Sunshine and Bees.

Tags

business, cancer, chemotheropy, desease, garage, hope, life, police, scanner, treatment

Do you ever just stop, look and listen to the natural world. Listen to the bees buzzing, watch the birds communicating as they sing their chorus. Appreciate the smell of the flowers in the garden, gaze in wonder at all that has been created. I often look out of our window at the birds feeding at the bird station. My wife always buys thes coconut shells filled with fat that the birds love. But then today I was wondering why I appreciated the small things so much, why I appreciated the smells and the world of nature. How I had become so grateful for my surroundings. Well I guess the answer to that is simple, and obvious.

I know what it’s like to be unable to smell the flowers, to watch the bees. I know what it’s like not to be able to here the birds. It was only 3 weeks where I experienced life unable to hear the birds  the bees and the wind russling between the leaves. To be unable to smell the sweet fragrance of flowers in my garden. I was not even able to feel the sunshine on my face such was the reality of the small room I was cooped up in. But you know what, I am grateful I have had that experience in that room isolated from the world. With my I pad my wife (during the day) and the days on fan that kept me cool at night times. Because I can hear the birds today, I can smell the flowers today, I can hear the birds chatting in the morning.

Life is without doubt a precious gift, one that we never truly appreciate until we are not able to experience life with all of its senses. Is then life not a gift to you to me, to all the creatures that roam the earth. Are we not all fortunate and blessed that we have air to breath and eyes to see. I have found myself not being bothered about what is going on in someone else’s world, found myself becoming a curtious driver. I have found giving gives me a great deal of pleasure, where as before it was what I wanted that as most important. 

Right now there is a valeter disrupting all this tranquility with his loud jet washer. But hey, it seems to make no differance to the birds. They still sing, they are still playing in the trees, and seem happy to be alive. The point is, the birds and the bees don’t care what we do, they just carry on enjoying what they can. Accepting the world they live in for what it is, take a moment to pause today and admire the world that’s all around us. Take a moment to appreciate what you do have rather than what you don’t have. After all, what we have today is a gift. A gift to be enjoyed appreciated and cherished. But will you? Do you? A year ago today I had no option but to continue life with out the enjoying senses that I have been given. One thing I did do though, because I was able to. That was to encourage my fellow man to keep on keeping on, what ever that path maybe. Blogging 365 times in as many days. 

I hope you find time to enjoy what is all around you today, enjoy what you do have.

Fonz

http://www.fonzandcancer.com

Follow me on Twitter

@fonzmark

Email – fonzicloud@icloud.com

Our support group on our FB

Cancer stories (people helping people through experience) 

It’s a group where people’s experiences are used to encourage others. 

Everything you read are based on my own experience and my own opinions. I express them here to encourage you. Please share with others, if it meant something to you it will to someone else. All images are from a Google search. Or my own.

Copyright © 2016

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Extraordinary.

Tags

amputatee, chemotheropy, desease, extraordinary, faith, games, hope, invictus, love, premier, self

Invictus games, funny how spell check wants to change that to “I victims”  but what does extraordinary mean to you. One of my friends wrote on face book the other day. 

COMMON…..being “common” is a very easy way to “fit it”, listen to common people, doing what common people do, living how common people live, going to common places,driving common cars,living in common houses, having a common bank acount…….I preferr to listen and take advice from EXTRAORDINARY people, so I can live an extraordinary life,go extraordinary places, drive extraordinary cars,live in extraordinary houses, have a extraordinary bank acount…….so the extraordinary becomes my “common”!!

The man that wrote that, had his career cut short. He was at the top of his game and someone I respected greatly and respect greatly to this day. You see it’s not what happens to us that make extraordinary people just that. It’s our response to what happens in our life that makes us who we then become. Many times in my life I have heard or even said. “I can’t because” I hate those three words, I even despise them.  But I have learnt to see those words as as a way to show the world I CAN. That attitude is how things get done. Now please don’t get me wrong, I don’t think I am extraordinary. But I do know how it feels to do an extraordinary thing. To beat cancer twice is extraordinary in anyone’s book. To cheat death is an amazing thing. 

You have to then turn your thoughts to the up and coming invictus games where there are many many people that will be competing in a games invented by an extraordinary Prince Harry. There are many many people on this planet where we can gain encouragement from. Doing something extraordinary starts with one step, it is a choice to become something or achieve something no matter what the world throws at us. 

Anyone that beats the odds are amazing in my book, you don’t need to have an extraordinary bank account to be extraordinary. But you do have to be willing to make the first step forwards. That choice is yours.

Fonz

NED.

