Dear Reader:

I remember hearing on numerous occasions… from quotes in medical magazines, to true cancer survivor stories and books…the expression that “cancer is just a detour”….and that we are to remind ourselves of this fact while looking forward to the day that the “detour” connects us back to the main highway of life…the road we were on before the diagnosis.

It really sounds good and I have used that metaphor many times myself. Saturday night, however, I had another personal epiphany about this popular analogy…comparing cancer (as an off-the-beaten path detour) to mainstream life…as a highway. What if…?

What if cancer’s detour is not really a detour. What if we never leave our true path we are destined to follow throughout our lives? What if the only true thing that changes (when we face potentially life-threatening health issues) is our vision?

God is guiding us, a fact I firmly believe…and I don’t visualize God as a ‘detour, short-cut’ Creator. However long or short our lives are, according to our mortal understanding of time, the path we are given to follow is the one true path. How we handle the obstacles along our path, I believe, is the most important part of the journey.

Over the weekend I agreed to be a Confirmation mentor to one of our church’s youth. Even though she wasn’t there Sunday I had looked over the list of ideas we were supposed to discuss. It was to start out with the youth taking one minute to share his/her story and the mentor taking two minutes.

So after the Clemson game (Go Tigers, Go Kristen!) while I was ‘coming down’ from the excitement of the game (and before I fell asleep) I thought about how I would introduce my life story within a two-minute limitation.

Already in my mind I had conjured back up the “breast cancer detour” quote as part of my story. Suddenly I sat up in bed and thought to myself…that I don’t feel like I have been on a separate trail or path running parallel to life’s main highway….NO!…I have been living my life more fully and completely than before my diagnosis.

I am a much better driver now…I am rarely in a hurry…I pull off highways, country roads, neighborhood streets to just admire the scenery or to take photos of something beautiful so I can share it. I would never have done that before…I was always rushing from one deadline to another. It took the prospect of a final deadline (perhaps confronting me) to stop accepting projects that stressed me out and put me back in the ‘deadline’ way of life. It is no way to live.

I remembered a favorite phrase I read and saved a few months ago on my computer screen to end my two minute saga….it goes like this:

“…in the end she became more than what she expected. She became the journey, and like all journeys, she did not end, she just simply changed directions and kept going. ” r.m. drake

So until tomorrow…Let us never forget that we are all born with a spiritual compass…when we remember to use it…we never get lost.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

I am so glad I was at church today…I ended up getting “Booed” and “Surcied” by two different friends.

Dee Lesko gave me a fall garden flag with none other than Sammy, the cardinal, on it. The way the wind was whipping today…Sammy was getting a real workout. Then she gave me a “Boo” bag filled with candy and ….and…Luden’s Cherry Cough Drops! My favorite “candy” of all!

Rick Sutton, also, told me he had a surprise for me out in the car. Rick runs a framing shop and while cleaning it out he came across an old photo of me  surrounded by my two teacher pals Beth Eidson, and Sherri Houston dressed up like saloon gals. (Y’all didn’t know I had a night job did you? :)! You just never know about teachers!

“Tis the season for ghosts of the past to come a’haunting!”