Happy one year anniversary to Caro and Zach who are celebrating in Greece. Today’s update included a gorgeous picture of them kayaking in pristine caves.

As for me .., My stomach remains distended, but a little less so than yesterday. I am continuing to take it very easy and allow my body to heal.

I’m in considerable pain, but hopefully my medicine will kick in shortly. In the meantime, I wait, I surrender … temporarily … I surrender.

“ What?”you scream. Surrendering is not in the cancer fighter’s vocabulary. Ah, my friend, I beg to disagree.

You may have noticed that I do not ascribe to the inspirational quotes that use military language to describe having cancer. To me, having cancer is not a fight or battle. Having cancer does not make me brave. I am not fighting a courageous battle and when I die, I will not have lost my fight.

In fact, I would like to replace the traditional battle vocabulary that is associated with my cancer. I would like to be celebrated as living as well as possible, coping, excepting, being generally positive, setting short term achievable goals, and drawing support from the people that I love and the people that love me.

I hope that everyone can find a way to be celebrated for these same traits. Seems we need them throughout our lives…as children, as young adults, as new parents, as aging citizens, we all need to frame our journey kindly and with love.