There are lessons to be learned every day. There are lessons to be learned in everything. We learn from everything we experience, even the bad stuff.

There’s a reason for that old phrase live and learn.

March 6, 2013 marks five years since my mother died from metastatic breast cancer. Sometimes it seems like it was only yesterday. Sometimes it seems like ages ago.

As it should, time continues on. Time stops for no one.

Five years feels like one of those memorable markers, one of those milestones in the grieving process people speak of.

Note:  The following is an excerpt from a writing project I’ve been working on. As the five-year anniversary of my mother’s death from metastatic breast cancer draws near, “that time” has been on my mind a great deal. It feels right to share some thoughts with you that I wrote back then about something that was very much on my mind; that thing called “time”.

Do you remember your very first loss? I don’t mean when you lost or misplaced something you cared about, I mean the first time you lost someone or something you truly loved.

The first loss I vividly recall is when our much loved black and brown dachshund named Penny died when I was ten years old. It was a cold January night and she died while resting quietly by the heat register in the bathroom after laboring for hours to just keep breathing.

As I’ve mentioned before, February is a loaded month for me. It’s a month heavy-laden with dates and reminders.

February was when cancer, the uninvited guest, first came calling and never “left the table”. February 2008 was when my mother’s metastasized cancer took an ugly turn for the worse and we reluctantly admitted her into a nursing home. And last February was when my friend, Rachel Cheetham Moro, died from metastatic breast cancer. She was only 41 years old.

I think about my mother a lot during the holidays because there’s a lot to remember and a lot to miss. My mother was not only “the queen of good-byes,” she was the “queen of the holidays.”

If you are missing a loved one this holiday season, you might be interested in reading an earlier post of mine which contains twelve tips for getting through the holidays. You might find it helpful. Here’s the link.

Recently the breast cancer blogosphere was a-buzz about a controversial decision made by The Gathering Place to take down the art exhibit of Angelo Merendino. In case you’re not familiar with the story you can read a good synopsis of it from Uneasy Pink here.

This post is not about that aspect of the story. It’s not about the “taking down.”

No, what I’d like to explore a bit is the powerfulness of the photos themselves.