Live life, every day, as best you can!

I'm sitting outside, looking at the lake and enjoying the evening breeze and listening to the folks next door having a good time enjoying each other's company.  It's been an almost quiet day here today, with the exception of a pleasant visit with my niece Lisa and her adorable daughter Isabelle and breakfast out this morning with hubby at Sammy J's, with a reputation as Salem's best breakfast.  Yes, it was really good.  The best in Salem?  Well, I have no basis for that statement just yet.  We haven't been here long enough to have sampled breakfast hot spots.  As a matter of fact, this was our first Salem breakfast since moving here.  We did, however, have the very best homefries we've ever had!  And they know how to poach an egg perfectly for eggs benedict.  So that says something about Sammy J's and you can be sure we'll be going back for a second try. 

We've had so much fun this past week.  Family and friends have blessed us with their presence repeatedly, taking advantage of our spectacular lake location to enjoy a cooling respite from the heatwave that brought record temperatures (103 on Friday).  We had 9 people here on Thursday, 3 on Friday including our darling little granddaughter who had her first solo sleepover at Grandma's, 17 on Saturday and then 2 today.  Tomorrow evening there will be a few more! 

I am incredibly grateful that after three chemo sessions, I am physically and mentally able to enjoy life.  And I do mean enjoy!  Granted, I have a couple days after each session where I'm not at the top of my game.  But I am lucky that I don't have to head to my bed and become a recluse while I recover from the chemical onslaught.  And I am lucky that my immune system has been sturdy enough that I don't feel the need to avoid crowds, fresh fruits and veggies, or take any abnormal precautions beyond the norm - don't eat something that has been licked by a sick kid!!!  And I am lucky to have an oncologist who listened to all my concerns and fears about chemo, rational or not, and took every precaution possible to balance the need for pre-meds with a concern for my glucose levels. 

Today I took the time to open a "coffee table" book that someone gave me a few years ago.  It's titled Off the Beaten Path - a travel guide to more than 1000 places here in the USA that are worth visiting.  There are probably 150 locations within a two hour drive of us right here in New England so we have some touring to do!  I've always had a love of visiting neat places in this country.  Even when we lived in the Kansas City area and it seemed that you couldn't really change your geography unless you drove for several hours, we would rent or borrow a motorhome and go off to see the majesty of the Grand Canyon, Mount Rushmore, Zion National Park and many other of Mother Nature's delights.  Or we boarded a plane to Hawaii or Florida, cruised to Alaska, took a road trip and golfed the Robert Trent Jones Trail in Alabama.  And we made trips back to visit our family, frequently by some standards.  Even though we both had demanding full time jobs, we made the time to live life, enjoy what we loved, and never passed up an opportunity to do something that sounded like fun, even if it was a last minute idea and we needed to be ready to go in 15 minutes. 

The good news is that neither diabetes with its dietary constraints or  cancer with its demanding schedule of doctors, treatments, physical therapy, more doctors, etc., has changed any of that.  If I get an opportunity to do something, I'm doing it!  If someone wants to go to dinner, or get a pedicure, or come for a visit, I'm in.   I'm never too tired, it's never too late (or too early these days) to be on the go, to do something interesting, to visit a beautiful location, or to learn something about this country. 

Some day it will happen.  I won't be able to go or do or whatever.  At some point in my life, through natural aging or some unfortunate turn of events, I will have to stay home, to say no, to say I'm too tired.   But not yet, not this gal.  So don't be surprised when you hear what I'm up to, because that's just me being me!

So, what about you?  What are you getting out of life these days?  I hope it's everything you really want and everything you really need.  Because you never know when something will happen and you can't.

Michelle