As I took these photos I cried tears of anger, sadness, fear, strength and gratitude. So many emotions mixed into one and I’m reminded that I’m alive to be able to take these photos.  I struggled for a long time to figure out what in heaven’s name could breast cancer have gifted me?!!  Then it dawned on me, it has given me humility and compassion that I never knew I was capable of.  Cancer has given me the gift of RIGHT NOW. It has forced me to be present and grateful for now, not later or tomorrow, but right now.  The most important gift I’ve received is learning that true beauty has NOTHING to do with external, but beauty is found in the flaws, the pain, the tears, the scars because through all of that I STILL RISE.  I never understood that or believed that until breast cancer touched my life.