Breast Cancer Music and The Comforter of My Soul
April 24, 2018 KimHarms 2Comment

I have no idea how it works. I’m a mediocre singer. I took piano lessons for five years and the only thing I can play is the first several measures of Could’ve Been by Tiffany. But somehow, when God created music, He made a salve for the human soul. My 10-year-old sings himself to sleep each night. His sweet sweet voice is a daily reminder of beauty from ashes. Of a miscarriage and many months of grieving and waiting followed by the gift of Lewis. My little man has no idea, but his voice is a soul-soothing touch from my…

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Breast Cancer In the Dead of Night – A Mastectomy Story by Jane DeShaw
April 17, 2018 KimHarms

2:36 a.m. The February night is moonless, black, as you turn your head to the left and gaze out the second-story window. The limbs and leafless branches of the huge maple tree just outside are like cold, barren, groping arms, sinister in the streetlamp’s dim glow. Lying flat on your back in bed, each arm is propped up on a large pillow. Except for your elevated arms, you are nestled like a caterpillar in a cocoon. You would think this should make you feel safe and secure. You would think. Where did they put your breasts? Were they tossed in…

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Breast Cancer How American Idol Cracked Open the Cancer Wound
March 21, 2018 KimHarms

You never know when it’s gonna hit. I haven’t even given cancer much thought recently. I just live and write and buy groceries and do boy mom things and complain about the nine inches of mid-March snow that the weatherman did not forecast.  And it’s good. I like this life God has given me. I’m happy. I’m content. I’m blessed. But this guy named Brandon Elder walked into our living room via the American Idol try-out stage the other night and he opened up wounds I wasn’t prepared to revisit. This sweet 22-year-old guy started talking about his mom while…

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Breast Cancer Wildfire Magazine – For Young Survivors and Fighters of Breast Cancer
February 27, 2018 KimHarms 1Comment

I’d like to introduce you to Wildfire Magazine. I came across it while doing some breast cancer research online, and it’s a fantastic resource. Real stories written by real women who’ve had a wide variety of experiences with breast cancer, from the early stages all the way to Stage 4. This month’s theme is Infertility, and the magazine is filled with beautifully written, raw stories. Next month, the theme is Body Image, and I am honored that I will have an article in that issue. Wildfire is a wonderful community of women whose lives have been changed by cancer. And it’s…

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Breast Cancer Your Hurting Friend Might Need You to Clean Her Toilets But She Probably Won’t Ask
February 6, 2018 KimHarms 2Comment

I remember the day Carter started kindergarten. The eldest and most timid of my children, I can say with certainty his first day of school would still rank somewhere in the top 5 if he kept a Terrible-Horrible-No Good-Very Bad-Day list. That was a long day followed by a long difficult year of adjustment. But he got through it. I remember the day Owen realized he didn’t have super powers. It was a blow to his self-confidence when his dad broke the news that it was a remote control turning on the ceiling fan; not the super-spin motion created by Owen’s alter…

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