Her Inner Beauty

Life can become an unending nightmare for any woman diagnosed with breast cancer, especially if she has to face it alone.

Not only does her body have to battle and eliminate cancer cells, but she also has to deal with the negative emotions that come with a life-threatening illness.

[Click on the highlighted text to read about some of the feelings and emotions that she can feel when she has breast cancer.]

The journey is like walking in the woods, not knowing what she will encounter.

Remember the fairy tale of Little Red Riding Hood?

Imagine your loved one walking in the forest and coming across a small hut. The door is open, and she goes inside.

There on the table are three old, wooden chests.

She opens the first chest, and a blinding light poured out. “That’s too bright; I can’t see anything,” she exclaims.

So she slams the lid shut.

Then, she opens the middle chest and looks inside. “This is too dark,” she said. “I can’t see anything, either.”

She closes the second chest.

She feels discouraged and wants to leave the hut.

Why should she open the third chest? The first two were disappointments.

Then, a genie appears and says, “Don’t be afraid! Open the third chest, and you will find something better than you could ever imagine.”

The genie recedes into the background and the woman lifts the top of the third chest.

“This one is just right. There is just enough light. I can see three precious jewels that are just right for me. Attractive. Dazzling. Beautiful.”

She smiles and thanks the genie who encouraged her to try once more.

Then, she puts the three jewels into her apron.

She leaves the hut, walks back through the forest, and returns home.

She is rich beyond her wildest dreams.

Yes, like the woman in the story, your loved one has three jewels and is rich indeed.

With your help as her “genie,” she can rediscover her inner beauty – the jewels of being, doing, and relating.

She has carried those three jewels her entire life.

She carries the treasure of being, the treasure of doing, and the treasure of relating.

Breast cancer will never take away the treasure that she is.

Breast cancer often puts a film over her three jewels’ facets so that her surface appearance doesn’t shine as it did before.

That is until you come along and encourage with your treasuring messages.

When breast cancer first appears, it’s like opening the first chest.

The news can blind your loved one with fear, shock, and anxiety.

The doctor’s report is so sudden and intense, she can’t see her goodness of life.

Then, as time on the breast cancer journey moves song, her anxiety and fear may make everything look dark, like opening the second chest.

She gets plunged into a deep, black hole.

The reality is that she is still the attractive, dazzling, and beautiful woman she has always been.

She just needs the right amount of light to see it.

That is your task, as her companion on the journey: to help her open the third chest, polish the jewels, reveal the facets, so that she will walk away and return home safe, sound, and enriched with love.

Each experience, memory, gift, virtue, and aspect of her personality is a facet of who she is.

And she carries the light of life within her that shines through all of those facets.

That inner fire and light of her life are still there, just waiting to be revealed.

A little polishing will wipe away the film that breast cancer deposited and let her true beauty shine out.

Click on the highlighted text to read more about the first jewel, the treasure of being.