Published!  A story I wrote about my personal experience with cancer was published in a cancer newsletter, What Makes You Stronger.   The full version is below for your eyes only:

I remember it well.  It was the 10^th day of work at my new job at one of the US’ top 10, fast-paced public relations agency.  It was late Friday afternoon.  I was engrossed in developing a new business proposal when the phone rang.  The voice was that of my breast specialist.

“Sharon, I didn’t want to let the weekend come without calling you first,” she said.  “The core biopsy shows that you have cancer.  My advice is for us to remove the tumor as soon as possible.”

That fateful day.  That fateful phone call.  I was 33.  I had breast cancer.

Just a couple of weeks before, I had felt some pain and a lump at the 12 o’clock position of my right breast.  Upon discovery, I found my way to the breast specialist.  She announced confidently that the lump I felt was probably fibrodenoma, a benign breast lump that was no cause for alarm.

“However,” she added, “just to be safe, I’ll do a needle biopsy for you.”  Well, that needle biopsy led to a core biopsy, and very quickly, to my cancer diagnosis.

After hanging up the phone, I walked out of my office, dazed.  I blurted out the news to Mary, my only colleague left in the office that Friday evening.  Mary leapt to her feet, gave me a big, protective hug, and tears began rolling down my eyes uncontrollably.

Soon, word spread to my circle of family, friends, colleagues and the larger community.  “What?!  This can’t be.  You’re too young!” was a typical reaction.  Indeed, life has thrown me a sour, sour lemon.  What confronted me next was the reality of facing my new life as a cancer patient head-on.

I had a lumpectomy within a week of my diagnosis, and because of my relatively young age and the fact that we haven’t had kids, the doctors recommended that I go through Invitro Fertilization prior to starting chemotherapy and radiation.  I injected myself at 10pm sharp every night to spur the proliferation of eggs in the uterus.  Under my husband’s loving watch, most of the injections were done in the safety of our home.  But on a memorable evening, with syringes in toll while on a company retreat, I wandered into public restroom in a crowded Las Vegas Hotel, and proudly carried out my nightly duty.

The IVF procedure was successful, and the doctors fertilized eight embryos.  So now, when anyone asks if I have kids, I tell them, “I have eight frozen ones!”

As soon as IVF was over, I started chemotherapy, one session every three weeks.  As soon as my hair started falling, I found myself on the barber’s chair, chopping them off before I lost them all.  Wigs and hats and scarves became my constant companions.  Throughout the chemo sessions, I continued working a full-time, sometimes-overtime schedule, with just a couple of days off around the chemo sessions.  I don’t know how I did it.  I pray never to have to go through this again, and pray for this dreaded disease not to befall upon any more family members.  After all, I was the third, after my parents, in my immediate family of five with a cancer diagnosis.

Radiation followed chemotherapy, and that lasted for almost two months.  When I thought life would resume to normal after radiation, I was greeted with another lemon – a scare on my MRI report, which then began a series of more doctors’ appointments and tests.

Is that another cancerous growth close to my original surgery site, or not?  We didn’t know for sure and the tests were inconclusive.  My only option now was to wait and go through another MRI in six months.

But in the meantime, I have decided that “when life throws you a lemon, let’s make lemonade!”  So, with the support of some friends and family, I threw a “Kiss Cancer Goodbye” party.  We rented a venue with a magnificent view of the lake.  A couple of girlfriends contributed with delicious, healthy, gourmet foods.  We had an on-site chair masseuse for all who desired relaxation.  Another friend, a belly-dancing teacher, dedicated a “dance of health” to me.  Then came a tear-jerker video presented by my journalist friend.  All present responded with love, and some with happy tears.  That was the best day of my life since my cancer diagnosis!

Now, on to making more lemonade.  After radiation, I was recruited to join the Exercise for Bone Health Clinical Study organized by the Northern California Cancer Center.  This study randomizes post-chemo treatment cancer survivors into an exercise or control group.  I was randomized into the exercise group and have since gained a personal trainer, a free YMCA membership and a three times a week exercise regimen.

Throughout the study, I feel I’m contributing to the welfare of future cancer survivors.  And for the very first time in my life, I am taking exercise seriously and benefiting greatly from it.  Radiation fatigue? No more!  Stronger bones?  Definitely!

Now, is trouble brewing?  Is cancer knocking?  Let’s make more lemonade!

