SHARING IS CARING!

Today was the fourth lesson of my cake decorating course, and the plan was to learn how to create some more flowers from icing. After making the beautiful handmade roses last week, I was wondering how much better it could get.

I arrived in class to find a magical bouquet sitting on the table, which had been prepared by the teacher earlier. I had to look twice at the summery bunch of frangipanis, as I thought they were real for a moment. Since my daughter loves frangipanis, I wanted to do a really good job so I could proudly present them to her when I got home. You’ll see how they turned out below, but suffice to say, that she absolutely loved them. My son made the clever comment “I could have done that”. When I asked how, he answered, “Just go out to the garden and pick them”. That was his way of telling me how real my flowers looked. Then my husband got home and said how amazing they looked as well. I was chuffed with their reaction!

But to get to that point, not only did I have to master the frangipanis, but I also had to create something I’d never heard of before – a “dog rose”. That was going to be hard, since I’d never heard of one, let alone seen what one should look like. I found out later that “dog rose” is just an interesting name for a prickly wild rose.

Below is what a real dog rose looks like when it occurs in nature (so I had a bit of work ahead of me to achieve something that looked like that!) The teacher showed us step-by-step instructions, making it look so easy. Although I didn’t think it was actually going to be that easy, I didn’t feel the “frangipani-like pressure” with the dog roses, because like me, my family wouldn’t have a clue what one should look like anyway. So when it came to the creation of my dog rose, I could pretty much have the “anything goes” attitude. This certainly took the pressure off and made the final result even sweeter!

(Image from http://www.bartbusschots.ie)

There was a lot to accomplish in two hours, so I let the rolling and cutting begin:

The frangipanis were made with five simple petals:

 

The dog roses, which were a little more complicated, were made with five large petals, 3 small ones, 7 stamens and a dollop of soft icing:

 

And a little while later…. voilà! All finished:

I’ll now detail why “sharing is caring”!

It’s good to share cupcakes with others.

I get such a buzz when I’ve baked beautiful cupcakes and I get to share them with loved ones. I’m honoured when they comment on how yummy they are, or how amazing they look. It’s so much better than just eating them on my own.

Okay, so I love sharing good cupcakes. But sometimes I’m also forced to share some “not-so-good” cupcakes. You know, the ones you can’t hide quickly enough, and the family just have to taste them. I watch their faces to see their reaction, but I already know what to expect. They’ll say something like, “they’re not your best cupcakes sweetie, but they’re edible”; “it’s alright Mum, they’ll be better next time”; or “Oh, I’ll just have half now and finish the rest later”. I know it’s all going to be fine though, because no matter how bad my cupcakes are my family still loves me. They don’t ditch me because of my bad cupcakes. In fact, they are confident that my cupcakes will be better next time and encouragingly tell me so.

It’s the same when I share my life with family and friends. There are bits of life that are not always pleasant. Life is not always happy and cheery and fun. We go through times of trouble, sadness, sickness. But genuine love and care is when we are willing to share life in the hard, as well as, the easy times – not just in times of laughter, but also tears; times of joy and sadness; prosperity or financial hardship; good health as well as times of sickness.

From the time my kids were really little, we had a wonderful saying – “sharing is caring”. We were trying to teach them that it’s good to share. We didn’t just mean sharing our things, which is great of course, but we also wanted them to learn the importance of sharing ourselves. Sharing our lives with loved ones is the very essence of a meaningful life. Imagine doing life alone – how sad.

Throughout my breast cancer journey, there have been many unforgettable moments, along with others I’d prefer to forget. But the unforgettable moments that stand out, are those special times with special people, that may have not meant a lot to them, but which I will treasure forever. They were moments that made a huge impact on me and made my life worth fighting for. They were people who were willing to share my journey no matter how hard; people who didn’t ditch me when I lost my hair from chemo; people who weren’t embarrassed to push me around in a wheelchair (when I broke my ankle and still had no hair!); people who didn’t avoid me because I was 10 kilos heavier from cancer drugs and steroids, and didn’t know what to say to me; people who had patience with me when I didn’t have enough energy to walk or talk; and people who were distressed by my changed appearance but loved me for who I am on the inside.

These were my loved ones, my motivators, my encouragers, my personal trainers, who cheered me on when I thought I couldn’t go another step; who nurtured me when I felt hopeless; who prayed for me when I was too weak to pray for myself; who remembered the Jen I was before I got sick; who told me I was beautiful in spite of how ugly I felt; who held my hand or hugged me when I was too sick to talk; who visited me even when I was not much fun to be around; and who never lost confidence that I would soon be a new and improved version of my old self again!

I constantly see these people in my mind’s eye and I will forever treasure them in my heart. Words can’t adequately express what their support has meant to me, but I pray for them always. I thank God for sending them to share my life and I’m confident that He saw what they did for me. It’s like that old saying, “what goes around comes around”. I’ve never really liked the way that saying is used in a negative way, so I’d like to use it in a positive way instead. That is, in the circle of life, I believe that what we do for others, we can expect that others may do for us one day; I believe that to have a friend, we first need to be friendly; I believe that to be lovable, we need to be lovely; and I believe that if we genuinely care for someone, we must be willing to share our lives with them.

I hope that sharing is the key to rotating your “circle of life”, and that you always remember that “sharing is caring”!