Today started with an email out of the blue.

A friend who I met only once on a Workplace Mediation course and yet bonded deeply with, had heard from another friend on the same course who I know well, that I am back on the chemo again. Sending her positive thoughts and love to see me through, she included a link to a heartfelt blog written by another breast cancer survivor. I had never heard of thesilverpen.com – revealing the Silver Linings to be found in all things – but from now on it will be among my daily inspirations.

The two most recent posts were particularly poignant to me because they relate to the intimacy of reading another person’s writing as a sharing of imagination from one mind to another across impossible distances of time and existence; and the treasured memory of a lost loved one. Poignant because the companion I have chosen to accompany me to this new round of chemo sessions is a book written by my most beloved cousin, Susie Tarver, about her hilarious adventures on a Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. It is akin to having her sitting with me while I wait, telling tails of her exploits and reminding me of the laughter to be drawn from even the most dire of circumstances. But her company is all the more precious to me, because Susie died in a tragic accident last summer and it was a Celebration Of Her Life which kicked off my New Year’s Resolution this year, to finally start writing.

So, what do I have to say for myself?

I love life! A fact which has become increasingly apparent to me ever since I was diagnosed with cancer in 2006. Deeply sad as that maybe, it is actually my Silver Lining. Without the diagnosis I might never have embarked upon a commitment to realising my highest aspirations, which has lead me to love my experience of being alive so greatly. Over the past six years, finding ways of making my own passion for life manifest in the world, has been the most rewarding path I can imagine through the minefield of surviving cancer.