It's All About the Rainbow

I think of my roommate everyday and wonder how she is progressing. We compare notes and while we occasionally diverge in our sensations since our mastectomies, we most often find ourselves saying, “Yeah, me too!” This bond of sisterhood is something I have come to share not only with her, but also with my mother and aunt who both have survived cancer, just as my roomie is currently doing. And though I don’t consider to have survived cancer per se, I do consider myself a survivor in a sense. The commiseration of this survivorship brings out a degree of dark humor that some may find odd. I can’t help but find humor in these difficulties of life. What could be funny about tubes snaking out the sides of your body or ugly scars that mar the complexion of your chest? Plenty! There will be more later on the humor of such things, but for now I digress.

Sometimes humor is the only thing that keeps you from crying. Sometimes you’re simultaneously laughing and crying. It reminds me of those beautiful, sunshiny days that suddenly are touched by rain showers. As children, those days when the sun and rain dance together are shrouded in mystery. It perplexes us and the first thing we come to realize is the only thing that truly matters - it all results in a rainbow.

Wouldn’t it be beautiful if each of us would choose to weather those storms of life and come to the same conclusion? There is always something beautiful waiting on the other side. It’s all in your choice of perspective. Yes, I said choice, just as we can choose which clothes we’ll wear for the day. There are days we may take a step backward and begin to lament our situations or decisions and that is normal, and yet if we can consistently take two more steps forward, we have won!