3 years after diagnosis: new home, new life, big love

three years ago this month, i discovered i had breast cancer. it seems like an eternity ago!

since the very minute i moved back to davis, i have had a funny familiar feeling that i couldn't place, i haven't felt it in so long (hello, stuart!). today, after a 2-hour walk starting at 6:30 a.m. through olive-tree paths and next to cornfields, then a long morning at the very busy farmers' market, then the most delicious padt gaprow at sophia's thai restaurant, i realized it's the feeling of first falling in love--you know when you feel floaty and glowy and electric and quietly ecstatic?? that's how i feel about being here. i just cannot believe how lucky i am to be in davis again and feel this feeling of huge love!

what i have been doing every day:

> swimming in the hot afternoons and late at night in the pool!
> listening to geese flying north, a sound i've missed for 3 years in reno
> listening to the swishing of palm fronds way up in the sky towering over my home
> rocking in my rocking chair on my deck, which is just like living in a treehouse, engulfed by trees
> seeing friends i've missed for a long time
> walking and walking and walking and walking and walking and walking through the countryside, blissed out to be back in an environment i love so much

yesterday at the pool i was joined by a french woman who has lived here for 15 years. she's a little older than i, with beautiful curly silver hair and a glowing, gorgeous face. we chitchatted about the usual - and then she mentioned she had cancer. started with stage 3 ovarian cancer which recurred, two bouts of chemo. so we had quite a bit to talk about--no longer chitchat, but getting right to the quick - about what cancer has brought to our lives, how much we appreciate life more than ever, and how grateful we are that our children are grown. i am always amazed by how many of us have had and still have cancer. an interesting brotherhood/sisterhood.

unless something cancer-y comes up, i have no more doctor visits or lab work to even think about until next year. i plan to spend this coming year staying in love and being blissed out! i'm going to volunteer with Yolo County Hospice and also get very involved with photography again. tomorrow i'm buying a sea foam green cruiser bicycle! la vie est belle!

xoxoxo