Thanks and giving

"You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink." --G.K. Chesterton

Gratitude ... goes beyond the "mine" and "thine" and claims the truth that all of life is a pure gift. In the past I always thought of gratitude as a spontaneous response to the awareness of gifts received, but now I realize that gratitude can also be lived as a discipline. The discipline of gratitude is the explicit effort to acknowledge that all I am and have is given to me as a gift of love, a gift to be celebrated with joy. --Henri J. M. Nouwen

Thankful for pink...

 I'm learning breast cancer is a highly politicized topic, and there is quite a backlash against "the pink culture of bc."  It came as a complete surprise to me and my naive grasp on the topic precludes me right now from saying too much.  But I was given pause recently to reflect... maybe pink isn't so bad.  

I sat watching two sisters across from me at the infusion center.  They were actively discussing scarves, although I noted the sister with cancer still had her hair.  She was admiring another woman's brightly adorned bald head.  The scarf looked like silky and luxurious, with autumnal colors in it.  

The sisters then moved onto the topic of the quilt with the cancer color ribbons on it, hanging on the wall behind me.  "Colon cancer", the sister says, "Could you tell me which color ribbon it is?"  We all three gaze at it as our eyes settle on the ribbon at the same time.  "Eww, we exclaim, its brown!"  "Who wants to wear a brown ribbon?" her sister asks.  We go on to discover that melanoma is black, ew again.  And 1 of the cancers is sort of a drab olive green.  "Pink," is actually one of the more cheerful colors. 

The sister with cancer  then says she still has plans for a tattoo with the brown ribbon.  She wants to have an artist create a colorful hummingbird with the brown ribbon dangling from its beak.  Its creative and the way her eyes smile when she talks of it let you know she has put a lot of thought into it.  

I don't want to be the one to tell her, most likely she can't get a tattoo while on chemo.  But then her sister speaks up and tells her.  "Oh, not while I am having chemo she says.  Only when I am in remission."  Her whole face lights up this time.  

Clearly, her ribbon color is brown, but her spirit is pink.  My name is called just then.  I grab my "pink" water bottle and head off to chemo smiling.  I think her pink, rubbed off on mine. 




Today, amongst all of the thankful moments, I graciously give thanks to each of you who continue to bless me by showing up here each day!  Happy Thanksgiving!