different views

tiny one
tiny one Member Posts: 465 Member
edited March 2014 in Emotional Support #1
I attend a wonderful cancer support group. However I have a different outlook when it comes to cancer is a gift. I do not view it that way. Any others who don't see it that way either?

Comments

  • clsmith
    clsmith Member Posts: 76
    Different views also
    I never heard of cancer as a gift. It is not a gift at all. I have lung cancer, and my husband is colon cancer surv. We have lost two young family members to cancer.

    Cancer has not been a gift to my family.


    Cindy
  • zahalene
    zahalene Member Posts: 670
    clsmith said:

    Different views also
    I never heard of cancer as a gift. It is not a gift at all. I have lung cancer, and my husband is colon cancer surv. We have lost two young family members to cancer.

    Cancer has not been a gift to my family.


    Cindy

    I am not a fan...
    of these pat one-liners.
    Cancer in itself is not a gift. It is a screw-up in the physical workings of the body. Period. However, cancer, like so many other challenges of life, can be the catalyst for growing and gaining emotional and spiritual strength and maturity. So in that sense the RESULTS of cancer (and other challenges) can be positive. And then we may feel as if we have been given A gift. But don't call it cancer.
  • terato
    terato Member Posts: 375
    I see the way we respond to cancer as the "gift".
    Cancer itself is a "nightmare"!

    Love and Courage!

    Rick
  • clsmith
    clsmith Member Posts: 76
    terato said:

    I see the way we respond to cancer as the "gift".
    Cancer itself is a "nightmare"!

    Love and Courage!

    Rick

    Nightmare
    You are right Rick. Cancer is a total nightmare.

    Take care,

    Cindy
  • lindaprocopio
    lindaprocopio Member Posts: 1,980 Member
    clsmith said:

    Nightmare
    You are right Rick. Cancer is a total nightmare.

    Take care,

    Cindy

    SURE, Cancer's a gift...if you're suicidal!
    No way is cancer a gift. LIFE is a gift. How can a threat to life itself be a gift?

    Sure, sure, every day is more precious since cancer. Still, ....a GIFT??

    NAH!

    Where's the 'gift exchange' booth??? I wanna trade my gift for something better.
  • SonSon
    SonSon Member Posts: 174

    SURE, Cancer's a gift...if you're suicidal!
    No way is cancer a gift. LIFE is a gift. How can a threat to life itself be a gift?

    Sure, sure, every day is more precious since cancer. Still, ....a GIFT??

    NAH!

    Where's the 'gift exchange' booth??? I wanna trade my gift for something better.

    Gift exchange booth...
    LOL - I love your humor. If you find the gift exchange booth let me know so I can return my mother-in-law's gift.

    Fatima
  • Shayenne
    Shayenne Member Posts: 2,342
    SonSon said:

    Gift exchange booth...
    LOL - I love your humor. If you find the gift exchange booth let me know so I can return my mother-in-law's gift.

    Fatima

    I know....
    ....cancer sure isn't a gift, but feel blessed to have met so many awesome people because of it through this board as well :)

    Hugsss!
    ~Donna
  • Artin2010
    Artin2010 Member Posts: 17
    Cancer the present that hurts so much
    I can not agree with cancer being a gift. Cancer is like a plague that does not discriminate. It can and will attack anyone at any given time if the conditions are right. A gift is like someone else has said here. Life itself! Cancer causes devastation and destruction. How can that be a gift. A present or gift is something that one receives and is happy that they got it, they cherish it, love it, protect it, show it off to others.
    Cancer is the monster under the bed or in the closet hiding and waiting to jump out and scare they mess out of you or someone you love.
    Survey says, not a gift!
  • BroadwayJoe
    BroadwayJoe Member Posts: 10
    Cancer as a gift???? And I
    Cancer as a gift???? And I thought a lump of coal was as bad as it got!
  • beckyracn
    beckyracn Member Posts: 322

    Cancer as a gift???? And I
    Cancer as a gift???? And I thought a lump of coal was as bad as it got!

