PSA and Using COVID-19 for Good

The impact of COVID-19 is huge, and it is important to pay attention and take precautionary measures as necessary. I do not mean to draw attention away from that, or reduce its significant impact on our lives and on the world. While we are going through this global crisis, however, I urge you to stop and think about what we can learn from this virus.

As I am sure we all know by now, a virus spreads from an infected person spreading the pathogen to others by being in close contact with them, or through respiratory droplets produced when the infected person sneezes or coughs. This coronavirus is highly contagious and infectious, and it will affect many people. As you are taking important precautionary measures (hand washing, not touching your face, avoiding contact with anyone with cold or flu-like symptoms, etc), and as we pray for the world, I encourage you to also think about how other things are contagious.

Things like love and kindness.

Imagine if we spread love and kindness like a virus! If we smiled at everyone we encountered. If we, even when frustrated or angry or upset, spoke to others with kind and gentle words. And if we were just nicer all around – all of that is contagious!

When you see the acronym COVID-19, I encourage you to acknowledge that it stands for Coronavirus disease, but I also encourage you to think of this acronym as well (as you are washing your hands): Consider Others Very Important Darlings – 19. The COVID part is self-explanatory (consider others to be very important: be considerate of others, be kind, treat others as you want to be treated), but I left the 19 on there for an important reason. The number 19 in the Bible is a symbol of God’s divine order. This can mean different things to different people, and I urge you to think about what this means for you. For me, it means hope during crazy times such as this!

When the “storm has passed” and we all start going back out in public again, I encourage you to remember to spread kindness to everyone you meet. How amazing it would be if we could have a pandemic of love!

Thank you for reading, God bless!!!

Psalm 1 Prayer

I was reading Psalm 1 this morning, and I wanted to share my prayer with you, so you can pray it too! I am also praying it over your life as well! It actually started out as just my thoughts, and then turned into a prayer :) I focused on the MSG Bible version, which I have uploaded a picture of below. Thank you for reading, God bless!!!

I want to be a blessed person, who does not keep company with sin (don't hang out at Sin Saloon, nor with sinners). I do not want to slink along Dead-End Road, as I want to use this life that God has so richly blessed me with for His purposes; which I know are so much greater than my own! And Lord, please help me not to be a Smart-Mouth, but to use my words wisely - to always build up and encourage others, and not participate in gossip. 

I want to chew on and meditate on your word every day and every night. I desire to be like a strong tree with deep roots, bearing fresh fruit every month for You! Please lead me to streams of water, and may I take the time to rest beside them, so that I may water and nourish my soul with your word, and with time with you. I love the idea of always being in blossom, Lord! Always growing and blossoming like a beautiful flower, so that all the world can see your good works through me, and your strength in my weaknesses!!! Align my hopes, dreams, and desires with Yours, and to Your will for my life Lord. Thank you for your many, many blessings in this life. In Jesus' name, amen!!!

Certification!

I earned my HubSpot Inbound Marketing Certification today!!! So excited!!! :D 

Gua Sha - Looks Bad, Feels Great!!!

Disclaimer: These are not pictures of torture; they are pictures of self-inflicted healing I performed on myself (and it felt great!):

These images might LOOK painful, but they are actually the result of a powerful ancient healing technique called Gua Sha. It is a method of healing that uses a flat or spoon-like tool that is used with lubrication (such as oil or lotion) to "scrape" (Gua) against the skin, typically along the energetic meridians of the body. This produces red and purple petichae (Sha) on the skin, which are areas where the body has stagnation of energy, blood, or heat. Similar to cupping, the scraping action helps to release all the stagnation and toxins, which result in the Sha marks on the skin. These marks are not painful, and I always feel AMAZING once treatment is done!!! This session was done to ward off a bug I felt I was coming done with, and it helped tremendously! I also like to use it to help get my lymphatic system moving, especially during these cold winter months when I am not moving as much as I do in warmer times. I highly recommend it for healing and for general health and wellness!