###

Biography

Thankfully, that suspicious lump turned out to be benign and Sharon has been cancer-free for three years now.  Sharon is a public relations/management consultant and writer.  She lives in San Francisco with her husband, Dan, and cat, Pandora.  She can be reached at www.shotofinspiration.com.

This is a guest post by Jarie Bolander, Author of Frustration Free Technical Management.

Innovation and creativity are wrought with setbacks, stumbles and failure. All creative endeavors have that one point where all you want to do is stop. Stop working. Stop thinking. Stop worrying about the project. This place comes by many names – the wall, the edge or the brink.

Defining Moments

All artists, innovators and creative folk have defining moments that test their mental strength. These moments are brink moments when, for brief moments, we let the self doubt, insecurities and negativity get the best of us. These are the places we give up on our dreams. These are the places that make us not want to ever try again. How many of you have let these moments defeat you? How many of you just could not muster enough positive energy to push past this point? It’s sometimes hard to channel enough positive energy when trouble strikes. Remember all those negative people who told you that your dream was stupid. Can you visualize them? Shaking their head. Waving their finger. Telling you to go get a safe, secure, corporate job. Telling you that being an artist, poet, musician, writer or inventor is fine for a hobby, but a job, c’mon, that’s just crazy talk.

Teetering on the Edge

The brink is that defining moment where all hope is lost. Whatever you are working on is just not converging. It’s the point of exhaustion where going on seems impossible. This spot is the single most frustrating point in your life where you question everything. It’s a nasty cocktail of melancholy mixed with terror that feels like your whole world is collapsing in on itself. At this point, where all hope, dreams, desires and ego are on the brink of collapse, will be your most creative moment if you let it.

Embracing the Brink

Creative people need to embrace the brink and the defining moments it creates. The clarity that brink moments can bring is truly astonishing. The brink is the culmination of your creative process. It’s that last little push to finish your blog post, the marathon session to release your software or the one defining experiment that proves your invention. When you feel yourself teetering on the brink, wanting to give up, try these techniques to push past it:

1. Take a step back: Too often, we get wrapped up in a problem that we lose our objectivity. Take a step back. Let your mind rest and regroup. Then, attack the problem again.
2. Attack one problem at a time: Inventors sometimes face a myriad of challenges that hit them all at once. The desire is to attack them all at once. This method just distracts from the focus needed to solve difficult problems. The best method: list your problems and work on one at a time.
3. Adjust expectations: Reaching too far can create artificial barriers that should be carefully analyzed. It’s fine to delay a feature or adjust the form factor as long as progress to the end goal is being made.
4. Stop making it perfect: Probably the biggest barrier to all creative folks is the perfection fallacy. This mostly stems from critics that might look at your work and find a flaw. Well, get it over it. Most of them will never see the flaw – they will just be happy that you shared your work and ignore the critics – they are just jealous that you released something.
5. Set a deadline: Real artists release their work. Without releasing your work, you are not an artist, inventor or writer. Sharing your work is how you touch people.
6. Talk it through with a friend: Just talking through your challenges can inspire different approaches and ideas. Take a friend to coffee or drinks. Candidly discuss your setbacks and ask for advice.
7. Collaborate with someone else: Sometimes your art is just missing that one piece to make it whole. In these cases, it can do you a world of good to find another artist that can help complete your work. Even sharing credit for your work is far better than not releasing it at all.
8. Sacrifice something you enjoy till it’s done: Nothing will motivate you more than to sacrifice something you enjoy doing till you solve one problem or release your art.
9. Celebrate the little wins: The little wins will sustain you until you can push past the brink. In reality, the little wins will build into the big wins and that will lead to your success. So, celebrate a bit when all seems lost.

Embrace the Process

An important thing to remember is that some brink events will momentarily break you. Be ready to accept this, learn from it and move on. None of us is perfect. At times, we will fail but that does not mean we are failures. Whatever you create, the process of creation is also art. Embrace the fact that you put yourself out there, created something and let the world see it, even if it’s not perfect or not what you originally intended.

—-

About The Author

Jarie Bolander is an engineer by training and an entrepreneur by nature. He is presently working on breakthrough technology that will reduce medical errors. Jarie also blogs about innovation, management and entrepreneurship at The Daily MBA and has recently published his first book, Frustration Free Technical Management.  You can also follow him on Twitter @thedailymba

photo credit: lalouque

All things exist independently, yet interdependently.

