Wednesday, November 23, 2011

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! 


























18 comments:

  1. So thankful for the grace and light you share with us in so many ways. What gift you are! Blessings for this Thanks-giving season.

    Enjoyed the quotes you chose to share.

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  2. Blessings go out to you on this Thanksgiving, Vicky. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.

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  3. Sending you blessings and virtual hugs on this coming Thanksgiving Vicky. You are a light in my life and I thank you for the joy I feel every time I come here :-)

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  4. Happy Thanks giving to you as well Dear Vicky. I don't know you except through the blog but you don't really have to know someone to know him/her. We are all connected in spirit.
    May you continue to have pink days
    and good health returned to you so you can put all these bad experiences behind you.

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  5. Beautiful post, dear Vicky. I wish you pink and light and airy moments as you celebrate Thanksgiving with those you love best. Hang on to each happy thought, hug, squeeze, peal of laughter, and warm family hearth occasions. I hope they catapult you over the chasms of worry, struggle, and pain, not just on Thanksgiving but each day. I hope it's really a LOVELY day for you. Love, Robynn

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  6. Beautiful post.

    Each time I stop by I am encouraged.


    Happy Thanksgiving...

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  7. happy thanksgiving vicky to you and your family !!
    xo

    and you've had a pink spirit for a very long time now....a beautiful shade of pink !!

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  8. Happy Thanksgiving my lovely friend! A wonderfull post and a wonderfull story.

    Think pink!

    Bussal
    Mimi

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  9. Vicky, I'm thankful for the time we spent at your kitchen table the other morning. And I look forward to many more such chats in the coming year and beyond! I'm wearing pink today. It's a good day for pink!

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  10. How beautiful! We are currently battling cancer in my extended family. The spirit of cancer fighters is so strong and beautiful.

    Wishing you a happy Thanksgiving, Vicky!

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  11. Hope you and your family had a wonderful Thanksgiving.I'm grateful to have met such an inspiring woman, you amaze me on a regular basis.

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  12. I stopped by to see how you have been doing and you are amazing as always, you are a special gift to us all Vicky, you touch our lives in so many ways. amd as Beth says you are beautiful. hugs.

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  13. Vicky, what a beautiful post. YOu have a way of expressing in such an amazing array of spiritual inflection. What a mouthful, that sentence... not sure I'm saying it right (write)...lol..

    I hope you had a wonderful day yesterday -

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  14. Thanks for sharing that moment of hopefulness while sitting in that waiting room, anticipating a treatment. Blessings to you and all who sit in those waiting rooms.

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  15. Funny you quoted GK, my uncle David is a great nephew of his. I see GK quotes a lot lately. There is an amazing documentary by Tom Shadyac you may want to see: I Am. It is about human connection and having a profound shift. It will be out on DVD in January. WWW.IAmTheDoc.com
    I have seen it twice at independent theatres and Tom and Rumi scholar, Coleman Barks, were there for one of them.

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  16. Funny you quoted GK, my uncle David is a great nephew of his. I see GK quotes a lot lately. There is an amazing documentary by Tom Shadyac you may want to see: I Am. It is about human connection and having a profound shift. It will be out on DVD in January. WWW.IAmTheDoc.com
    I have seen it twice at independent theatres and Tom and Rumi scholar, Coleman Barks, were there for one of them.

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  17. I love, love, love your pink/brown story.

    Hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving!

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  18. Great story Vicky!! Here I go with Jillian's chant: GO GO PINK!!!

    Hugs and love...Kelly

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