October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Do you know how your breasts are doing?

They’re everywhere. Reminders to have your mammogram. Everything, everywhere is pink.

I went into Bed, Bath, and Beyond the other night. I was on my way to a “pink party” (I’ll explain in a minute) but needed to make an exchange on a recent purchase (we were remodeling our bathroom, as you may recall). As soon as the automatic doors slid open, I witnessed an odd display of pink and…well, Christmas colors.

But the pink came first. Everything you can imagine….pink. Pink cups. Pink socks. Pink gloves. Pink can openers. Pink bowl sets. Pink robes, pink nail kits, pink files and folders. Pink Christmas ornaments. Pink M&Ms and pink Tic Tacs, even.

I made my exchange, bought some pink Tic Tacs, Pink M&Ms, pink socks, a pink ornament, and a pink cold drink glass with the pink ribbon etched on it.

Then I went to the Pink Party.

You see, my friend KJ (her initials) did as the National Breast Cancer Foundation begs us boomers to do: she went and had her mammogram. They found something. Unexpected. A complete shock. She felt good. She lives healthy. Eats healthy. Walks three to five miles a day. Looks beautiful. How could anything cancerous be growing in her body?

Several tests later and the result is a double mastectomy on the last day of this month.

Ever a daughter of God, she threw a short pity party and then a GIANT pink party. She invited her girlfriends, told us to wear pink, bring pink food, and think pink. Some even wore pink wigs. They were really thinking pink!

Thinking Pink: Celebrate Being a Woman!

And so we did. We ate, we sipped on nonalcoholic pink champagne with strawberries, yum! We gabbed. We laughed. We shared. KJ gave an inspirations speech to us as a group, about getting our mammograms, listening to our bodies when they subtly tell us something is wrong. Then she went around the room and, individually, told us what we and our friendship meant to her. A video camera was set up in the living room where the party goers could record a message to KJ, something for her to listen to during her time of recooperation.

You don’t have to have Breast Cancer to throw a pink party. But what a fun thing to do. And, perhaps next year in September, a way for each woman to announce when they had their mammogram or will have their mammogram. We celebrate being women, but we must also keep ourselves accountable to care for the beautiful body God gave us.

So, what about you? Have you had your mammogram yet?

For more information, go to: Susan G. Komen for the Cure

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