CAN CANCER HAVE A SILVER LINING?

Social Saturday - Denyse shares the ten silver linings she discovered through her cancer journey

INTRO

Denyse is a fellow Aussie blogger who is a retired teacher. She has been through a really tough 12 months after being diagnosed with cancer. Her grace and positive attitude through the ordeal has been inspirational to all who read her blog. She has also been participating in the Outfit A Day Challenge to lift her spirits as she goes through this journey. I asked Denyse if she would share some of the positive lessons and silver linings she has learned along the way. 

IF WE WERE HAVING COFFEE

It's time to have a coffee and a chat - I'll tell you all about what's been happening in my world during

IF WE WERE HAVING COFFEE

It's time to celebrate the end of June, so why not share another virtual cup of coffee with me while I update you on what's been going on in my life lately. I love a good 'Taking Stock' blog post, so I hope you'll humour me and sit a while as I share my news.

WRITING MY FIRST ESSAY IN FORTY YEARS!

Our daughter (a high school English teacher) challenged me to write an essay - this is the result

GOING BACK TO HIGH SCHOOL

Our daughter teaches high school English and told us that she was going to sit the 3 hour Yr 12 English exam with her students to see how she'd measure up. She hadn't tested herself in an exam since university and wanted to see how she'd go.

As a challenge she thought my husband and I might like to tackle the creative writing component - we would be given four photos to choose from and one hour to HANDWRITE our essay/narrative! She gave us the questions with some dot point notes that she uses to help her students prepare for an exam question. It had been FORTY years since I'd written an English essay and countless years since I'd handwritten more than my shopping list, so the challenge was taking me to a whole new level!

These are the questions we had to choose from:

GETTING TO KNOW YOU

what would we talk about if we were meeting for the first time? We’d probably ask each other getting-to-know-you questions.

INTRO

Today's guest is the lovely Christie from Christie Hawkes.com - her blog asks the question in its header - So What? Now What? and I love the concept behind the title. 

I've really enjoyed getting to know Christie over the last year - we have a lot in common (except that she likes running and I am a useless runner!) but you can't have everything! It's such a pleasure to introduce you to Christie (if you haven't met her already). Today she's talking a bit about herself as she asks some quite interesting questions that I hope you leave an answer to in the comments section before you go.

WHY YOU SHOULD CHOOSE THE BEST CASE SCENARIO

It's time to stop looking at the worst case scenarion and start looking for the best outcome

BEING A WORRIER (NOT A WARRIOR)

I used to be a worst case scenario kind of gal. If something could be catastrophized I would find a way to do it. Worry was my middle name.  I wish I could say that I'd completely turned my life around in an Oprah worthy moment of clarity, but that would be an out and out lie.

What I can say is that I'm a work in progress - and progress is being made. I don't over-think things like I used to, I still like to have a Plan A and a back-up Plan B - but I don't feel the need to add in the rest of the alphabet any more. I am able to let most things go through to the keeper and trust that all will be well and the issue will pass in its own time.

GETTING OLD SHOULD BE FUN

Lately I've been thinking about what it would be like to be truly "old". Strangely enough, getting older has a whimsical allure for me.

WHAT DOES AGING LOOK LIKE TO YOU?

Lately I've been thinking about what it would be like to be truly "old". Strangely enough, getting older has a whimsical allure for me. Not so much the withering up and wrinkling part, but the freedom of being exactly who I am and not giving a hoot about what others might think of that. I'm already on the path to that point, but I haven't completely embraced it just yet.

WHY START A BLOG WHEN YOU'RE OVER 50?

Why start a blog when you're over 50? Jo explains why she did it and why it's such a great idea.

INTRO

When you live in a smallish town in the southwest of Western Australia you don't expect to bump into anyone who reads or, more amazing still, writes a blog. So, I was surprised and delighted to find that Johanna Castro (who writes a fabulous Midlife blog called Lifestyle Fifty) lives almost in my backyard. She is a gorgeous person both inside and out and I'm delighted to have her as my guest today. Jo has chosen a topic that resonated with me and I'm sure will interest bloggers and non-bloggers alike - here's why you should start a blog when you're over 50...

