Dear Reader:

In France, there is an expression I love that has been passed down from generation to generation…Find your “petits bonheurs du jour.” This translates: Look for your little daily joy.

French grandmothers tell their grandchildren this little secret and explain it this way: “Every day I wake up and I begin to seek out the surprise of what the ‘petit bonheur du jour’ will be that day. Will it be a letter from one of my grandchildren? Perhaps a phone call from a friend? Will it be a sublime glass of wine or a beautiful bouquet of flowers I see in the florist’s window? When none of the big changes are working out in your life…then  just concentrate on finding your little daily joy. There always is one, and often once you start looking you will find more.”

(Excerpt from The Grape Village– Laura Bradbury)

So since this is December 1…I knew it was time to deliver my own little “bonheur” (happiness) today to my neighbors in the form of a bright red poinsettia with a little “terse verse.” (Thanks Effie Wilder!)

I started this ritual last year on December 1…delivering poinsettias to my neighbors who live on Rainbow Road. It made me feel so good- I decided to keep this tradition going again this year and hopefully next and the next and so on.

Yesterday I received what I hope will be a “petit bonheur du jour.” The new cancer drug, recommended by my oncologist, was approved by SCRIPT, the state pharmaceutical insurance company, and then I was asked to meet with someone on the medical staff at the Charleston Cancer Center (Physician’s Assistant) to go over potential side effects of the two different medications I will be on.

My assistant, Brooke, was very sweet and didn’t dwell on the most serious side effects except to make me aware of symptoms that I should call and report to them….but mainly about the positive effects it has had to date. She told me since I had achieved what they call a “stationary” condition with the last drug (for over three years)…that this was a good sign…it was something that every doctor hoped for…but a status that is difficult to achieve in some cases. It was a positive sign that my body was still fighting the cancer…good genes. All I could think of was mother…and yes she did give me very good genes for courage to fight.

I took my first pills last night, slept well, and with the exception of a little light-headedness when I first got up this morning (quickly disappeared) I have felt fine…appetite still roaring!

So my hope is that I have gotten an early Christmas present…time will tell.

Don’t forget that today is the first day of the month-December so say “Rabbit” first thing today for good luck and have a most marvelous month and Christmas!

So until tomorrow let us look for a joy in every day…because just waking up is a “bonheur” in itself!

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*I saw a vision of pink over where Anne and I were planting the daffodil bulbs, last week,  in between the camellia bushes and there was a tiny little bud  formed to perfection…my first camellia bud of the year!

***If yesterday’s blog post didn’t pop up automatically in your emails or Facebook…the Christmas gremlins returned yesterday. Normally my Iphone gives a little ping sound around 6:00 telling me that my blog has been published.

Yesterday I never heard a ping so I went to check on the blog and there it was and it was also on my Iphone WordPress….so I thought everyone had gotten it until some of you emailed to let me know you had not. John checked on it for me and thought we had it fixed but discovered something was still off-kilter by later reader’s comments.

Don’t know what today will bring…hopefully it has corrected itself but in case you still haven’t gotten it on Facebook or in your emails…simply go on-line and pull it with google or whatever search engine you use….just type in chapel of hope stories and the day’s blog should pull up. Hopefully we can figure out what is causing these kinks to appear out of no where. Drats! Christmas Computer Gremlins!