I had both a pleasure and a privilege to speak at the Wrexham Breast Cancer Support Group on Tuesday evening of this week. It was an amazing place to be .. there were women of all ages who had experienced their treatment some years ago, others who were going through it right now and others who were going back for further treatment. The atmosphere was one of laughter and the most incredible positivity. The fact that I was speaking about positive thinking seemed an irrelevance.

I heard from them how they live each day to its full and I realized that those of us who have not had such a diagnosis have such a big lesson to learn from those who do about living in the present. They never know if and when that cancer might come back again and their lives be shortened.

Coincidentally I have started my “Poem a Day” practice .. spending 5 minutes three times a day just being with a poem. That is my way of stopping the endless doing and have some being time and notice the present. Yesterday’s was called “The Opening of Eyes” by David Whyte. Let me share with you the first verse:-

“That day I saw beneath dark clouds
The passing light over the water
And I heard the voice of the world speak out,
I knew then as I had before,
Life is no passing memory of what has been
Nor the remaining pages in a great book waiting to be read ..”

It continues as the writer describes how his eyes were opened to the here and now. And that is what I learnt from these ladies recovering from breast cancer… the need to enjoy the present. None of us know when it might be taken from us.

One of these women, an amazing and courageous lady called Sara uses her blog to record her life with breast cancer and through that has connected with other breast cancer sufferers all round the world. I encourage anyone to read it http://canceraintgonnabeatme.blogspot.com. And I encourage anyone reading this to allow themselves some being time every day.