Living With Loss™ Publisher’s Note

PUBLISHER'S NOTE:
BC TO AD- BEFORE CANCER TO AFTER DIAGNOSIS
SURVIVING FORWARD™

FORWARD TO THE PAST

"...I am always struck with the thought that as much as we push forward to our future, the way we have handled our past will actually define our overall future."

So it has been 18 years. Eighteen years since someone said the dreaded words, "You have cancer." Eighteen years with medical tests, surgeries, procedures, family trials, bills, self-doubt - fear. But we survivors have no choice and no way to turn except forward. Live or die, that's it, however brutally blunt. So we move forward through the challenge and give it our absolute best.

I always go for check-ups. I always think there will be no problem. I feel in my gut that they won't call me back. But sometimes they do. And the same self-doubt and fear comes right back just like it was eighteen years ago. Funny, isn't it? Because I thought I had progressed so much further. But our past can call us back. I am always struck with the thought that as much as we push forward to our future, the way we have handled our past will actually define our overall future. So I'm fine now, and proud of the way I handled the past and the way it is helping me to live the future.

Whatever is happening in your life, right now, today, be aware, Gentle Reader, that the way you handle this life challenge will define you as you move forward to your future. The future is coming for you, so deal with what matters now, so you can live and live well as you go forward. Embrace it, inhale it and live it today.

J. Waggoner, Publisher, 18-year survivor