I've just spent an amazing weekend in Big Sky, Montana with eighty incredible women who have dealt with, or are now dealing with cancer. Mending in the Mountains, the three day retreat at the 320 Guest Ranch was put on by the Cancer Support Community (formerly the Wellness Community) in Bozeman and was free to all the women who came. Spa treatments, jewelry making, group therapy, yoga, music therapy and writing workshops – plus fantastic food. Oh, and one guy came too – R., but he didn't stick around for my opening talk Friday night which included all the personal details of my own experience with breast cancer. 

On Saturday we did a writing exercise based on Brian Andreas's poem "Nothing More". ( "If there is any secret/to this life I live, this is it:/the sound of what cannot be seen/sings within everything that can.")  The writing prompt was to write about the secret to life. In five minutes! An impossible thing to do of course, but then everybody did it. At the end of the weekend in my closing remarks I read excerpts of what they had come up with and it occurred to me that these secrets to life also applied to writers:  

Trust what life puts in front of you.

Believe in miracles.

Breathe.

Just be. Be present, be authentic.

Give back and use your talents.

Feel everyday. Celebrate and express sadness without shame.

Be positive. Dance in the rain and don't worry about the storm.

Love more than once and have good dogs.

Have patience. All things change.

Live it: today not tomorrow. 

Take what you need, want what you have.

Let go. 

Love, love, love. 

And chocolate was mention a lot too.

Thanks to all you wonderful women who shared your stories this weekend. And thanks to Becky Franks and Ashley Olsen for inviting me.