Tags

beat, cacer, Cancer stories, cancers, desease, fight, live, NED, reality, survivor, win

I am a member of a group on Facebook, like the one I run. Only it’s a survivors group for people that have had cancer in the neck and or head. It’s a great group, people offer support for each other and share their own experiences. As you all know I thrive off making seemingly negative situations into positive ones. Life is a learning curve and on our journeys there are words and phrases I am learning even abbreviations. Like this blog is. 

  

I read about a persons worry, that they were to have their test tomorrow to make sure cancer was still at bay. She continued to write please pray for NED. I could not work out why she was calling herself NED, her name did not abrieviate to that. Had to use my friend Google to find out, it took a couple of scrolls to find out, that NED was actually very positive. It’s something every cancer sufferer, caregiver, and family member wants to hear for the person close to them. Something we all fight for, then hope to keep.

  

It’s amazing though that some people will never ever have to worry about what NED means. If it means nothing to you, then I am very pleased for you. Because you obviously have lived life with (No Evidence of Desease) how fortunate a position to be in, to not have to fight to rid yourself something life threatening. Your in a privalaged position right. Well that got me thinking how I think, I won’t listen to negativity, do my best not to involve myself in negativity, and do my best to offer constructive statements.  What if though that by knowing what it’s like to become NED! We enjoy living life more, because I know for sure that I want to enjoy each day that I live all the more.

  

Isn’t life about speaking life to each other, let’s use an example. Something someone said to me today.  You choose which of these questions is best.

“Are you recovering from your holiday”

“I hope you enjoyed your holiday”

One expects a positive response the other a negative one. The one a person chooses to say is how they exspect life to treat them. I personally like to go on holiday to relax not to become ill, although on this occasion being stuck on the apron for 4 1/2 hours being served warm water in economy, has most certainly made us both unwell. 

I am most certainly on the mend from my infection, which is a relief. But learning what NED means is what I want for everyone, what I hope for for everyone. I guess it does start with our attitude to life, how we responded to situations in life up to this point. I for one feel fortunate that I go for the positive bless people approach and I learnt this way because I had to become NED. It’s because I had to fight for NED that I realise what the outcome of positivity can bring. That makes me thankful to have had cancer, and thankful that I am now myself NED. Please remember those that are fighting to be NED themselves in your prayers.  Whilst if you are NED being grateful for each day we have with no evidence of Desease.  Life is for living, for loving those in it, giving positivity where ever possible. 

  

Thank God for NED.

Have a great day

Mark

http://www.fonzandcancer.com

Follow me on Twitter

@fonzmark

Everything you read are based on my own experience and my own opinions. I express them here to encourage you. Please share with others, if it meant something to you it will to someone else. It took me an hour to write, but will take you a second to share.

Do what you say.

Tags

ability, belief, boxing, can, cancer, desease, fighter, focus, reality, will, winner, world cup

It can be rewarding to achieve anything, achievement starts with doing what we say. It starts by making that step forwards in self belief,  it’s the same when fighting a disease. When having to have a battle that we did not expect, or that’s got in the way of life. A big bill we did not expect, a family situation where we have to all pull together. There is always someone worse off that ourselves, someone having more to deal with than ourselves. Who do we help really by having our head in our hands, unless we are concentrating on what our next move will be.

  
Life for me, is about making a choice and moving forwards with the focus in mind to achieve what we set out to do. I have personally without doubt had to do different things to what I intended on doing in the last 5 years. There are things I have said I will do that I have not done as yet, although those things are still in my mind to do.  My focus has been on my health, been on beating the disease that has, as some would see as a hinderance. I don’t see it like that however, I see my cancer that came to take my life as a honing process. That I have chosen to learn from the situations i/we have found ourselves in, to choose to be a better person, to choose to stand up and choose to beat this thing people call cancer.

  
When a fighter goes into the ring, he has to have trained hard for a long period of time. He has to be in the form of his life, a rugby player playing in the World Cup has trained for years to become the best they can be. Life sometimes does not give us the precious gift of time, but we do have our mind which helps us to make right choices. Shrugging our shoulders is not what winners are made of, but stepping forwards and doing what we say shows the substance of the person you look at in the mirror everyday.

   
You can be if you choose to be. Use the time you have to do what you say, you can without doubt achieve it. It’s down to you to say you CAN though, there will always be the people that will say you can’t. That was their choice that they made to say that, I say to you CAN because I know what it’s like to beat the odds. Focus on the positives that you have not the things you don’t. It’s a far happier way to live I think.

  
Have a great day

Mark

http://www.fonzandcancer.com
Follow me on Twitter
@fonzmark
Everything you read are based on my own experience and my own opinions. I express them here to encourage you. Please share with others, if it meant something to you it will to someone else. It took me an hour to write, but will take you a second to share.