HAVE YOU HEARD OF TOFI?

Have you heard of TOFI? It's something a lot of us are encountering - and it has nothing to do with Tofu or a healthy diet.

WHAT IS TOFI?

It sounds like a healthfood doesn't it - somewhere in the same league as Tofu but maybe sweeter? Well, it's at the other end of the health spectrum unfortunately - TOFI stands for Thin on the Outside Fat on the Inside. It relates to people who don't look obese (in the way society categorizes obesity) because they aren't fat all over. They just have a pudgy midline - and I know there's a lot of us out there who are looking at our waistlines at this very moment and thinking.....maybe this is me?

LEARNING TO BE COURAGEOUS

Do you ever wonder who you would be if you'd been courageous from the start?

BEING INSPIRED

I'm not sure if other people get inspired by something they read. For me it can be something quite random that jumps out and catches my eye, my mind gets engaged and extrapolates away merrily. It can be a quote I read on Pinterest, it can be something in the Sunday paper, it can be a sentence in another blogger's post, it can come from anywhere at any time.

The most recent inspiration came from a quote I read on my friend Mary Lou's blog  and it goes like this:

THE U-BEND THEORY OF HAPPINESS

The U-Bend Theory of Happiness suggests that our well-being tends to follow a U-shape from early adulthood to old age.

INTRO

Today's Social Saturday guest blogger is the lovely Donna from Retirement Reflections. Donna lives a million miles away from me on the other side of the world on Vancouver Island, British Columbia (I had to Google Map it to find out exactly where she was - and it looks like an amazing place to live!) Donna writes about the wonderful life she has as a newly retired lady of leisure - she and her husband are always off travelling somewhere new, hiking the Camino Trail, or eating, drinking and blogging. 

Donna writes a great blog and is such an encourager to other writers like myself, so it's a pleasure to have her on my blog today talking about Happiness (a favourite topic of mine). So without further ado.....here's Donna....

CREATING A VISION BOARD

A Vision Board has pictures that inspire you to look at your life and see what you'd like to focus on and what you'd like to achieve

MY CHALLENGE FROM THE ATOZ CHALLENGE

A while ago I wrote a post for the 2018 AtoZ Challenge on Visualising and the concept of a Vision Board - something I'd thought of making at various times in my life, but have never actually done anything about. Donna from Retirement Reflections (who is my next Social Saturday guest) suggested I write a post on the process when I completed it. Well! That certainly upped the ante and I felt that I should put my glue stick and scissors to work and see what I came up with and this post is the end result.

ADVICE FROM A FLAMINGO

Sage advice can come from the strangest places - here's some from a flamingo...

WHY FLAMINGOES?

Being a tall girl who has a not-so-secret love affair with the colour pink, I've always had a soft spot for flamingoes. They're tall too - and gangly, have long legs, and are my favourite colour! I also saw a great meme online recently that contained some sage wisdom associated with this magnificent creature. Today I thought I'd elaborate on that advice which comes straight from the flamingo to you - it also reflects some of the lessons I'm learning in Midlife.

HAVING THE PRIME OF YOUR LIFE RIGHT NOW

Social Saturday Guest Post - Are you making the most of life? Some tips to live in the Prime of Life.

INTRO

It's Social Saturday! And here is my favourite blogger - Sue from Sizzling Towards 60 and Beyond to kick things off beautifully! Thanks Sue for such a great post to start off my series. She even did a fabulous intro so I'll leave it to her to tell you how much we like each other and I'll just kick back and enjoy her post.

HAVING THE PRIME OF YOUR LIFE RIGHT NOW!

Midlife and Beyond, that is where we are and it is a wonderful time of life! Leanne is my BBB (Best Blogging Buddy) and we have known each other since we both started blogging about 3 years ago. Over that time, we have shared many conversations on the ups and downs of blogging plus life in general. We are so alike that we both agree we must have been ‘sisters in another life’. I was delighted when she asked if I would kick off her new Saturday Guest Series which I think is a great idea. On my blog Sizzling Towards 60 and Beyond, I have a weekly guest series, Over 50 andThriving, which I started this year.