Foggy like an October Morning

I am finally learning to accept it: my new normal. I had always heard about people "finding" their "new normal" after cancer treatment, but I always figured life would just go back to being exactly how it was before. But it never does, as you come out of it a different person than you were going into it. I tend to get hung up on the few frustrating things, instead of focusing on all the good things (of which there are MANY, thankfully).

For me, the most frustrating thing is the brain fog! Before I started cancer treatment, I did have some brain fog from my autoimmune issues, but nothing like it is now. I had been doing well, until I started Tamoxifen again a few weeks ago (thankfully I am not crazy depressed this time - praise the Lord!). I feel like my body is running around doing things, going through the motions, yet my brain is stuck in molasses. Good days (no brain fog) feel like my thoughts are running through water, they just move in and out and around with little resistance, and are pretty easy to control. Bad days (very foggy) make me feel like I have Jello for a brain - thoughts come in and get stuck. Very stuck. And when I can manage to think through things, they leave a sticky trail like a slug...which is not only gross, but gunks up my brain more.

Ok that was kinda random...but anyways! This graphic pretty much sums it up:


It frustrates me because it slows me down sometimes, and anyone who knows me knows that I DESPISE moving slow, going slow, or anything slow in general. I like speed and efficiency (I'm a typical goat Capricorn, ain't I? lol). Thankfully all my friends and family say they don't notice it (or they are just being REALLY nice), which is AWESOME; but I still feel it, and it is frustrating to me, as it slows me down. I can't explain things as well as I would like to. I am not as talkative as I used to be (which may be a good thing! lol). I get overwhelmed and overstimulated VERY easily. Etc etc...

Outside of my frustrations with  myself at work, there is one thing that drives me nuts about the brain fog more than any other: my social skills. I have a LOT more social anxieties than I used to (which I didn't really have any previously). Going to the grocery store gives me great anxiety - for no good reason. As with many of my anxieties, I cannot pinpoint why these things give me anxiety, I just know they do. I manage to work through them, and they are getting easier with time (and special thanks to Austin for helping me navigate the scary grocery store, and loading up the items onto the conveyor belt for me...that is the scariest part! #facepalm).

The other aspect of my "social skills" that drives me nuts is my communication skills...this was never something I was great at anyways lol! I've always been terrible about returning phone calls (as in, I rarely return them), but I used to be pretty good about returning texts, emails, FB messages, etc. Nowadays, I am not even good about that! I often compose or reply to a message in my head, but never actually send it. Some days, I am too tired, and I will try to think of a response, and I just can't form the words; and my perfectionist self doesn't want to just send a hurried response. Other days, I simply forget. While I used to be able to just quickly reply, now days all my responses are typically pretty well thought out. Which is probably a good thing, but it slows me down.

Anyways, I just want you all to know that you are often in my thoughts, and always in my prayers. And thanks for always being supportive and understanding...I have the best family, friends, and coworkers a girl could have!!!  <3

This One's for You, Cara

It is with a heavy, heavy heart I wrote this post. I've been mentally writing blogs in my head over the past few months, but haven't had the actual drive to sit down and write one. I honestly don't know if I can find the words to say, however this one needs to be written.

My beautiful friend Cara (this pic is of us at the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer breakfast last August) finished kicking cancer's ass last year. She did not let several rounds of intense chemo, followed by a mastectomy, and then a clinical trial (maybe radiation, etc, I cannot remember) slow her down - this chick has been running marathons since then! Before I even met her I had a bond with her, as she had the Natalie healing chair for her mastectomy recovery (I love all those women, it's a special bond I will never be able to describe...the Healing Chair is a sisterhood unlike any other, even just the regular breast cancer sisterhood...it's amazing). Cara is an amazing woman, friend, wife, and mother. Even as she was doing treatment, she sent me things like cards made by her first grade class (which I still have, and are FREAKING adorable). I pulled those cards out last night and looked through them, after I heard the news. For all those who are not Cara, here are my thoughts and feelings, and how you can help (prayer and encouragement please, and etc); and Cara...these are my words to you, and please excuse the profanity.

