A friend sent me this poster last week, with a short message, “There is a great blog topic in here. I know u will find it! :)” I immediately laughed when I read it and then, of course, it got me thinking.
Over the past three years, I’ve met many women with cancer, in person and virtually. They all have one thing in common – an uncommon depth of courage.
It takes courage to hear a cancer diagnosis and not actually fall on the floor in a heap. It takes courage to tell your family and friends and be more worried about how they are handling it than you are about yourself. It takes courage to show up for tests, treatments and surgeries, all the while battling your “flight or fight” reflex. It takes courage to heal the emotional and physical scars of treatment and somehow accept the “new normal” of life beyond cancer.
When faced with all we have been through as women with cancer, it’s very probable that our first instinct was to “run like hell.” It certainly was for me. But, we stood our ground and did what we had to do. That’s bravery, that’s courage and that’s how we live our lives as women with cancer.
Because of the courage I’ve discovered in myself and the other women with cancer I’ve met, I’m inspired to keep living courageously every day. Thank you to my friend who sent me this poster (one of the bravest women with cancer I know) and all of you. Now, get out your cymbals and do one brave thing today!!
We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. Winston Churchill
Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear. Mark Twain
Faced with what is right, to leave it undone shows a lack of courage. Confucius
Who could refrain that had a heart to love and in that heart courage to make love known? William Shakespeare
One man with courage is a majority. Thomas Jefferson
All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them. Walt Disney
One isn’t necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can’t be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest. Maya Angelou
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. Steve Jobs
Survival > Existence,
Debbie
Where We Go Now 
Comments
The thing about courage
The thing about courage Debbie is that people think it is something out of ordinary reach, when in fact in the words of Mary Anne Radmacher “Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I’ll try again tomorrow”. That’s my favorite definition of courage 🙂
I Love That Definition Too
Marie:
You’re so right that courage isn’t always loud and showy. I always thought that just showing up, doing what I had to do in spite of how afraid I was, was the most courageous way to face my cancer. It’s what we all did and every tomorrow we faced again and again was evidence of our courage.
Survival > Existence,
Debbie