LOVE MATTERS It is the most sacred feeling on earth. Johnny Depp is incredibly creative and talented, but his words about love reveal his depth and wisdom too. A diagnosis of breast cancer is a call to embrace love, love of each other, and love of life itself. Let’s celebrate love, let’s celebrate you!

Lissa Rankin, M.D. had a life changing shift when she realized she wasn’t living her dream, but someone else’s perceptive of what certainty should be. It’s not just medical professionals who are reevaluating their place in the world, but patients across the country. Make decisions based on what is in your heart or as Bernie Siegel, M.D. says, “do what makes you happy.” This isn’t selfishness, but is how we get back in touch with what is best for us.

Investing in our health and our life is a very worthy investment. Molly MacDonald’s interview with one of the country’s leading experts in finances for women reminds us that we can begin small — but begin today to invest in yourself.

Now in the 10th year, the BCW Thrivers Cruise is now the longest running cruise in the world for breast cancer thrivers. You are officially invited to join us during this momentous occasion celebrating YOU. We have an amazing time together because there is a reverence of understanding what the journey is about. We laugh, and we laugh again. We cry, we share. I love the term that Bonnie Phelps calls all of us: “Forever Friends.” There is a reborn strength that happens. Together we celebrate love, life and each other — and have great fun along the way.

I met Lisa LaRock on the Thrivers Cruise. I learned that behind her quietness was a woman with an amazing story of strength and character. It wasn’t just breast cancer that changed Lisa’s world. It was being betrayed by her husband followed by divorce. Lisa prepared herself for a better life after breast cancer and divorce and experienced a newfound confidence in herself.

A loving shout out to Heather Tewell Grace for creating the Thomas Grace Scholarship Fund for BCW. Your generosity will touch women’s lives forever. It was the first night of the cruise and I was seated next to Heather. It deeply touched me how Heather and her friend Charlene had such a powerful bond of friendship.

Jan Ping, thank you for your amazing gift of shifting our eyes to see our true beauty. When we see our real beauty, we heal and we quit hiding behind the lies that we aren’t good enough or not pretty enough. Every one of us will long remember cruise 2015 because of what you taught us to see.

Join Jennifer Kielman and me on May 2, 2015 for a special one day event — “The Power of Sharing Your Story” at the Country Club Hotel & Spa at the Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri. Jennifer will expand on how her job contributed to saving her life and how she now sees life in a new light.