May, 1995 - This journal entry was written nine months after my Breast Cancer Diagnosis

Fifteen minutes of waiting for the Young Breast Cancer Survivors Group to begin. Celebrating our lives, our common thread of having shared the Breast Cancer experience and all the fears that go with it. My new sisterhood - women drawn from different walks of life, in our prime, having to go through something we thought would never happen to us.

So many questions and so much unknown but needing to accept that it is all going to be okay and this is the way it is. Life has its ups and downs and sometimes throws us curve-balls when we least expect them. Having to accept the setbacks as one of life's many lessons and surely one of life's setbacks. Everything is not always the way I dreamed it would be - but with maturity has come the knowledge that the fabric of life is made of joy and sorrow. I know I cannot always expect good times and there may be hardships behind me and hardships ahead of me - but I can choose to react in a positive and accepting way.

I do believe everything is for a reason and I know I must not analyze everything, yet I mustn't be totally positive and just accept it. So - it is a balancing act of coming to a middle road of analysis and acceptance. Sometimes I feel so centered and so together and other times so fragmented as though I am falling into a deep pit. Luckily those times are infrequent but they do scare me.

The mind is so powerful and empowering and I need to use my mind more to move forward and grow and develop into a more peaceful space.

Karen

Breast cancer Blog - Today I celebrate 18 Years

Books:
Dr. Susan Love's Breast Book 
Living Well Beyond Breast Cancer
Spinning Straw into Gold, Your Emotional Recovery From Breast Cancer