Celebrating Life

Y'all may remember my vow that this is my year of fiscal responsibility.  To that end, I've been signing up for as much over time as my boss offers, which isn't all that much, to be honest.  In this economic climate, my company has been very conservative.  Which may be why we are doing so well, despite the economy.  But anyway - by Wednesday I had put in almost ten hours of overtime for the week.  So when I got the invitation to our local cancer survivors picnic, I almost took a pass.  If I don't physically work 40 hours a week, I don't get time and a half for my overtime.  With my schedule, I had to take the night off if I wanted to attend the picnic, so I would lose the extra pay for eight of those hours.  I hesitated only briefly over the invitation, though. In the end, there is more to life than work.  As a cancer survivor, I need to remember that.  Some of my fellow warriors are still battling the disease, and too many have lost the fight. 

I went to the picnic.  My family came with me. And we had a good time. There was dinner, of course, and a live band. There were clowns, a caricature artist, and face painting for the kids.  My doctors served beverages.  My mom flirted with a local icon.  My sister ran into some friends, women who she did not know had beat breast cancer.  I won a door prize.  Wahoo!
 
The survivors were given buttons with the year of their diagnosis written on them.  It was very moving to see all the dates, some of them thirty years and more past.  There was also booklet with a little blurb about remembering those who have lost the fight.  I had to read than later.  It hits me, sometimes, just how lucky I was.

How lucky I am.