So here I am, moving on into my own blog. I have been blogging since the early months of 2023, on caring bridge.com. In late 2022, I was diagnosed with tongue cancer, and my world turned up-side down. The writing seemed to help; to focus on my healing, to focus on my life, to focus on the choices I needed to make because my body had been invaded by an illness called cancer.

     I have discovered I truly love to blog. I write about family and friends, my work days as a hospice nurse, Mother Nature, my prayer walks, the good times, the challenging times, about feelings, about life, lessons I learn in life, my dreams, and my goals.

     I have a goal to publish my blog, my journal, which describes my journey all these months recovering from cancer. I have recovered, I am well and strong again. I believe my little book I am creating will help a lot of people dealing with an illness.

     I am ALIVE, and at times still so very emotional. Because I am a survivor of cancer, I see so much more clearly that life is such an amazing gift. I practice staying in the moment, trying to really see that person standing in front of me, talking to me. I appreciate the beauty of the snow in the winter. In the spring, I watch that beautiful butterfly take flight right in front of me, and I listen to the mockingbird sitting on the top of my chimney of my home, Our Treehouse. That bird’s song floats down the chimney flue as if it is holding a tiny microphone in front of its little beak, and as I sit in my living room, its sweet melody fills my heart.

     I invite you to follow me on my blog.  We can grow together.  Believe me, I have grown into this blogging thing. There used to be a billboard on interstate 65 north that read, “Go Big or Go Bigger”. I do have a tendency to take things literally sometimes. And when I am praying for advice I will sometimes say, “God, I need a  billboard, please.” Well, there it was, and here I am, and I am going bigger.

c   Love, Joan