Time: while the present exists in the here and the now, we can’t dismiss the shaping forces of our past, the consequences in our tomorrows.

Words: while letters are strung together to form words and sentences, they really come to life when we engage in the ideas and concepts conveyed.

Relationships: while two people in a marriage exist as two distinct individuals, these two people will also become one.

Learning about independence and interdependence teaches me a few things:

While I have the freedom to pursue happiness and self-fulfillment, I am at the same time very much a part of our larger world. I must not complain nor point a finger at imperfections, nor take for granted the blessings given me,  I must not stop remembering, remembering that I am part of the fabric of this society, its struggles and triumphs.

I remember my brief sojourn in New York City.

I saw a trembling, lonely, disheveled old lady at Elmhurst Park.

I know we are not in the least bit related.

But then again we are.

I gathered up my courage.

I decided not to fear or run away, not to judge or to blame.

I gently walked over, and offered her my bread.

***

Thank you for reading.   If you enjoyed this post, you might also like these posts:

• Moments of Gratitude
• Wise Words from the Prophet

Please take a moment to drop a comment, perhaps share from your life or observations of how we are independent, yet interdependent?

This is a guest post by Chade-Meng Tan, Jolly Good Fellow (kid you not, this is his official title) at Google Inc.

Over the years, I’ve developed a 4-step plan to deal with my distress. I hope this would be helpful to you too.

Image by tapperboy via Flickr

My 4 steps are:
1. Know when you’re not in pain.
2. Do not feel bad about feeling bad.
3. Do not feed the monsters.
4. Start every thought with kindness and humor.

1.Know when you’re not in pain.

When you’re not in pain, know that you’re not in pain.

This is a very powerful practice on multiple levels. On one level, it increases happiness. When we are suffering pain, we always tell ourselves, “I’ll be so happy if I’m free from this pain”, but when we are free from that pain, we forget to enjoy the freedom from pain. This practice of constantly noticing the lack of distress encourages us to enjoy the sweetness of that freedom, and thereby helps us to be happier.

On another level, I find that even when experiencing pain, the pain is not constant, especially emotional pain. The pain waxes and wanes and there are times (perhaps short intervals of minutes or seconds) when a space opens up where one is free from pain. The practice of noticing the lack of distress helps us abide in that space when it opens up. This space gives us temporary relief and it is the basis from which we launch our recovery and find the strength to face our problems.

2. Do not feel bad about feeling bad.

We have the tendency to feel bad about feeling bad (”meta-distress”, I call it). This is especially true for good people. We would berate ourselves by saying things like, “Hey, if I’m such a good person, why am I feeling this much anger?” This is even more true for good people with contemplative practices like meditation. We would scold ourselves by saying, “Maybe if you’re actually a good meditator, you won’t feel this way. Therefore, you must be a lousy meditator, a hypocrite, a useless piece of [insert context-appropriate noun]“.

It is important to recognize that distress is a naturally-arising phenomenon, we all experience it from time to time. Even Thich Nhat Hanh, the very symbol of enlightened peace in the world, once got so angry at someone he almost wanted to stand up and slug him.

Also recognize that feeling bad about feeling bad is an act of ego. It’s a reflection of our ego’s image about itself, and the net result is the creation of new distress for no good reason at all. The antidote is to let the ego go, with good humor where possible.

And remember, meta-distress is really bad economics.

3. Do not feed the monsters.

Let’s pretend that things that cause our distress are monsters that arise from and occupy our minds, wrecking havoc on our emotions. What can we do to stop them? They seem so overwhelmingly powerful, we feel so weak just stopping them from arising, and we seem powerless to make them leave.

Happily, it turns out that our monsters need us to feed them in order to survive. If we don’t feed them, they’ll get hungry and maybe they’ll go away. Therein lies the source of our power. We cannot stop monsters from arising, or force them to leave, but we have the power to stop feeding them.

Not feeding monsters is very good economics.

4. Start every thought with kindness and humor.

In every situation, distressing or otherwise, it’s useful to begin each thought with kindness and compassion. Kindness both for oneself and others. The practices most useful for cultivating this quality of heart are Metta Bhavana (Meditation on Loving Kindness) and the Tibetan practice called Tonglen.

