I'm Brave and Heroic…You?
Posted 4/5/2012
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I love this blog. How often this very topic has been passionately discussed in my groups or individual sessions with women going through cancer treatment. We become accustomed to comments like these, and rarely know how to respond. No, we are not so brave and usually not so heroic (although sometimes we are both). We feel, more often, that we have no choice and want to live. Here is the beginning of this great essay and then a link to read more:
I'm Brave and Heroic? What About You?
By Heather Millar
I think I know how HRH Princess Diana felt. I may have been waiting my whole life to write that sentence.
A few days ago, an old high school acquaintance commented about something I'd posted on Facebook from my breast
cancer blog, My Left Breast. She said she thought I'd had an amazing journey. She said she thought I had courage. She
said I was there for others who now are suffering and alone. She said I was AMAZING (her caps, not mine).
Wow.
Don't get me wrong. I like this person. She's not a fake Facebook friend, one of those friends of a friend of a friend. I actually know her. But-full disclosure here-she IS (my caps) someone that I have not seen in the flesh for three decades. Even so, how could I not feel all warm and fuzzy about someone who says those nice things about me?
Yet is it ungrateful and rude to admit that it makes me feel funny? When I was in active treatment, I cannot count the number of times that various friends, loved ones and strangers said things like these:
"You're so courageous."
"You're really inspiring."
"I don't know where you get the strength. You give hope to the rest of us."
Read more...
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