Love is like sunshine on a rainy day–it’s warm and welcome.

Love is like medicine for the heart,

Love makes you smile when everything else in your life doesn’t;

Love makes you see through rose colored glasses;

Love causes you to laugh out loud at the simplest things,

Love sometimes flows fast and furiously, other times as a placid lake;

Love gives life to the marrow of your bones;

Love inspires and motivates;

Love fills your head with happy thoughts, your heart with song, and your feet with dance;

Love fills your soul with peace;

Love is…whatever you want it to be.

Yet the youngest you’ll ever be,

so, enjoy this day while it lasts.

source: biblecommentary

Valentine’s Day is a day of love.  It’s a reminder to do something nice for the one that you love. It’s a reminder to get off the fast train of life, and spend some time appreciating and celebrating your love.

Valentine’s Day got me thinking about love–perfect love.   What does a perfect love relationship look like?  What is perfect love?  Here’s my reflection:  Perfect love is faithful, forgiving, tender, respectful, merciful, kind, truthful, loyal, compassionate, long-suffering, patient, generous, supportive, uplifting and encouraging.

Perfect love protects, provides, defends and believes in the other.  Perfect love is trustworthy, helpful, best friends, romantic, thoughtful, affectionate, and does what is best for the other.

Perfect love listens with the heart, and gives freely without thought of return. Perfect love doesn’t keep score. Perfect love is passionate about the other; feels their pain and celebrates their successes.

Perfect love is safe.  It’s where you can let go of your guard because no matter what, your back is covered.

I’ve discovered that the only way we can love like that, is when we allow God’s love to flow through us, because He is the source.  Let your love shine.   Happy Valentine’s Day.

Why does it matter? It matters because people suffer needlessly. Cancer treatments are expensive, tremendously emotional and frightening.   The need for treatment could possibly be prevented if people knew how to protect themselves between detection appointments. Almost everyone either has had, or knows someone who has received a cancer diagnosis.  No one wants to go through that.

Why do I care?  I care because I know what it feels like to hear “you have cancer.”  And, I’ve stood at my father’s bedside as he was dying of lung cancer. I watched my mother’s heartbreak as she suffered years after her mastectomy with lymphedema and low self-esteem. I’ve worked in the hospital providing patient care, and have watched the agony, fear, pain and devastation that can entangle people.

I write about cancer  to educate, because I believe that knowledge is power.  I believe that if people knew what to do to avoid all the heartache involved with a cancer diagnosis, most would take proactive steps.  I write to you, my reader, as if I were speaking to family members, because I believe that we are all connected, after all.  I write because I care passionately.    I write to give hope and encouragement.   I am not a doctor.  I do not claim cures.  I simply share from experience what I have learned or what I have read.  I speak for those who cannot speak.  I write for those who don’t know what to do, but want to do something.  I write for you.  Therefore, please bear with me if  cancer topics do not interest you–they interest some of my readers, and if what I write can help even one person, then I will have accomplished my purpose.  If my articles do not personally address your needs, perhaps you know someone with whom you can share my articles, someone who would benefit from the information.  If you have a particular interest that you’d like me address, let me know, I’ll do what I can.   I heard Dr. Oz say that we probably all have cancer cells in our bodies at this very moment, but there are things we can do to build immunity.  Do whatever you can to stay healthy, won’t you?

Be encouraged that whatever the decision is that you need to make this day–that you know what to do–just listen.  It’s a much happier and peaceful place.

Research into cancer vaccines has waxed and waned over the years, advancing more slowly than other types of immunotherapy research. Novel approaches are clearly needed. And that’s just what Mayo Clinic investigator Richard G. Vile, Ph.D., is bringing to the table, with ideas that are described as incredibly creative, original and even eccentric. The result is a cancer assassin — a precisely engineered vector that can slip into liver tumors undetected and deliver its genetic payload with minimal harm to the patient.

See more: Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale

Source: CalmingYourInnerStorm