New Year's Plans
The photo above is of my planner for 2021. I couldn’t find a planner that had everything I wanted to include or one that was going to work for me, so I created my own this year. I could personalize it, so I put One Day at a Time on the side. It’s been my ultimate goal throughout my entire cancer journey, and it is the greatest lesson I have learned from having cancer. I brought my planner to chemo today to start planning some goals for the new year. My Grandpa Seibert taught me the importance of always having goals. So, here I am this morning, all settled into Chemo with my planner. My appt. is for 8:00 a.m., and I am among the first of the patients for the day, so, hopefully, I will be in and out of here in record time today. I got to choose a seat next to the window today, and the sun is out and shining in on me. I’m warm and comfortable, and I’m ready to get refueled. The new year is coming, and after some great scan results, I am hopeful going into the new year. I’ve been reflecting on the past year and planning for the year ahead. While I was sitting in the waiting room, I was reading Maria Shriver’s Sunday Paper. There was a “to be” list included so that you could make your own “to be” list. I started thinking about what I would write on mine. I looked at an example by Jenna Dewan. Oh her list, she had written: I want to be thriving, not just surviving. I loved it! And I stole it for the top of my “to be” list.
So, that is my mantra for the new year: I will not only survive 2021, I will thrive! I have also been thinking of my words for the new year. For my cancer journey, my words have been “faith” in 2019 and “hope” in 2020. This year, my word is going to be “peace.” I feel very at peace with where I am at on my journey, with whatever will be, and with God. And my word for this year is going to be “overcome.” I am going to focus on overcoming my fears and anxieties and cancer. And I feel overcome with faith, hope, peace and gratitude. I worked hard this past year to get things lined up for the worst case scenario, so I am just going to relax and enjoy each day this year, working on the things I still want to accomplish slowly and with joy and one day at a time.
I received an early Christmas present in the mail yesterday from one of my friends that I am wearing at Chemo today – a necklace that reads Just Keep Swimming. And while getting back to swimming is one of my goals in the new year, I also want to focus on Just Keep Swimming through this cancer journey. Swimming is a great analogy for me because it is a tough workout, but it is also exhilarating and refreshing. I literally focus on Just Keep Swimming. With each pull, I tell myself to enjoy the swim despite always looking forward to the end of the swim -- enjoy the solitude, the sounds of the water and of silence, the gentle movement of the waves. And while swimming ultimately makes me stronger, it is the swim that matters. The swim is what makes the end so invigorating and fulfilling. And while this cancer journey makes me stronger, I need to slow down, breathe, pace myself and enjoy each day instead of constantly looking to and wondering about the future. I want “to be” present fully in each day. I want “to be” thriving while I’m surviving!
Merry Christmas, everyone, and Happy New Year! Stay safe, and stay healthy, and I’ll write again in the new year!