Cara, I can't even imagine having heard this news, and it physically pains my heart to think about it. You go in for some simple stomach aches, and come out with the news that you have tumors on your liver and both lungs now?! Stage 4 metastatic triple-negative breast cancer.

Fuck you, cancer. Fuck you.

I am angry and sad and scared for you, and your family. And, of course, for myself. This is what all of us survivors fear, yet try not to live in fear of. You have inspired me so much, more than you will ever know. You and your husband are such incredible and positive people, and you take such good care of yourselves; how the fuck did this happen?! HOW?! I won't even begin to ask why. I have changed my own diet and lifestyle (more whole foods, gluten free and dairy free, almost completely given up alcohol [as it can increase my risk of recurrence 90% since my tumor was estrogen-positive], exercising more, stressing less, etc), but you were like PERFECT about all that (as far as I know). I feel guilty for complaining about "having to" make those changes, and about having to take tamoxifen. A little brain fog is nothing compared to that triple-negative bullshit you've had to deal with. I am a huge believer in spiritual warfare, and I am so thankful for yours and Josh's examples of incredibly strong faith. I cannot thank you both enough for you guys just being who you are. I am just pissed off that you have to deal with this; yet I know if anyone can fight this shit, it will be you. I know God "gives" (I don't believe he GIVES them to us, Satan does, but I know God will use this journey for good) his toughest battles to his toughest warriors, and you are the toughest warrior I have ever met (besides my grandma, who has kicked stage-4 ovarian cancer's ass twice...thus, I know you can do it too...as she is still alive and kicking 10 years later). Ok sorry that was so rambly, but I wanted you and the world to know how fucked up cancer is, and how we need a cure for all types of cancer.

Fuck you, cancer. You've messed with the wrong woman twice now - she will KICK YOUR ASS AGAIN.

Here is info on how to help...I will be ordering a shirt, please let me know if you want one as well!!!!! And please please PLEASE keep them in your thoughts and prayers <3

Much More Than Conquerors

Ahhh, verse mapping!!!  I love it...Breaking down scripture is so refreshing and satisfying!  It's one of my favorite activities that helps me better understand scripture, and grow closer to God.

Romans 8:31-39 was my reading for today.  There is SOOOO much to unpack in this passage, but what really caught my attention this morning was verse 37:

"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us." (NIV) 

At first, I just read through it like "OK cool, God loves us and we conquer stuff through him and his love ok yup yeah cool."  Then something told me to go back, and dig deeper...

I tend to think in short bursts (what I call "bullet-point style" lol); this is also how I do my verse mapping.  So if you can follow me, here we go :)

• "All these things" - In the passage, this is relating to the previous verses in the chapter, regarding condemnation, trouble, hardship, and persecution.  In the bigger picture relating to daily life, it relates to anything and everything in life (including hardships and troubles). 
• "We are" - Not "we might be," but WE ARE (and YOU ARE!).  No question about it!  
• Conquerors: 
• A conqueror is a person who conquers (I know, that's a tough one to grasp!).  
• Conquer means to: 
1. Overcome and take control of (a place or people) by use of military force 
2. Successfully overcome (a problem or weakness)
3. Climb (a mountain) successfully 
• This can be interpreted to mean that through him (God) and his love, we can conquer and overcome anything and everything.  We can conquer any problems.  We can successfully overcome any addictions, struggles, weaknesses, health issues, financial issues, anything can be overcome with God's love!!!  
• Now, what's even more awesome is that it doesn't stop there.  No, the Bible tells us "we are more than conquerors."  Not only can we overcome our problems and issues, but we are so much more than that!  We will not only survive through our problems, but we will truly thrive through (and after) our problems!  

With God's love, anything is possible.  We can conquer and overcome any setback, any issue, any problem, any frustration, anything and everything!  His love is how I've overcome many problems in life, including cancer, and how I will continue to push forward in life!  

"'If you can?' said Jesus.  'Everything is possible for one who believes.'"  ~Mark 9:23 (NIV)

Never forget you're an overcomer!!!  <3  God bless :)