Merry Christmas

Today is Christmas for a large part of the world. I know that not everyone who reads the blog celebrates this day, so for those of you who do, I say Merry Christmas.

And for all of you, whether you celebrate or not, I offer another traditional greeting for the day: Peace on Earth.

It seems like more than ever, we could use some peace on our planet. For those of us with Follicular Lymphoma, or any type of cancer, we have enough inner turmoil. We don't need all of that outer turmoil, too. It won't go away just by wishing you peace, but maybe all of our good feelings will add up and make a small difference together. Just a little less turmoil in our own tiny little parts of the world.

I don't know how many of you celebrate Christmas, but I do know you come from lots of countries besides my own, and I love seeing comments that identify where you are from. It's easy to see how different we are, just from the name of a country. But it's so much easier to see how much we are the same. Every one of us has had the same experience -- being told (or having a loved one be told) that we had cancer. There isn't much worse than hearing those words, and it's not a happy thing to have in common with so many other people.

So lets all try to spend just one day thinking about all of the other things we have in common with the people we encounter today, whether we're celebrating Christmas or not. Everyone hurts in some way, whether it's from cancer or not. But everyone celebrates those small joys, too. So find some way to celebrate with them. Or, even better -- give them some reason to feel just a little spark of joy.

Contribute to some peace on earth.

Have a good day, everyone.