In my experience, the most important quality of kindness is its healing effect. Imagine taking a rough, spiky brush and repeatedly brushing it hard and fast on an area of your skin. Eventually, your skin will become inflamed and painful. Kindness is the quality of gently ceasing that harmful brushing action. If you do that, eventually, the skin will heal.

I also find it very useful to see the humor in my own failings. Everytime I lose my temper or involuntarily have a greedy or spiteful thought that doesn’t go away for a while, it’s like I’ve fallen off the wagon again. Of course, I can interpret falling off the wagon as a painful, humiliating and embarrassing experience. However, I found it much more fun to think of the experience as a scene in an old black-and-white comedy. Guy falls off wagon in the context of fast, playful music, makes a funny face, dusts himself off, and then climbs back up on the wagon in a quick, awkward, and jerky motion. It’s all very funny. So everytime I fail, it’s a comedy.

And since I fail so often, my life is a great comedy.

Post by Chade-Meng Tan.  To get more of Chade-Meng’s insights and writings, visit his blog here.

If you like this post, you might also want to check out similar posts at Shot of Inspiration here:

• Finding Meaning in the Midst of Despair
• Wise Words from the Prophet
• Moments of Courage

During another downturn several years back, I learned a new definition of success.

It was a time not unlike these times.  Many companies have folded.  Many people have been laid off.

In the eyes of the world, these companies would forever be tossed in the “failure” category.  After all, didn’t they run their companies to the ground?

I was, at that time, the owner of a public relations agency struggling to keep my clients and my employees.  While I was discouraged, I wasn’t defeated.  But I didn’t feel like “success” either, until I met professor Erickson from the City College of San Francisco, where I had signed up for a complimentary small business management class.

Professor, how do you define success?”  A dark-hair middle-aged woman at the front of the classroom raised her hand.

The grey-hair, balding professor in a navy suit looked up from his lecture notes and turned in the direction of my classmate.

Well, it’s simple.  Once you have learned and improved upon whatever it is you want to learn and improve on, then to me, that is success!”

That’s it?”  My classmate’s eyes opened wider and shot back instinctively.

Yes, that’s it.”  The corners of my professor’s lips turned into a smile.

I sat quietly, but my mind was processing that simple advice…

Once you have improved, then you are successful.  Yes, I think that’s what he just said.

Those simple words had a profound effect on me.

I began reflecting on some business challenges, but came to the conclusion that hey, I was still a success!  Why, because according to my professor’s definition, as long as one have learned or improved from an experience, one is a success!  So on that particular day, no matter what I felt about the state of my business, I was proactively sitting in a classroom, improving my small business skills.  So, I have crossed a small, personal success milestone!

After that, I started rewarding myself for little, personal victories.  Hey, I outreached to five prospective clients today.   Hey, I worked with our webmaster HelloAri to complete our website revamp.  Hey, I created a great marketing campaign today, etc. etc.  Soon enough, these personal victories grew and began manifesting as public ones, and we started winning more clients and awards.

Once you have improved, then you are successful.  Yes, that was what he said.

How refreshing!  Perhaps the secret of happiness lies in our perceptions of success.  Have you had days when you feel discouraged because you are so far away from reaching your goals?  Consider carving your goals into smaller pieces.  Say you’d like to run a marathon one day.  But it overwhelms you.  Why not start by going to the gym and runing for 10 minutes today and adding on the miles incrementally afterwards?  So long as you are learning and making progress, hey, you’re a success!

What goals are you working toward?  What successes have you had recently?  Do share.  Remember to see them in smaller pieces, so you have more reason to pat yourself on the back and more reason to celebrate.

Here’s to your success!

If you enjoyed reading this post, you might be interested in these too:

• Success or Failure.  Does it Matter?
  
• A Vision for Your Life
  

This post is dedicated to my friend and former colleague, Christina Cheang.

Image by ToniVC via Flickr

I was in a fancy Chinese restaurant in the Lion City, sitting across from Christina C., a dynamo of a woman and the new Singapore leader of our international public relations agency.  We were deep in conversation as the waiter filled our cups with Puér tea and served us plates of steamed sea bass and herbal black chicken.

I was wrapping up a two-week business trip.  My life in San Francisco seemed so far away.  Well, literally 8,500 miles away.  Yet my mind was a whirlwind of thoughts, twirling about everything I needed to do before I left, and everything that awaited me when I return.

