When Clouds Get In the Way....

Clouds in Alberta, Canada

Sometimes the best laid plans just don’t work out.  This year, my summer got derailed.  Here is what I had planned: a great family vacation, followed by many family activities around home like hiking, camping, cookouts, game days,  zoos and aquariums,  painting the deck railing, gardening, and more.

Here is what my summer turned out to be: great family vacation followed by a diagnostic mammogram, ultrasound, biopsy, MRI, surgical consults, another MRI, more surgical consults, surgery, PET/CT scan, and post-operative follow-up appointments.  My plans for the next several months will now be centered around chemotherapy and radiation.

Hollyhocks at home.

Sometimes the journey we plan and the journey we take aren’t exactly the same.  But, it doesn’t mean the trip has to be terrible.  Although my path this summer has had many unexpected twists and turns, I did manage a couple of easy hikes, and I also soaked up as much family time as possible.  I learned that the things that mattered most to me before cancer, are still the things that matter the  most.  Some things don’t change.  I learned about the overwhelming kindness of people.  And I learned that life is full of beautiful things all along the way, even when your travel plans change.