November 5, 2011

Well, I have finally decided to make this dream a reality!

Welcome to my blog - or as I like to think of it - the path to my book.

I seem to spend half my time lately posting on FB and at the end of the day,
all those posts are usually just me spouting off my opinion on lots of issues that
really don't mean a lot to me. Sobriety and Breast Cancer - they mean a lot to me.
So in an effort to finally get to the heart of the matter (and to spare people from my Facebook rants)
I have decided to start this blog.

I am heading out to an 8 am meeting, but will write more later today. The point is - I started....

So, here I am 12 hours later and not even sure where to begin. I guess I should start by explaining my motivation for doing this. Quite simply, it is about sharing hope. For those of you who know my story (and those of you who will soon find out about it), it is clear that on paper it doesn't look much like a "charmed life" But the reality is that I truly believe that I have been blessed (many times) and I am living a life beyond my wildest dreams. Sobriety has turned my life around and has helped me in dealing with cancer diagnoses (two times) and a double mastectomy. Hence, "Make Mine a Double" as the title here!

Back in July of 2001, when I finally made the decision to stop drinking, I had no idea had profoundly it would change my life. To be honest, I thought life as I knew it was over. And in some ways that was true. On the outside, things seemed okay - but on the inside I was miserable and not even sure I could truly commit to staying sober. But I have (at least so far) and I can truly say that it was the best decision I ever made in my life. It has helped me cope with some of the most horrible events of my life: 9/11/01, a home invasion burglary, my father's death, my mother's cancer, Julian's death and my two cancer diagnoses and subsequent surgery. The good news is that I did not find it necessary to pick up a drink to "take the edge off" any of those events. What a found instead was a faith that pulled me through and a change in perspective that not even I saw coming.

When I learned that my cancer had returned in 2009, instead of "why me" it became "I am so lucky to have saved my life two times" (my doctors had missed it both times and I pushed for more tests and procedures in both 2007 and 2009). To be honest, the idea that the stars might even be aligned for me was not my initial reaction. But those were the words of a dear friend who I had called that day and those words have stayed with me ever since. This change of perspective has truly changed my thoughts on just about everything that has happened in my life so far.

So, I have a draft written of my story and I am going to try to figure out if I can post it. If not, I will just tell the story again. It fills me with gratitude each time I do, so maybe that's the way to go anyway!