Ticks can be good things ...

I was taking a shower and I found a mole type bump on my shoulder. I kept looking at it and then I would look up at the ceiling, then I would look back at it and then back up to the ceiling ... I was trying to remember if that was there before and if it was was it that big. I finally decided no and then the thoughts started racing thru my mind. Oh my gosh I can't go vehicle hunting tomorrow I have to go to the doctor ... I can't believe this, I can't have cancer ... when Judy's friend found a bump on her shoulder she died in only a few months ... what about Jennifer, how am I going to help with the kids if I have cancer ... I cannot believe this, finally retiring and everything is great and now cancer ... how can I have cancer, I eat right and I drink odwalla ... how can this be? Then out of the corner of my eye I realize it is only attached partially. Oh so it is a scab ... how did I get a scab, anyway I tried to pull it off and at that point I thought ... It is a tick! I called Megan to the bathroom and when she started doing the ewwwwweeee dance (she hates ticks) it was confirmed for me ... it was a tick ... not the C word! She pulled it off with tweezers and then bragged on me! "Mom, I can't believe how calm you were, you never freaked out about that tick!" I said well of course I was calm ... it was only a tick!" She said, "Only a tick?!!" And I said, "Yea, I thought it was cancer!" ;)

I made a few observations after this event. First, it is interesting to note that all of that in the previous paragraph took place in at most 3 minutes. It is amazing how the mind works and how it can process that much information so quickly.

Second, it also is a lesson in perspective. On any other day a tick would have had me doing the ewwwweeeee dance. On this day a tick was the best thing in the world!

Lastly, whenever I have heard about someone I know having cancer I have often wondered what goes through their minds that moment that they find the lump or whatever the symptom may be. I have always felt like I would be very calm ... ya know que sera sera ... but I do not think that is the case now. There is just too much to live and live healthy for ... like those Grandkids setting up camp here soon!

Be healthy everyone!