Cancer awareness collaboration #thinkpinkart 2015

The Month of October was Breast Cancer awareness month.  For this reason the facebook group CAC (Creative Arts Collaboration), which I am a member, chose to do  #thinkpinkart event.  This event is now closed to adding new videos but the art videos created and uploaded between the dates 15th-18th October will be on YouTube for as long as the artists do not delete their videos and/or YouTube exists.  The purpose of this blog post is not so much to promote the event will happen but more to promote that the event has happened and that the content can still be accessed.  After all cancer awareness is important all year round.  It is also about my thoughts on three words that for me became a focus of my art for this collaboration (click here to see my video).  The three words I am talking about are Love, Hope and Faith.  I have heard these three words often as I fought my own battle with cancer 15 years ago.  I googled these words for inspiration and asked some of my Facebook friends to tell me what they think these words represent for them.  Here is what I came up with.

Love

"is thinking someone else is more important to you"
"this world seems to have very little love lately but yet be full of it"

The Dictionary definition of love : A strong feeling of affection.  A great pleasure and interest in something.

Faith -

"believing in something that is bigger than you.
"faith in god or whatever, faith is another word for trust"

The Dictionary definition of Faith is: Complete trust in someone or something. Strong Believe in doctrines of religion based on spiritual conviction rather than proof.

Hope -

"I hope that the world is a kinder place for my kids"
"hope, wanting things to stay good or get better a lack of hope is depression"
"Where there is life there is hope"

The Dictionary definition of Hope is that it is a feeling that what is wanted can be had, a person or thing that the expectation is centred around. 

So hope is a feeling or an expectation of the future. My gut feeling is that hope is the most important aspect of living life to the full.  Without that sense of hope for the future what would we feel? why bother making the effort if there is no hope?   Hope itself is difficult to quantify as feelings and expectations are very subjective, are these feelings positive or negative in nature.  However, from what I can see in the quotes from my friends and the quotes found in inspirational quotes via google, a sense of positivity is the common theme.

So how can hope be found with cancer? This is a very difficult question to answer as not everyone survives cancer.  So I will not dwell on this too much as I do not wish to upset anyone needlessly.  However, as death the most difficult painful aspect of a diagnosis of cancer, I believe hope is one of the most important needs for those with the diagnosis.  As well as their family and friends.  I also think Hope is very individual and is tied into a persons expectation of the future so for example a persons hope may not be tied to their own personal outcome but could be that their hope is their children grow up without the risk of developing cancer.  So all our fundraising for cancer research helps to keep that hope alive by getting closer to curing all cancer. Alternatively by raising awareness it encourages early detection so therefore a greater chance of survival.   

Can you find hope without love and Faith?  Hmmm well I guess receiving affection from another will strengthen your resolve? Having love for another will give you a reason to look forward and have hope for either your future or theirs or both.  Faith, well if you do not believe you can do anything that will give a feeling of hopelessness.  Remember the dictionary defines faith as believing or trusting in someone.  That someone does not have to be someone else, it can be you.  So therefore if nothing else you have to have faith in yourself to believe you can do "something", "anything".   So I guess looking at it like that they are all interconnected and rather important for each other too.

Cancer research uk have recognised the need for hope and as such I hope my contribution to the #thinkpinkart will help spread the word and help to inspire people to raise funds to help others find not only Hope but Love and Faith too.

Please remember these are my thoughts on the matter, I urge you to draw your own conclusions based on your thoughts on yourself the world and others.

Thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts.

 Until next time Take care T x