropping up every now and then.

“We all have two lives. The second one begins when we realize we only have one.” ~Confucius How true it is....this realization comes when faced with cancer...a value of being able to breathe as you wake up every single day. Though the feeling of being tampered with seeps in, it eventually doesn't matter.To get up in the morning and feel healthy, comfortable, and full of energy is a beautiful thing. To feel normal is extraordinary. Even when one gets up with pain, it is beautiful because after a point of time pain  becomes beautiful. The daily challenges do  bring down the spirits, but it doesn't remain for long. Finding ways to get out of that feeling is the victory. At times you feel that even those ways of feeling refreshed are snatched away by time...but then finding other openings to put your heart and soul into is most important.
I have realized everything starts with me...how I feel, how I live....I have to nurture myself.  I realized how important it is for me and for everyone around me because the ripple effect it has is profound.
I had always wanted to  write before cancer, and only because of my diagnosis did I actually start writing. I can’t change things that happen to me or around me  but I can choose the way I feel about them. I would never know when, if, or how drastically things can change in a heartbeat. I appreciate all that I have now and it is  the now that I really have, only now is all I am guaranteed. I know life is an adventure....and that adventure I love as it wonders me and it is always a path of the unknown. I look up to mother nature as my teacher whenever I feel low and I get my answers there.
“You just do it. You force yourself to get up. You force yourself to put one foot before the other, and darn it, you refuse to let it get to you. You fight. You cry. You curse. Then you go about the business of living. ” ~Elizabeth Taylor

A butterfly moment.

"A butterfly lights beside us, like a sunbeam...

and for a brief moment its glory

and beauty belongs to our world...

but then it flies on again, and although

we wish it could have stayed,

we are so thankful to have seen it at all."

If  you have ever noticed the fleeting beauty of a butterfly as it floats by you would have noticed that they  have a magical quality that appears so ethereal and fragile, much like fairies dancing in the air.

Whenever nature gifts me magical  moments, it mesmerizes me. The butterfly moments really captivate the heart, soul and mind.  Watching two butterflies in flight chasing the other, playing hide and seek, in love.....That is real love in the air. I watched them in awe till they were out of my sight feeling happy for those precious moments.

A butterfly is an embodiment of transformation and  fearlessly leaves the safety of its cocoon to meet a new world in a new form, trusting its untried wings to allow it to fly. There is something about the butterfly that seems to inspire me, and these butterflies flitting around is love in truth giving a magical effect to the present moment.

No doubt it is a mesmerizing experience and an awe that is felt at the sight of its captivating beauty and grace as it gently floats by. Delicate and surreal, they move through vast landscapes as if dancing on air.

More than just captivating my heart and imagination, the butterfly is also one of the most profound and enduring symbols of change and transformation to me. Its journey and metamorphosis from humble earthbound caterpillar to winged beauty with the gift of flight carries a powerful meaning to me that speaks of own capacity to move through different life cycles, mirroring  own journeys of regeneration, renewal, expansion and rejuvenation.  It is an unfolding of a continuous process of my life moving from one state to another in perspective, meaning and value of life itself.

A train of thoughts.

Quite often I hear the phrase 'a train of thoughts. I have been lost in a train of thoughts many times....it could be something that went by or something happening...but I do get lost in a train of thoughts, in my own world. Sometimes it is a sequence of what happened or happens, but I bet all do get lost in thoughts. The flow of thoughts is continual but they do get derailed quite often.

Can I be influenced by thoughts? Can anything influence the train of thoughts? The answer is definitely a big 'yes'! Sitting quietly in solitude in a train of thoughts, all sounds from nature can influence me, in a positive way. It derails the negativity in the train of thoughts giving me positive answers to all the negativity.....the demons in the mind.

A little thought arises in my mind; its nature proliferates and grows as a train of thoughts, then emotions and feelings. I love chugging along this train of thoughts in my own world, at my own pace and in solitude.