Years ago, a reader of my first blog, Café Jen, wrote: "We have fun reading what you have fun writing." I feel like that every week when I prepare my Saturday Synopsis: I enjoy re-reading what I wrote one, two or three years ago, and reliving happy moments. In this way, my posts are not only gifts in the moment to everyone who reads them but also gifts to me to be enjoyed at a future day.

"Do what keeps you in the world with us, because that’s what really matters."

— A loved one

"A growing number of studies have looked at the impact of physical activity on cancer recurrence and long-term survival. (Cancer recurrence is cancer that comes back after treatment.) Exercise has been shown to improve cardiovascular fitness, muscle strength, body composition, fatigue, anxiety, depression, self-esteem, happiness, and several quality of life factors in cancer survivors. At least 20 studies of people with breast, colorectal, prostate, and ovarian cancer have suggested that physically active cancer survivors have a lower risk of cancer recurrence and improved survival compared with those who are inactive. Randomized clinical trials are still needed to better define the impact of exercise on such outcomes."

— American Cancer Society

I did manage to fit in one or two walking meetings every week—mostly one-on-one discussions with my direct reports. I also took calls while walking, frequently inviting people who wanted to chat with me to call between 7:00 and 7:30 a.m. while I was walking to work. This was ideal for coaching sessions, when I didn't need to take or refer to notes. I also felt that my periods of walking were like found time. I didn't have to give up something else to fit in a mentoring session.

I have always tried try to approach most situations by controlling the things I can and accepting the things I can't. For instance, I can control whether I take medication to try to keep my cancer from recurring and investigate surgery to try to avoid a second cancer, but I can't control the fact that I have a faulty BRCA2 gene. So rather than bemoan the latter, I get on with the former.

A friend recently wrote to me, saying: "Health battles are so personal and so universal simultaneously." ... I would add a third category: familial. In other words, health battles are personal (experienced by the individual), universal (experienced by all of us, though the specifics vary), and often familial (frequently experienced by multiple family members). ... The universal lesson of my story and my friend's is that we can all benefit from knowing our health history and using the information about diseases and health conditions that run in our families to reduce our risks.

Sharing stories also helps us to connect with other people. When we talk about an embarrassing incident, we demonstrate humility, a sense of humour, and a willingness to poke fun at ourselves. When we describe an error we committed, we display an openness to learning from mistakes and an acceptance that we're all human. And when we share a health struggle, we often show that we care more about educating the other person than about preserving our own modesty. All of this makes us likable and relatable.

"One of my greatest lessons has been to fully understand that what looks like a dark patch in the quest for success is the universe pointing you in a new direction. Anything can be a miracle, a blessing, an opportunity if you choose to see it that way. Had I not been demoted from my six o'clock anchor post in Baltimore back in 1977, the talk show gig would never have happened when it did. When you see obstacles for what they are, you never lose faith in the path it takes to get you where you want to go. Because this I know for sure: Who you're meant to be evolves from where you are right now. So learning to appreciate your lessons, mistakes, and setbacks as stepping stones to the future is a clear sign you're moving in the right direction."

— Oprah Winfrey

I appreciated that my friend had established an explicit category devoted to time with her mom. As we discussed, our time is limited in two ways:

"Once a man asked a painter to paint a picture for him. He told the artist he didn't want shadows in the picture, just sunshine. When the man saw the finished picture, he was disappointed. It didn't look right. Without shadows, everything in the picture looked flat and unreal. The point of the story, of course, is that we need both shadows and sunshine to have a complete picture, just as we need both rain and sun to have a living world. Perhaps people, too, need both sadness and happiness to be complete. We often learn important lessons during sad times. For example, if you are sad because you had an argument with a friend, you might learn to appreciate the friendship more. If you are sad because you did poorly on a test, you might study harder for the next one. When you feel sad, stop and think about what you might learn from the experience."

— Marileta Robinson, Senior Editor, Highlights for Children magazine

"I know you spend many evenings working on Café Jen, and I've expressed my disapproval of that to you on occasion, but eventually came to believe what you kept telling me—that you love doing it, and that it isn't 'work'. So keep doing it, please. We have fun reading what you have fun writing."

— A reader of Café Jen

We made our way back to Gore Street, hoping to find a bench from which we could watch the Pride Parade. The first one we happened upon was occupied by an older gentleman, with whom we struck up a conversation. He told us that his daughter lived in the apartment building nearby. Clearly, the bench offered the man more than a place to grab a quick cigarette. The man cheerfully chatted with us, telling us about his daughter, his granddaughter, his home community, and his trips to Perth and Ottawa. He appreciated the conversation as much as we did, thanking us for stopping to talk to him. It reminded me of the UK's "chat benches," which carry the sign "Sit here if you don't mind someone stopping to say hello!"

In a perfect world, you could visit loved ones anytime with ease. Keeping in touch would be as simple as inviting them to dinner or going to a show together. Unfortunately, many people find themselves separated from their loved ones by distance. The desire to see someone in person is often out of the question.

— Erika Krull

In 2010, a garden designer in Japan was mourning the loss of his cousin. To help cope with his grief, Itaru Sasaki set up a phone booth in his garden with an unconnected rotary phone. As reported in the CBC's story "This unconnected phone helps people reach out to lost loved ones," Sasaki knew that his thoughts could not be relayed over a regular phone line, so he wanted them to be carried on the wind. After the earthquake and tsunami in Japan in 2011, which killed nearly 20,000 people, Sasaki opened his phone booth to the public to help people dealing with grief.

"Being with people who understand you and are calm can help you maintain calmness as well."

— National Youth Mental Health Foundation

"The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson