Today is my 26th cancer-free anniversary!  I am a survivor!!!

Yep! 26 years ago, God took my leukemia filled body from being 95% cancerous to remission within just 8 days of diagnosis!  He is so good!!!

Yesterday, I started thinking about how I have spent so much time being worried and stressed.  I don’t believe God saved me 26 years ago to spend my days being weighed down by stress.  I have been having a “next 30 years” (like the song by Tim McGraw) couple of days thinking about how I don’t want to spend my next 26 years under the load of worry and stress that I have had for most of the past 26 years.

I don’t want to feel hurried anymore.  I want to slow down and simplify my life so that I can enjoy all of the ways God has blessed me without  feeling like I am already running late for the next thing on my never ending list of things to do.  I don’t mind being busy, but I am tired of feeling rushed and not getting to be mindful and enjoy whatever activity that I currently doing.  I want to show my kids that life is a blessing not a never ending, stress filled, worry inducing to-do list.

Okay, so easier said than done – I get that.  I am still going to try to find greater joy in this life that God has given me.  I am going to try to show more grace to those around me and especially to myself.  I am going to try to listen and look for the positive and let the negative run off my back.  I am going to choose to embrace the crazy and the chaos when the choice is laughter or stress.  I am going to try to reduce and simplify my schedule so that I have time to play and rest – so I am not always scurrying from one thing to the next without even being able to enjoy them.

I am a survivor!  I want to start living like it!!