This ad has been showing up on Canadian Airwaves this month. It is too good to not share with my American friends! I find it so inspiring and energizing. It send chills up my spine every time I see it. After watching it twice in a row on youtube, I was teary-eyed. A third time yielded real teardrops. It's amazing, and I love how it shows the power of hope and the human spirit in the face of tremendous adversity and once-bleak prospects. Each person in the ad is telling his or her own story: some are directly affected by illness, some are family members, and others are doctors, nurses, and researchers. Regardless, they have pulled together to help each other through it all, and that is something we can all do.





With an estimated one in three people to be diagnosed with cancer in our lifetime, it is something that all of us will likely have to pull together on at some point, in one role or another. Hope is essential.

The music choice was so appropriate - Verve's Bittersweet Symphony. Illness and loss are two of life's most bitter experiences, but through them, our capacity to understand and appreciate life's sweet moments is increased. One girl's story, "Cancer took my leg, but not my life", emphasizes this. Loss is part of life, and mourning those losses is an important step, but focusing on the good that remains will ultimately further our healing from loss and deepen our capacity for joy and appreciation of life and its sweet moments.