Statistics

I had a therapy session last night, and it's been awhile since I've gone. I count that as progress. For a couple weeks I've been deciding what I wanted to talk about because nothing seemed pressing (!). However, a constant theme that stuck with me since Jess passed away was an ever present feeling of doom; that I am going to die soon and when so, I'm definitely going to die of cancer.

Now, I know this is definitely a skewed perception, but I just could not make the feeling go away. As better as I was feeling, that was still hanging over my head. What better subject to talk to my therapist about. I explained that I'm pretty sure everybody is getting cancer now and it is taking over the world. It's all I ever hear about now. [Though cancer rates are gradually growing, I'm sure it hasn't gone all King Kong on the world yet....]. He related it to anything else we may have a deeper connection to in terms of how noticeable it becomes in our everyday life. For instance, you decide you would really like to purchase a red car. All of a sudden, all you see are red cars. Or, your great grandmother's restaurant closed after many years causing sadness to the family and all of a sudden all you notice are restaurant closures, feeling a deeper connection to those that do.

He told me that once I realized it was a fear, I would be able to allow myself to realize that there are plenty of healthy, vibrant people out there and to let the idea of those people in providing balance to this perception I have.  Again, he has provided me with a great tool.

Feeling great about this, I'm driving to work this morning listening to MPR (Minnesota Public Radio) as I recently have been doing more of (apparently, I want to know what's going on in the world now) and they just happen to have a cancer epidemiologist from the MN Dept of Health on the air talking about a growing cancer scare in a certain Minnesota city. In that discussion, he stated that fifty percent of Minnesotans will get cancer at some point in their lives. 50%!?! My jaw dropped. Maybe this isn't new news, but hearing that 1 in 2 statistic sort of confirmed my fear. I mean, that is a bit staggering. Granted that could mean anyone from 0-150 years old, but still. I even had to check the MDH website to see if I heard this right. Sure did. That means that my cancer nightmare isn't over yet.

HOWEVER, I am taking this new information and giving it to God. I can do as much as I can by living a clean and simple life, but beyond that is not up to me. I can live with that. And living is what I do best :)