“How am I going to find the time to do everything?”  I said as I wolfed down the sea bass and emptied the tea cup.  “Within the next week, I’ll be making five presentations.  Two here, and three back in San Francisco.”

Christina looked at me through her stern, maternal eyes.

“Slow down, Sharon.  Don’t you know that time is elastic?”

“Time is elastic?  What do you mean?”  I rested my chopsticks, momentarily.

“Well, you and I think that we only have 24 hours a day.  But have you ever been so engrossed in something that you lose track of time?”

“Well, yes.”  My eyebrows arched higher as I leaned toward her.

“Have you ever felt like hours have passed, when in fact, it had only been minutes?”

I nodded.

“You see, when you are inspired to act on something, you will always find the time and energy to dive into what you’re meant to do.  And when you get ‘in the flow,’ time becomes elastic.”

Inspired, I returned to my hotel room that night and whipped together a powerpoint presentation in under an hour, pleasantly surprising myself.  I experienced first hand the meaning of “time is elastic.”

Christina C. taught me an invaluable concept, and I have often reflected on those three simple words since our memorable dinner almost two years ago.

Tonight, I saw the Michael Jackson movie “This Is It” for the first time.  Those around me lamented that it was such a shame that he died so young.

Then, suddenly, the three words, “time is elastic” popped to mind.  I started thinking about his lasting impact on music, and on the millions of people around the world.

The “King of Pop” may have passed on, but his music will live on in our hearts and minds for a long, long time.  Michael Jackson has forever outlived his 50 years and succeeded in stretching time to its maximum elasticity.

I could almost see Christina’s smile as I pen this today.

“Great, you get it now.  Time is elastic, grasshopper.”

Image via Wikipedia

I will never forget him.  He was a senior executive at Dell Computers.  A former Longhorn, he had come to speak to our group of wide-eyed college seniors at the University of Texas at Austin, about our future careers, of course.

A tentative voice at the back of the room posed a question.  “I…, I know internships are very important, and I’m an intern now.   But I don’t think I’m learning anything because they just have me doing little things, like faxing, copying, filing and other menial tasks.”

I will never forget what this professional said in response as his gaze fixed on the intern.  “If you remember nothing else from my speech tonight, remember this, “Nothing is beneath you.”

My ears perked.  Fellow schoolmates leaned forward.  What did he mean?

The Dell executive continued,  “When I was a fresh graduate, I didn’t start out holding the vice president title that I have today.  My first position, and I still remember my route like yesterday, was as a mail room staffer for our company headquarters.  I sorted huge volumes of mail and carted them all over Dell’s offices and delivered mail to each and everyone – with seriousness, and a smile.”

My mind briefly entertained an image of him walking down a long and narrow corporate hallway, pushing a mountain cart of mail…

“You might think my job was menial, but I took every opportunity to remember faces and names, to show them my attention to detail, to show up day after day and be the most conscientious mail room staffer I can be.  And guess what?  I still spent the next two years in the mail room!”

A few of us chuckled nervously.

“But if you ask me today, is it all worth it?  I say to you a firm “yes.”  My career took off at the two-year mark and I am where I am today because I adopted an attitude early on that served me well.  Because I told myself, “nothing is beneath me.”

The speaker’s advice touched me profoundly and I took it to heart as I sailed through internships and on to real jobs over the years.  I have also had the privilege to share his story a few times during one-to-one mentoring sessions, or when speaking to college students at various schools.  Book author Michael Gerber also underscores a similar philosophy below:

The work we do is a reflection of who we are.  If we’re sloppy at it, it’s because we’re sloppy inside.  If we’re late at it, it’s because we’re late inside.  If we’re bored by it, it’s because we’re bored inside, with ourselves, not with the work.  The most menial work can be a piece of art when done by an artist.  So the job here is not outside of ourselves, but inside of ourselves.  How we do our work becomes a mirror of who we are inside.” ~ Michael Gerber, e-Myth Revisited.

Well said, Mr. Gerber, and thank you, Mr. Dell executive!  Your writing and sharing reinforced my belief that there is dignity in every job – from being a janitor,  to being a receptionist to being the president of this country.  Readers, have you had similar experiences as the intern or the Dell speaker?  How have you handled yourself in the face of “menial” assignments?  Would love to hear your thoughts, insights, takeaways, success or even horror stories!

