Beauty and inspiration.

I've mentioned before on my blahg (several times, actually) that my Aunt Tracey is a survivor of breast cancer. At the onset of her diagnosis, I think she and I naturally formed an even more special bond than we already had because I could relate to most of her struggles.

Not breast cancer struggles, of course, but struggles that involved the fear of leaving our child[ren] behind, the fear of what this disease might mean for our futures, and the fear of the physical side effects that each of us would be battling.

Someone who could help relate to her exact feelings and experience, however, was a friend of mine from my days at Baylor. At my age, she was in the midst of the same battle -- undergoing a double mastectomy, chemotherapy, and reconstructive surgery. In addition to all of this, during her ordeal she was informed that her dad was also battling cancer. Unfortunately, he lost his battle a little over a year ago.

Through all of this shit that she had to put up with, I never heard one single negative word come out of her mouth.

Instead, she devoted herself to the cause and embraced her "new beautiful."

I am so thankful for this friend of mine. She has never met my Aunt Tracey, but I know she instilled into her the same positive attitude that she had, and I am a firm believer that she helped my aunt in many ways that most of us around her were unable to.

So, on my recent trip to Dallas, she told me that she wanted to do boudoir. In addition to this, she wanted to focus on taking some pictures of herself with pink boxing gloves and underwear that read "survivor."

In other words, she wanted to show the world (and herself) that she [literally] kicked cancer's ass.