"You can never re-create the past. But you can shape your own future. And you can make a cake." - Jacqueline Deval

It's so funny to me how things just come your way. Lately I've been coming across a lot of information about cancer both how it's transformed lives in surprisingly ways and how to get support as well.

I was reading a book that I found at a little thrift store called, Women to Women; a New Plan for Success and Well-Being. It is an inspiring book that has interviews with women who are successful in various fields and provides insights about how they came to stand out and different things they do to maintain their physical, spiritual and emotional health. Right up my alley!

One of the women interviewed is named Sylivia Weinstock. She is a world renown baker whose cakes are eaten by the who's who of the world...and featured in Martha Stewart's Brides magazine etc... Her cakes are beautiful and yummy...and anyone who knows me know how I feel about cakes! You need to see this woman. She is the cutest little thing with these lovely black glasses that makes her look wise, strong, and frisky simultaneously.

This is what she had to say about how cancer changed her life

"It was while I was undergoing chemotherapy that I started my bakery business. My husband Ben, was distressed at the idea of me traveling back and forth from the city for treatment. So he decided to give up his law practice and just like that we sold everything and moved to New York. He became my driving force, as well as my delivery boy. Baking had always been such a passion of mine. It was so enveloping that I had no time to be tired or feel ill. It was a fantastic way to focus my energy on life instead of cancer."

She was a teacher, and her husband was a lawyer, suddenly a tumor appears and she is transformed into a baker and her husband into a delivery man. How beautiful.

Maybe you're wondering why I'm writing about this. Maybe you will never have cancer or some life threatening diagnosis. Chances are, however, that you will at some point experience an event that may shatter your life as you know it. Although it has been said often enough to sound cliche, the beauty of those times is that when your life is in pieces it can be the just the right time to choose which shards to save and which to let go. A time which will thereafter remind you and those around you of grace instead of misery.

And like Sylvia, you can find support in a friend, partner, nature, books or cake... (and I have to add acupuncture, of course!!!)

Peace, love and cake!

Joi