Image by Pit Van Meeffe via Flickr

Have you ever sat alone at a cafe, stared out the window and pondered this question:

“What do I wish my life to look like?”

One day, I did sit at a cafe.  I saw the cars and people passing by, and did ask this very question.  I wanted to be an entrepreneur.  I wanted to build a company filled with happy people and clients.  I wanted to do good work that has impact and makes a difference in the lives of others.

First, it started as a flicker of an idea.  Then it took form and I “fearfully” took the plunge and finally hung up my shingle.  And as I worked on the business everyday, my vision for the future and this business became more refined.  A particularly edifying moment came from reading a profoundly simple, yet powerful book called E-Myth Revisited.

There is a passage within the book that underscores the importance of having a clear vision for our lives:

Great people have a vision of their lives that they practice emulating every day.  They go to work on their lives, not just in their lives.  Their lives are spent living out the vision that they have for their future, in the present.  They compare what they have done with what they intended to do.  And where there is a disparity between the two, they don’t wait very long to make up for the difference.” ~ Michael Gerber, E-Myth Revisited.

Do you have a vision for your life?  It could just be a flicker now.  Or perhaps you are one of the great people that E-Myth Revisited alluded to, and your vision is already in full bloom?  Either way, drop a note and share with others who will benefit from your thoughts and experiences.

Here’s to your future filled with bright visions!

There are untold sufferers and suffering among us.  Just three days ago, our nation remembered and mourned those who lost their lives during the September 11 attacks.   All of us, at some time or other, would come face-to-face with pain, illness and death (ours or our loved ones).

Sometimes, in our despair, we may ask, “What is the point of all of this?  What is the point of living?”

While we probably ask these questions at the lowest points of our lives, I believe that they could sow the seeds for the start of a more purposeful and meaningful life.

A strong influence who shaped my thinking was Victor Frankl, an Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor.   I first learned of Frankl several years back, when I chanced upon his book, Man’s Search for Meaning.  In it, he recalled his years at the concentration camp, where he witnessed many Jews dying in gas chambers, from starvation, forced labor and executions.   Frankl was surrounded by death and despair.  Even his parents and wife were killed.

However, he managed to find meaning in the midst of dark tragedy.  Because of his training, he was assigned to help newcomers overcome shock and grief in the camps.  He later set up a suicide watch unit to support his fellow prisoners.  To lift his own spirits, he willed himself to imagine his release, to imagine that he would one day be giving lectures about having survived the concentration camp, to hundreds and hundreds of people.  He imagined it so well that he actually practiced his lectures to blank walls even when he was imprisoned.

In his book, Frankl wrote that no matter how difficult one’s physical realities are, one can find a way to access their mental life and find refuge, hope and meaning in the spiritual domain.  It was from this belief that he developed Logotherapy, the school of therapy that believes that finding meaning in one’s life  is the most powerful driving force for living.

Are you in a difficult situation currently?  Are you surrounded by impossible physical realities?  Do not despair.  There is a redeeming space within you – your mind, your rich imagination, your spirit – that is always available to you.  It is awaiting you to access, to visualize, to fill with uplifting thoughts, hopes, visions, beauty and peace.  Try it, embrace it.  This, is your new meaning of life.

This poem is dedicated to my wonderful friend, Leslie Shen, who taught me how to take time out to “smell the roses.”

Simply Time for Me

Simply time for me,

Simply time to be.

Time to take a walk and deeply breathe,

Time to calm the mind and hear the rustling leaves,

Time to slow the heart,

Say “bye bye” harried day.

Simply time for me,

Simply time to be.

Time for curious eyes to feast on nature’s gems,

Like the sun’s gentle rays kissing the rippling lake.

Hark, the water glistens and glows, and it says to me,

“You are always welcome here!”

Simply time for me,

Simply time to be.

Time to lift the face toward the heavenly skies,

Time to stretch the arms upwards, in sweet surrender and in trust.

Time to pause, to open the heart,

to let the evening’s rays bathe my grateful being,

From head to toe, from inside and out…

Sweet joy it is, to delight in simple pleasures, in nature, in life.

It is simply time, simply time to heed,

That happiness is to simply be…

Right here, right now.

~ Sharon Sim-Krause