    Where does the
    Where does the return/exchange line start? I would like to exchange this 'gift' of cancer for something a little less intense...how about my old life?
  • zahalene
    zahalene Member Posts: 670
    beckyracn said:

    Where does the
    Where does the return/exchange line start? I would like to exchange this 'gift' of cancer for something a little less intense...how about my old life?

    As i said earlier in this thead,
    I do not see cancer as a gift.
    However, it has been my experience that when God removes something from our lives he replaces it with something better.
    I lost both breasts (and a good bit of other things) to cancer...including my hubby...(I got cancer and he got LOST), but I would not change the life I have now (23 years after the first diagnosis) for the life I had before cancer. Simply because I am 23 years older and wiser now and that life no longer 'fits'. This one does.
    "When the night has been too lonely, and the road has been too long, and you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong, just remember, in the winter, far beneath the bitter snow, lies the seed that, with the sun's love (or Son's love), in the spring becomes...the rose." (The Rose by Bette Midler)
    God bless, everyone.
  • trish07
    trish07 Member Posts: 138
    zahalene said:

    As i said earlier in this thead,
    I do not see cancer as a gift.
    However, it has been my experience that when God removes something from our lives he replaces it with something better.
    I lost both breasts (and a good bit of other things) to cancer...including my hubby...(I got cancer and he got LOST), but I would not change the life I have now (23 years after the first diagnosis) for the life I had before cancer. Simply because I am 23 years older and wiser now and that life no longer 'fits'. This one does.
    "When the night has been too lonely, and the road has been too long, and you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong, just remember, in the winter, far beneath the bitter snow, lies the seed that, with the sun's love (or Son's love), in the spring becomes...the rose." (The Rose by Bette Midler)
    God bless, everyone.

    So Beautiful...
    Thank you for posting this Zahalene...first thing I read this morning. It was nice to wake up to such a lovely thought. I'm going to put these lines up somewhere in the house so others can read them.

    Take Care, Trish
  • terato
    terato Member Posts: 375

    Cancer as a gift???? And I
    Cancer as a gift???? And I thought a lump of coal was as bad as it got!

    "Cancer" is to "gift",...
    what "letter bomb" is to "love note".
  • SonSon
    SonSon Member Posts: 174
    terato said:

    "Cancer" is to "gift",...
    what "letter bomb" is to "love note".

    Clever and funny
    thanks for that dose of humor!!!
  • bluerose
    bluerose Member Posts: 1,104
    zahalene said:

    As i said earlier in this thead,
    I do not see cancer as a gift.
    However, it has been my experience that when God removes something from our lives he replaces it with something better.
    I lost both breasts (and a good bit of other things) to cancer...including my hubby...(I got cancer and he got LOST), but I would not change the life I have now (23 years after the first diagnosis) for the life I had before cancer. Simply because I am 23 years older and wiser now and that life no longer 'fits'. This one does.
    "When the night has been too lonely, and the road has been too long, and you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong, just remember, in the winter, far beneath the bitter snow, lies the seed that, with the sun's love (or Son's love), in the spring becomes...the rose." (The Rose by Bette Midler)
    God bless, everyone.

    Good one Zah
    I love that song by Bette Midler but never really listened to that line til you typed it out. Thanks for that, very inspiring.

    I don't like the cancer is a gift line much either but understand what they really mean by it. It isn't obviously a gift in itself, I would rather get a condo on the ocean instead of cancer, if I had the choice. lol. But I too have learned alot from going through the experience, which in itself sucked, but I came out learning a great deal about myelf and others and what is truly important. Without the experience I really don't think I would have gotten to this point in my life, possibly at all. I too lost my marriage in part due to my illness but even in that I learned a great deal about what really went wrong in the marriage along the way as well, again I wouldn't have gotten there without my journey with cancer.

    I think the person who came up with Cancer Is A Gift may be the same one who came up with 'the golden years', sheeesh what is that one all about? More like the 'decrepid years'. Stupid gravity. lol.

    Take care of you Zah, you're a fighter. Blessings, Bluerose.