Aside from the negative press that Lance Armstrong received when he was found guilty of ‘doping’ in bike racing, he did start a good program – Livestrong. There is a local Livestrong program in Fargo, ND at the YMCA. Another cancer survivor mentioned it to me and said that I really must go. So, I signed up for the 12 week class. It works on strength, endurance and getting back some of what might have gotten lost along the cancer journey. I had my first class on Tuesday. I had no idea what to expect. There were 12 cancer survivors, 12 ‘support people’- loved ones of the survivors and 3 trainers. They did a baseline assessment to see where we are at as far as strength, flexibility, balance and endurance. Then they will group us based on our results.

This was another one of those “out of my comfort zone” moments. It’s a group of people who I hadn’t met before – would I feel like I’m enough? Good enough, nice enough, strong enough, friendly enough etc. You know what? It doesn’t matter. It only matters that I am going. I am trying to be more fit, and that makes me enough. If we don’t stretch ourselves to go outside of our comfort zone, we will miss out on so much in life. Many of those things that end up being amazing come out of those places we didn’t think we’d go. It turns out that one of the ladies who was at my table for the Embrace seminar is also in this class. One of the trainers is running friends with my husband. It really is a small world, you just need to talk to people to learn that.  So, for today I will still push myself to be better but I will also try to be enough.

After being diagnosed with breast cancer, having surgery, radiation, breaking my foot and having a hysterectomy, I felt the need to continue writing. The journaling through CaringBridge was very therapeutic to me and helpful to my family. It was a great place to keep people informed of my health status and updates. Now that I am moving beyond the active treatment phase, I am hoping that my continued positive attitude and insights can be helpful in some way. My blog name of “Positively Hopeful” was already taken, so with the help of others, I came up with “Journey of Enough”. While my cancer journey was one part of my life, it’s only one part. We are all on a journey of some kind and I’m guessing we’ve all felt ‘not quite enough’ at times. Not good enough, smart enough, tall enough, thin enough, fit enough, kind enough – you get the idea. We sell ourselves short in a lot of ways (no pun intended – I’m only 5’2″ so I am short). We sell ourselves short in the fact that we don’t give ourselves credit for the good that we do. We don’t allow ourselves to be less than perfect, and in some ways that can be very damaging. Let’s change that. Let’s love where we are and encourage others along the way.

Follow me on my journey of enough.