Putting One Foot Forward….
It’s been a “learning to put one foot in front of the other” kind of week for me.
Yes, there are days when I still wonder, “How did this happen to MY life?” “OUR life?” Then I get a grip and remember so many others are going through hard times, filled with illness and tragedy too.
I think about my cousin who is showing such bravery in her battle with breast cancer. She’s come through every phase of treatment, including reconstruction and is preparing for radiation now. She’s trying to be the great mom she was before cancer and the wife she was before cancer and the professional she was before cancer and it is hard.
I think about a couple I know who have nothing to do with cancer world, but are going through hard times, trying to steady two sons who have done multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. They are not the sons they raised because they have been on the ground floor of war…not a very nice place to visit. So, with a lot of love and understanding and support they will find a way to keep their family, whole.
And I think about the young mother I met last night who lost her husband seven years ago to a surgery gone-wrong. That was bad enough…he left her with young children and as she put it “falling without strings.” Then came her diagnosis of breast cancer. But she put her head down and faced the cancer head-on.
Her words to me will stay with me for a very long time….”Laurie, we just have to remember to put one foot forward every day.” “We have to keep living.”
Yes, we do.
September 4, 2012 @ 6:34 pm
I, too, have had difficulty putting one foot in front of the other but I try to remember that Jim never outwardly felt sorry for himself so for him I trudge forward. I only need to open my Facebook page up and see several people dealing with tragedies and difficulties. Once more I get up and inch forward….and I visit my friends here for the much needed lift.
September 3, 2012 @ 7:12 pm
Amen!!! Within each little community or neighborhood, there are families who “put one foot in front of the other each day” just trying to make it to the end of the day and then week and then month. Unless you are within that community or group, you never hear about their struggle. It is a quiet fight and struggle for them…friends, neighbors and family are there to support them. No fanfare, no headlines, no TV cameras or “talking heads” telling their stories. But nevertheless they fight on, doing whatever it takes to make it to tomorrow. These are the quiet warriors and heroes. I salute them. I know some of them in my circle of friends.
When you read in the newspaper about a situation, it often touches your heart but once read, it is usually forgotten. And so it goes in most of our lives. In the lives of cancer patients and their families, the fight goes on daily and takes a toll with only brief respites to charge one’s battery once again for what is to come. It seems to be a neverending slog….one step, then another and another until something changes…it gets better, it gets worse or it remains the same but it seems to never end. Quiet warriors. We all know them because as we look in the mirror, we see our own reflection at one time or another. Best wishes to your friends Laurie.
September 3, 2012 @ 5:26 pm
Couldn’t have said it any better myself….