Today, I received an incredible email. It was from Cathy in the US. I surfed some cancer blogs last week, and came across hers, called: I will thrive. She had been diagnosed with breask cancer 6 years ago, but found recently that it had come back, and had spread pretty widely. And yet she says she will thrive.

Anyway, I left a comment, and she emailed me to encourage me.

This woman's courage and generosity humbles me. How does someone think of reaching out to a total stranger at a time like this?

Cancer does bring out the best in people, it shows us the good, the best part of being human. I have had so many positive experiences since being diagnosed, so much more than in 'normal' life. I ask myself, why does it take a dread disease diagnosis for this to happen, for people, including me, simply to be kind?

I see an object lesson in Cathy's ability to reach out - perhaps we need to keep taking that step that takes us beyond our own concerns to reach out to someone not within our immediate circle more often. Perhaps we need to make it a point to do so - regularly. It is like going to the gym - we need to make a conscious effort, and to keep it up.

There are many cancer survivors in the world - and I have discovered, since surfing all those blogs, that we all ask the same questions, and are seeking something...more. We read so many stories of people who have survived the cancer and treatment and changed their lives as a result.

That's Category A. Category B: people who are still searching, still waiting to hear from God, or whatever higher power they believe in, on what they should do. Sometimes, there is nothing. They go back to their lives and carry on, no change, even when initially they might have wanted to change. Cathy says perhaps we are never meant to know the answer to the 'why me?' question.

I wonder which category I will fall into? I believe, if God's track record in my life is anything to go by, that I will see something coming out of it for me, but it may not be the whole picture. I believe that is what we are not meant to see,and this can be really frustrating. We are only shown enough to help us move ahead to where we are meant to be. But to understand it all - well, I guess that's God's little secret to keep.