Hi, thanks for stopping by! I’m Jeanne, intrepid daydreamer, sharing my thoughts and experiences about this Happy Life we all seek. Join the discussion, challenge my thoughts, share your wisdom!
Aug
6
Here’s the deal: even as a kid I’ve believed in mind over matter. Not because I had any evidence of this, but because it seemed to be such a wonderful idea! How great would it be to overcome obstacles with thought. In my idealistic and optimistic youth I just knew that this is possible, without caring that I didn’t know how to apply the principle. The real truth is, though: I applied it without even knowing what I was doing!! Hah! One day (as an adult) I woke up and saw the reality.
What the heck woke me up? Searching. Reading. Listening to people like Norman Vincent Peale. Denis Waitley. Wayne Dyer. Deepak Chopra. Mike Dooley. The Secret (movie). Hey, these are real people, famous people who make their living sharing their truth. When I discovered I was in the right ballpark with my optimism, I clutched these truths to my chest in a great loving stranglehold and my life changed.
Here’s a simple example: recently divorced, on a summer day, I was feeling very lonely. We’d just moved to a new city and hadn’t made friends yet. My children were spending the summer with their dad. I sat in my recliner, and I thought to myself as I drifted into a nap, I will not spend this day alone.
The doorbell woke me up several hours later. A neighbor from across the street, whom I’d not yet met, invited me to lunch. We sat for over three hours talking and getting to know one another. This friendship led to many, many good experiences. I choose to believe it was all because I had decided, and said to myself, I will not spend this day alone. I had made a simple declaration, and the Powers That Be said Okay, we’ll take care of it.
So, what about real crisis? Not the I won’t spend this day alone thing, but something big, like breast cancer. I can speak to this because I experienced it. How unexpected, after a routine mammogram, to be called by the doctor and fold a biopsy is required. Okay, said I, and proceeded; and found out I needed a mastectomy. Maybe I was in a daze, but this didn’t phase me so much. Everyone in my family — parents, siblings, kids, all were wringing their hands expecting the worst, while I was nonchalantly expecting the best. A sister-in-law said you’re handling this so well! To which I replied it’s only a bump in the road.
Surgery went fine, I opted out of breast reconstruction (only one thing at a time, please), chemo went fine, I hated losing my hair and wearing a wig, I wore the stupid breast prothsesis and hated that too, I continued to work during chemo, and I swear: every night when I went to bed and tried to get into a comfortable position with my unbalanced chest, I dreamed of losing that remaining breast without having breast cancer in the process. Guess what!
One day at work I took a calamitous fall and smashed the living hell out of the remaining breast, and subsequently developed a horrid case of something that required — you guessed it — a mastectomy! Wish granted, thank you very much. From then on my sleep was so much more comfortable and I blessed my good fortune.
That happened over sixteen years ago, and in those sixteen years I’ve had experience after experience of having wishful thoughts, thoughts that make me smile and stir a desire in me, and later on being so pleasantly surprised to see my wishful thinking become reality. I used to call them happy accidents, but I know better now. These aren’t accidents, they’re my Life By Design, and I’m the designer.
Holy Cow woman…
Me, too!
I’m five years cancer free…(and quite frankly believe I’ve been cured since the day I divorced my EX husband!)
There’s a reason for EVERYTHING and perhaps that’s why Dani unintentionally introduced us!
I’ve written a bunch of essays on my breast cancer journey, but only within the past few weeks have shared them on my blog…
We’ve got lots to talk about and share!
Ha, ha, Peggy — holy cow yourself!! OK, I’ll check out your essasys. What an interesting thought, putting essays on your site.
I’m with you — a reason for EVERYTHING under the sun. Sometimes I think I started blogging just to be able to meet awesome people like you, and I love it that they’re all over the friggin’ world!