The Victoria Show

Got a little bit behind the last couple days, but it was for good 'living life' reasons. A very good friend of mine came into town all the way from Minnesota to visit. We ate lots of good food, got caught up on the superhero movies at the theater, had a quick trip to the beach along with hot dogs and milkshakes, chilled and caught up with great conversations, did tea time with friends, and even fit in a little dancing. It was a great weekend.

Of all the things we talked about over the weekend, cancer was at the bottom of the topic percentage. And that suited me just fine. At the beginning of this year I had to learn that it was okay for things to be 'all about me' for a while. I'm the type of person that doesn't do a lot just for me; I'm much happier doing for other people, especially those I care about. So shifting to taking a lot more than I was giving was a difficult transition to navigate. Although I've become more adept at this, it feels terribly good sometimes to be able to turn the tables back to others. To turn off the Victoria Show and place my attention outward. I have come to expect a certain amount of cancer talk to happen at the beginning of most conversations. Everyone wants to touch base and get an idea of how things are, and they deserve to know. Oftentimes I find myself ready to turn the conversation toward any other topic. Cancer talk has become a bit tiresome; I think, read or talk about it everyday, and have been for over six months. I'm bored of it and am often surprised that others are not. Instead I am truly interested in how your day went, about that little annoyance that tweaked you yesterday, and that silly thing that made you laugh this morning.

The thing is, I want to hear about your troubles. You may not feel that they are at the OMG! level of cancer, but they are still troublesome and frustrating and worthwhile. And I am very happy to hear about them. Cancer is not a stick by which I measure anything, especially not conversation topics. Yeah it sucks that I have a crappy disease, but that is not the only thing going on in the world. It shouldn't diminish any other topic. My loved ones are going through a lot of difficult things themselves (loss of friends/family/chickens, mystery pains, menopause) and I want to be there for them as much as they are there for me. Relationships are two-way streets and I am so happy to do my share of the driving. So ask away about me and I will be happy to cancer talk as long as you like... but let's also talk about you and that book, movie, news story, cat video, headline, everything that we used to talk about. I'm just happy to spend time and share with you.