Happy Monday friends and Happy Fourth of July for those in the US. I was surprised to see my son going to work in maong pants and t-shirt early this morning then he reminded me that it’s a holiday. They are allowed to wear casual attire during holidays in the US because it is where their main office is located. We used to celebrate July 4 as Filipino-American Friendship Day, a legal holiday too here in our country until our celebration of Independence Day was changed to the correct date which is June 12.
I planned to start July blogging every day like I did during the 2011 Post A Day challenge. No go as usual. There are some priorities that has to be met especially on weekends when my son is around. I am grateful though for those new followers of this blog. There was this message from WordPress yesterday afternoon that there was a spike on my stats. True enough when I checked, it has significantly gone up. Search engines are busy and I noticed that my most read posts are from several years ago. Come to think of it, I have nearly forgotten sharing those posts. Imagine having 1,813 posts since I started blogging here way back May 2009. The blog which was supposedly for sharing my journey as a cancer patient/survivor has turned out into a hodgepodge of “what have you’s” from gardening to photography to sharing my world as a grandmother. It’s a life full of challenges, a life full of lovely and precious moments, a life of simple things that gives joy to the heart, a life of small miracles and wonderful blessings that makes every moment precious. The journey is not that smooth at times but I get by with the help of my family and loving friends who love me the way I am, warts and all. I thank the Lord for giving me the strength and courage to carry on.
I am on my 7th year in remission, still standing tall amidst everything. I can vividly remember those days when almost every day we would be at the hospital, doctor’s clinics, laboratories for my pre-op clearance and finally having that much dreaded sigmoid surgery mid-July in 2009. And I thought staying at the hospital for almost two weeks of recovery was hard but it was nothing compared to the six cycles of chemotherapy that I had to undergo to get well. Never mind the amount of research I’ve done to booster my immunity eating anti-oxidant food, avoiding meat for a long time, learning to adjust to a life with so many restrictions on one’s diet. Those days were more learning curves for me to get through.
Allow me to say a big THANK YOU to all my friends here at WordPress, to those who always drop a line or two, to those who regularly click “likes” to my posts and to those who pass by this blog and read a post. You all make blogging a lovely journey too.
Always good to know that the blog is going well, even when you haven’t been able to devote so much time to it. Even better to know that you are fit and well now, after all the worry of those years ago.
Best wishes, Pete.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Pete! It is always a blessing to be in good health without worrying when your next doctor visit would be. I have phobias with hospitals and doctors.
Yes, so lucky to have those readers visiting this blog even without updates.
LikeLike
I could just imagine the challenging yet interesting life you have, Ms. Arlene, base don this post. Seven years in remission is something to be very grateful of; having people around to cling on to; the sudden spike of views on your old blog post; and positivee responses from loyal to random readers, I see why you wrote this.
It’s nice for me to have read something quite different from what I regularly blog about.
Thank you very much for dropping by my blog today and for sharing such a heart-warming compliment.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You’re welcome Sony. Feel free to browse. We should all be grateful for everyday blessing because not all of us are lucky enough to be given second chances.
I love reading travel blogs and it makes me happy to meet other Filipino bloggers.
LikeLike