NJM27: People Are Watching in These Foolish Things

I am connected via Instagram with a woman who is suffering from not one, but two different cancers simultaneously. Her doctors don’t have a plan on how to treat her just yet. But I watch her get after it every single day. She works out, sometimes two times a day. She is the healthiest eater I’ve ever seen (she posts all of her meals and her workouts in her stories), and every single day she posts these amazing “cheers” (for lack of a better word). She rejoices that she is alive every day. It blows my mind and I’m just in awe.

Tonight, while posting some amazing vegetables she wrote, “Why eat this way, move so much, work so hard at living right now? Because I don’t want to give up. My first reaction when I got the second cancer diagnosis this year was to give up. I donated 90+% of my belongings, moved in with family, even deleted my LinkedIn. I expected to just go–poof–quickly. I gave in to despair. It’s not toxic positivity. It’s the gritty desire to flourish for as long as I can. It’s a tenacity I didn’t know I had.”

I sent her a message via DM: You are AMAZING

She wrote back: That is what I think YOU are

And then she continued: I remember when I was first on IG and so full of despair and trying to find even the smallest things to remind me that life is good – and every day you were there in your stories taking your walk and explaining what was happening and it just gave me so much hope bc I could not really do anything yet after my surgery but there you were walking and confident

I replied: Oh my goodness! I didn’t know

She said: It really spurred me to keep going and think I could still do things. In my physical world my people were negative and full of doom-filled predictions and frightening talk. And you were a tremendous influence for the light and positive when my zip code world was collapsing. So thank you so much

Me: What you just noted means EVERYTHING to me. Because I was scared and watching others on IG just like you were watching me. I saw people out there living their lives and seemingly thriving while I was scared, but I kept going. I figured if they could do it then I certainly could too. So now I watch you and I’m so impressed with how you are moving and grooving and getting it every day! It KEEPS me going! This is circular. Keep going! People are watching

It truly is circular. You just never know who is watching. I’m so amazed and honored to know that I’ve helped others just through telling my own story.

Keep going,
GS