Debut

I am both excited and nervous about my first public speaking opportunity. There is going to be an education day for metastatic breast cancer patients on April 25th. It will be a conference focused on the care and concerns of women and families dealing with beast cancer mets. Speakers will be talking about nutrition, treatments and ways to make things more comfortable and positive.

I kind of stuck my nose into this event, volunteering to help in any way needed. I feel a strong tie to this group of women as they have the same disease and diagnosis that Coleen had. They are all staging the same battles Coleen fought, they have the same demons and the same hopes. Coleen was part of the support group that inspired this event and many people that will be attending knew her as a friend and sister in survival. I was never at the support group meetings but I know that Coleen would have made her presence known at them. She was not the kind of girl to keep things to herself and whatever resources she had would have been shared with everyone. Coleen would have had compassion and hope and encouragement for all the women there. Last year she organized a field trip to Rochester to attend a similar event held by the Breast Cancer Coalition of Rochester and drove several women from the support group there. It was just one of the many ways she had of reaching out to help people and make everything a little bit better.

A few weeks ago, the support group heard the message of “Letting Go” that I discovered in yoga class. Coleen’s friend (and mine) Barb, read it to the group after I sent it to her. Barb told me that everyone loved the message and it made everybody cry. The support group facilitator is also the person organizing the “Strategies for Hopeful Living” education day. Her name is Chris and I have met her on a couple of occasions. Chris extended me the opportunity to close her conference by reading the “Letting Go” message to the audience. She knew it would probably be a difficult thing for me to do and after presenting the idea, she asked me to think about it. Which I did for about 20 seconds before replying that I would be very, very honored to do the reading.

Talk about a tough debut. That reading is emotional all by itself even if there is nothing going on in your life. For me, knowing the mystical way I first heard it and what the words mean to me, it will be a challenging read. At times I am very strong emotionally and at other times, I kind of come apart. I feel up to the task, though and I am thrilled to be able to contribute to such a wonderful occasion. I will be doing it in Coleen’s honor and to help with everyone’s healing. Including my own. And I’m sure I won’t be alone that day either.

I helped design the announcement flier for the conference, too. So if anyone wants to attend, here’s the info.

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