Mommy, I need a new pair of shoes! by Lisa Frazeur

Sher has presented this first exercise prompt so beautifully!  I needed a project that could catapult me into a new journey.  As you may know, I was diagnosed with breast cancer in August of 2011 and went through a double mastectomy on Halloween of that year - how appropriately dated.  I finished chemotherapy in June of 2012, but the snowball rolling downhill didn't really collapse until November of last year when I finally lost my job.  I am no longer a cancer patient.  I am no longer a medical transcriptionist.  I feel like I have lost so much of my identity.  My confidence feels like mashed potatoes - but there is much more to me than what these last two years have shown.  I am an artist.  I am a writer.  I am a good mother.  I needed a reminder, a project like this TO GET ME BACK ON MY FEET!  I don't know what shoes I need to put on next.  I think they must be the most comfortable shoes I have ever worn - they must be healing, they must soften and smooth the pain of walking on burning coals for so long and, most importantly, I must quit re-igniting those same coals over and over again with all of my negative self talk, doubt and whining! I need a pair of shoes that will help me through the day instead of ones that weigh me down, continue to burn and scar me, destroying the beauty that awaits before me.  I have a feeling these new shoes will look pretty funny - and the thing that has been missing in my life for so, so long is a good sense of humor. I used to have one.  I would like to get it back!  I am so thankful for this new opportunity - a safe and encouraging place to JUMP!