LIFE IS SPLENDID! - Jennifer Reid

This week could have been a little bit of a let-down, as my cake decorating course is over, but I don’t see it that way at all. Instead, I am so excited about continuing my journey of self-discovery and healing, and look forward to sharing whatever I find as I go along. After all, sharing is caring!

You may remember all the lovely flowers I made at the beginning of my course:

I couldn’t just keep them on a shelf, collecting dust, forever. So I decided that I would make some cupcakes and use them as decorations.

My dear friend who I did the cake decorating course with had given me her cupcake recipe that I used last week (that didn’t turn out really well for me….remember?) I had to give it another try, so I used the same recipe once again.

While the cupcakes were baking in the oven, I prepared some icing ribbons for a puffy bow to top off my cupcake display. This was going to be interesting, as I was attempting to make a miniature of my large fruitcake ribbon that I’d done a couple of weeks earlier.

When the cupcakes had cooled, it was time to knead, colour and roll my icing to sit atop the cupcakes. Once I “planted” my flowers, and finished off with my bow, the results looked pretty good, don’t you think?

It seems that I’m capable of making a cupcake look pretty good…but did they taste good? Unfortunately, they didn’t L. The little blankets of icing, which I had made fresh that day, were delicious. But the flowers, which were a couple of weeks old, were as hard as a rock. My teacher had told me that they would last for weeks. I forbid my kids from eating them, especially my daughter who has $6000 worth of braces in her beautiful mouth, as I was worried they might do some damage to their teeth! They were disappointed of course; after all, it was still yummy sugar to them, no matter how hard it was.

But the disappointment didn’t end there. I don’t know what I did wrong, but the cupcakes were more like rock cakes! They were so rubbery that when my husband dropped one on his plate to see if it would bounce, I think it actually did!

Needless to say, the fate of my exquisite floral delicacies was not a happy one – they ended up broken and ruined in the bottom of a rubbish bin!

I racked my brain trying to picture every step I used to make those cupcakes. I pictured every ingredient added, every move made….but I could not find where I went wrong; which means that my search for the perfect cupcake recipes continues……

To make great cupcakes, it’s a step-by-step process.

You cannot even miss one little step or the cupcakes will not turn out right. Sometimes which of the steps you missed may escape you, which it did for me at first. But I finally realised that it was PRACTISE that was missing. I simply need more practise!

In my life since cancer, my healing journey continues to be a step-by-step process. Somewhat similar to following the step-by-step instructions of a cupcake recipe. If I were to write a recipe for a healing journey for someone else to use, I can only include the ingredients that seem to be working for me. So here goes:

Step 1 – Faith. (This of course is the first and most important ingredient).

Step 2 – Self-talk and positive thinking. (“I am happy, healthy, wealthy and wise! J)

Step 3 – Medical treatment. (Now with this step, add courage, hope and a large pinch of love and support from loved ones).

Step 4 – Gain knowledge. (This step is vital – you must learn as much as possible about the human body, how to maximise health and prevent illness).

Step 5 – PRACTISE! (Start putting into practise what you are learning. For example, when I was learning about how important good nutrition is for a healthy body, I started putting my love of shopping to good use – I began to feel the same excitement over finding organic produce, as I did over a dress purchased at a bargain price. You can just imagine the ecstasy when I discovered my local growers’ market!)

Step 6 – Grow your passion for cooking. (When I was working full-time, I didn’t have as much opportunity to spend lots of time in this area – the main aim was to get a quick healthy meal on the family table before midnight! But these days, I’m able to read leisurely through my rows of cookbooks, make lists in my mind of all the difficult recipes I’m going to try, and diligently work on my culinary repertoire. Committed to steering clear of processed and take away foods as much as possible, I’ve been cooking and baking up a storm…and loving it!)

Step 7 – Nurture yourself. (A very wise person once said to me that looking after oneself is not selfish, but “self-care”. Once I heard that, I began to feel good about doing nice things for myself. I needed to nurture my mind and express my bottled-up creativity. It became so apparent that if I was not fulfilled and happy within myself, then I wasn’t going to be much good to anyone else – my frustration would come out somewhere. Therefore, some of my “self-care” strategies in regaining strength in mind, body and spirit, and growing in character, are as follows:

– I love reading so I joined a book club.

– I love writing, hence this blog. Plus, I’m just about to embark on a Writer’s Club with some very creative people in my life!

– I love drawing and painting, so while I was really sick on chemo, I spent days painting with my children, who also love painting. We’ve actually framed a couple of our paintings and put them up – a lovely reminder of quality time spent together. One of my paintings, which I didn’t like very much, I actually sold on eBay – my trash was someone else’s treasure!

Step 8 – Love and accept yourself just the way God made you. (“I am fearfully and wonderfully made”!)

Step 9 – Love the people God gifted you with. (My husband and my children are my absolute treasures – my hope is that I demonstrate that to them every day).

Step 10 – Live in the moment! (Actually take the time to enjoy the moment that you’re in, rather than searching for a different moment, and missing out on the joys that are right in front of you).

All my passions in life have been enhanced through my cancer experience – for this I am truly grateful. For me, it was a brush with death that reminded me how precious life is and made my life even more noticeably splendid!

But I won’t have the treachery of death, or tragedy or disappointment to be the catalyst for causing me to remember the splendour of life – I’m just going to remind myself each new morning that I awake…….

LIFE IS SPLENDID!