Talk! Speak! Communicate!

I thought that the quote in this picture was so right until I read it a few more times and thought about it. 

Now I am going to contradict this picture..... 

OK sometimes it is good to keep quiet about things because you know that others just don't "get" you BUT isn't it right to try to help people understand? (note here I used the world help rather than make).

Keeping silent about things because you think others won't understand is the wrong approach I feel.

I know there are people out there reading my blog who haven't had cancer or breast cancer so how can they understand what my journey has been like?

Indeed.... how can I understand the journey of a fellow breast cancer patient? I am not her and she is not me.

I think that God gave us a voice, he gave us communication and therefore its wrong to not use these gifts.

Today I received a lovely message telling me how my openness about my breast cancer journey has helped take away the fear of it in her life. Had I remained silent because people didn't understand I would not have helped that person.

My sons are on the autistic spectrum.

Decades ago, these children would have been sectioned and put into a special "hospital", their "condition" would not have been talked about, kept quiet, silent. Some children would be written off as naughty and a bad lot!!!!

Talking about Autism leads to greater awareness, tolerance, acceptance.......

Years ago we lived in communities and we saw all of the different things that could BE a person. There was no medical intervention, no TV or magazines to tell us how we should look, there were no dentists and you were lucky if you got to the age of 40.......

In these communities we would see disabled people, blind, deaf, diseased, those with no teeth, we would see birth and we would see death.

In this perfect century in which we live we are sheltered from such things and as a result we have no empathy or tolerance.

So my message in this post is................