"An Awakening"

by Karen Rice
(Houston, Texas)

When I was diagnosed with breast cancer a few years ago, I was like most people whose first thought was "it is a death sentence". However, I found out later it was truly "an awakening" for me, even after being diagnosed with "colon cancer" a few years later. I'm still here to tell about them.

I began questioning God. Why would He do this to me? What had I done so bad in life to have this placed upon me? But instead of bemoaning my fate, I decided to look for the positive side of this; there has to be a reason for it all.

I also realized that I was about to face a new beginning and a new hope and to do and see more with a whole new prospective on life. When I think of the "gift of life" that was given to me, I know that I will develop and gain strength from all my experiences. Even with the complications I now have to live with, and all the struggles I've dealt with all my life, "I still feel truly blessed".

For a while, I was unhappy with the way I look after my surgery, and the pain I had to endure each day, but one day I decided to snap out of it. I thought about the individuals that are no longer among us. I also realized that there will always be someone worse off than I am. I still have my life so who am I to complain?

One day I felt something of a miracle, where I had the compulsion to write it down. I took that experience and turn it into a poem and called it "Peace".

I took that poem, along with many others I had composed during my breast cancer period and placed them into book form. I was blessed enough to have that book published and it's titled, "True Simple Poems of Life, Faith and Survival".

I'm hoping that anyone who has the opportunity to read my poems get out of them, what I placed in all of them. My poems are from the heart, as real as any could ever be. With the words and phrases of each poem, I wish to make a positive impact on others similarly afflicted with tragedy and life threatening conditions. I hope it gives them the strength to embrace life in a whole new way.

I never anticipated becoming a writer, I just became one. I truly believe when you survive a horrific tragedy or a horrible disease such as cancer, it's for a reason. I have a purpose and I want to live and find out exactly what that is for me.

I recently had another inspirational children's book published and it's titled, "If Only I Could Fly, said Mattie-bee" and I'm working on my third. I would have never become a writer, producing inspirational stories, if I had not gone through all that I did.

I'm a true example that you can survive cancer, not once, but twice, providing you get to it in time. I'm not saying all will be easy, but you must have faith and allow that faith to direct your path. My experiences with cancer made me a true believer!