Yesterday’s post included this quote from Donna McNutt, Instagram’s Cancer Fashionista, “It has now become my mission to tell others, find your thing, the thing that makes you whole, do not let cancer take it.” 

For me, that thing, apart from my faith, is writing. Fashion is fun. Travel is a passion. Reading, dancing, golfing, camping, hiking, kayaking, keeping fit, and participating in community theatre are all things I enjoy doing, but writing is the one thing I have to do. Long before cancer, writing was who I am.  

I first knew this in Mr. Geary’s grade 12 English class. I knew it in university when I loved the hours and hours spent researching and writing papers. I knew it when, as a young stay-at-home mom, I put my babies down for their afternoon naps, pulled out my typewriter, and worked on a correspondence course on non-fiction technique offered by the Alberta Culture Film and Literary Arts division. I knew it when, as a member of the now defunct Flagstaff Writers organization (Alberta, not Arizona), I had occasional pieces published in our column in the local weekly paper. I knew it when I sold a few articles to larger publications and savoured the feeling of a cheque in my hands. 

When my children were a bit older and I returned to teaching school, I discovered that there simply weren’t enough hours in the day for writing. Thankfully, for that period of time, passing on my love of reading and writing to my students fulfilled the same passion in me. As soon as I retired, however, the need to write was back. I’d always assumed that I would return to freelance writing, but then came blogging. As many of you know, I started Following Augustine to share our year of teaching English in Japan with friends and families at home. I had no idea then that it would still be going strong more than a decade later! 

Though receiving those cheques for published articles was nice, I discovered that I didn’t need to sell my writing to feel fulfilled by it. I just need to know that someone enjoys reading it. That’s one of the reasons that I haven’t attempted to monetize the blog. I prefer to maintain the freedom to write whatever I want without having to consider whether or not it’s consistent with the values of the brands that I’d be representing. For me, writing is not a job, it’s simply who I am.  

Now, back to Donna’s wise advice, “find your thing, the thing that makes you whole, do not let cancer take it.” How has writing been part of my cancer journey? Has it helped me cope? There’s no question that cancer added another dimension to the blog. Within three days of hearing that I had cancer in August 2013, I’d published my first post about it and I’ve lived my cancer journey out loud on Following Augustine ever since. There are several reasons for that. First of all, since the blog was already well established and read by many of my close family and friends, it was an easy way to keep them informed about what was happening without having to repeat myself over and over again. Second, because writing is who I am, it helps me process the things that are happening in my life. That’s incredibly important when you’re dealing with something as complex and confusing as cancer and its treatment. And third, I’ve tried to use the blog to raise awareness of neuroendocrine cancer (NETs) which, while no longer rare, is still relatively unknown. Cancer is not who I am, but writing is!  

And now it’s your turn. What is that one thing that makes you whole; the one thing that you have to do? Have you found it yet? Please let us know in the comment section.