Quiet outside and in

So it turns out that it is possible to still my mind (at least the most insistent, annoying, repetitive parts) provided that adequate distraction is available and I am feeling self-disciplined. This past weekend I took a break from making myself crazy and went away for the weekend. The rules were simple: 1) no talking about cancer; and 2) no thinking about cancer.

Rule number one was a wild success. I don't think I brought the topic up once. Okay, maybe just one time, in passing. But that's it. Rule number two was more complicated. I couldn't stop the thoughts from appearing, but I was very conscious of not allowing them to hover and take me away from what I was doing, let alone ruin a moment. Entire hours might have gone by where I did not think what does that bruise mean? Or I wonder how they will treat me if I relapse? Or I really really really don't want to get sick again!

The Valley of Cocora, as you will see below is green and beautiful and peaceful and I am grateful (to my travelling companion, as well as the great big universe) that I was able to experience it, and feel a little bit of that peace within myself, if only briefly.