Facing Our Fears

I am approached rather often about featuring products here on the old blog, and I am getting pretty selective about what I want to bring to your attention.  I love you, peeps, and really only want to bring quality products and causes your way.  So when I read the following story, I thought...now that's something we can all get behind!

Let me introduce you to Heather.  Here's her story:

My name is Heather and I am an 8-year survivor of mesothelioma – a rare cancer caused by asbestos exposure. When I was diagnosed, I had just given birth to my little girl and was told I had 15 months to live. I was just 36 years old. People that young aren’t supposed to get mesothelioma, but I did. When I was a girl, I wore my dad’s work coat all the time. It was covered in asbestos from his construction job.

After undergoing a risky surgery, which required the removal of my left lung, I beat the odds and created Lung Leavin’ Day as a way to commemorate this day that changed my life forever.  Lung Leavin’ Day is now used to encourage others to face their fears! One important thing cancer taught me is the importance of acknowledging these apprehensions that prevent us from living life to the fullest extent. Each year on February 2, friends and family gather at my house for a bonfire where we write our fears on plates and smash them into the fire.

In an interview she gave Heather said, "The main idea of Lung Leavin' Day is not to give your fears power in your life. It is to have power over those fears; to accentuate the positive, not the negative." (Read more here).

I love that Heather turned this tragic experience into a day for celebrating courage.  Not all of us have had to face down cancer (though many of us have, or will).  But don't we all have our share of fears?  Don't we all walk around burdened by too much worry over what might be, what could happen, and what the prognosis is?  This Sunday, February 2nd, is Lung Leavin' Day, when Heather smashes her fears into a bonfire.  I hope you will use it as an opportunity to smash some of your own fears.  You can start at this amazing website, which Heather has created so you can smash your own virtual plate:

I went and smashed a plate, and it was so much fun I am thinking about doing a real one.  Who's with me?