Movies and Second Chances

On a more serious note...

I rewatched the movie "Dreamer" with Kurt Russell, Dakota Fanning, and Kris Kristofferson yesterday.  It was a movie about a horse and the ability of a family to beat impossible odds of winning the Breeder's Cup with a horse that had broken its leg.  It was a story of hope and belief in the impossible.  Of course, I cried at the end when the horse won the race and got to thinking about how being diagnosed with cancer used to mean a death sentence.  (Don't ask me how my mind works...it's a scary place in there.)

I am so thankful (grateful...amazed?...put in your own adjective here)  that it is no longer so. 

I am so thankful to live in a time when technology is so advanced that they can find cancer before it moves into other organs. 

I am so thankful to have a God who loves me enough to make sure they find it early and, even though I have to go through the chemo, that I can be a survivor of cancer and may be able to help others.

I am excited about the fact that I have this little experience to pass on to others.  I never really understood before why people would start cancer foundations or why Susan Komen was so interested in turning everything pink and making people aware of breast cancer.  I have this deeper understanding of that now.  It is a drive to make a difference after you've been given the chance to 'survive'.  I also understand why my sister's friend Kathy took the time to talk to me about her experience during my Dad's funeral when she found out I had been diagnosed with breast cancer.  I really appreciated her taking the time to talk to me.  I was hungry for information.   8-)

Uh oh...in rereading this, I can see that I've moved into my sappy stage of the chemo...sorry, guys...you have to take the bad with the good.  8-)

I also recently rewatched "The Bucket List".  Carol, it isn't so much about cancer and death as it is about friendship and the way that cancer changes people to the inner core of their being.  Other than the fact that I never really cared much for Jack Nicholson, since he's pretty foul in most all of his movies, it is still a good movie.  My favorite line in the movie is when he was on chemo and he had just finished throwing up and he gets up slowly and looks in the mirror and says, "Somewhere, some lucky guy is having a heart attack."  Priceless.  That sums up exactly how you feel as you go through the roughest stages of chemo.

Hope everyone is having a great day!  (Carol...it is sunshining here...mentally changing my picture.)