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Life Can We Truly Know Peace Without Also Knowing Fear?

June 19, 2018 Kim Harms 2Comment

Thursday, June 14, 7:15 a.m. The storm has turned the highway into a river. White-knuckled and blinded by the pounding rain on my windshield, I want to be anywhere but here. I pray for the rain to stop. This is what fear feels like. Friday, June 15, 8:15 a.m. My stagnant little creek bed has turned into a soothing babbling brook. I sit on the makeshift wooden bridge, my feet dangling above the sand and rocks. This is exactly where I want to be. I thank God for the beauty. This is what peace feels like. I have a million…

Breast Cancer Free Mastectomy Pillows for Individuals and Medical Clinics

June 12, 2018 Kim Harms 2Comment

We have sent FREE mastectomy pillows to individuals in 39 states and medical centers in four states. My mom and her friends (The Bosom Buddies) get together regularly to sew pillows to give to women in need. In fact, they have a sewing day planned this week. The lovely woman pictured above is one our our pillow recipients. She received her pillow through the Hoffberger Breast Center in Baltimore, Maryland. If you or someone you know could use these pillows, you can find a contact form on my FREE MASTECTOMY PILLOWS page. (Please remember to include a mailing address with…

Life The Vietnam War and Sacrifice Gave My Brother His Name

May 28, 2018 Kim Harms

(I originally wrote the following post about freedom and sacrifice for inspireafire.com last year. I thought Memorial Day was an appropriate time to publish a slightly revised version.) Keith. That’s the name of my dad’s best boyhood friend. It’s also my brother’s name. My brother carries Keith’s name because Keith Kahlstorf was only allowed to carry it for a short time. The Vietnam War took his life when he was barely out of his teens. I’m sure he didn’t want to die. His family didn’t want him to die. My dad didn’t want him to die. But as that…

Breast Cancer Cancer Gave Me The Gift of Knowing Human Frailty

May 22, 2018 Kim Harms 4Comment

I was 40 and already had a head of prematurely gray hair (I hide it well) when Dr. Testroet called with the crappy cancer news, but the following words from Jen Wilkin’s 27-year-old experience ring true inside of me. Once you hear a cancer diagnosis, you can’t unhear it. Even with successful treatment, it changes the way you number your days. I had been given an opportunity not many 27-year-olds could claim: the opportunity to count each of my days as precious. Any illusions I might have had that this life would last forever were effectively removed. I learned a…

Breast Reconstruction 8 Women Weigh in on the Hardest Part of Breast Reconstruction

May 15, 2018 Kim Harms 2Comment

When people are comfortable enough to ask me about breast reconstruction, one of the things they want to know is “What was the hardest part?” It’s a tough question to answer because there are so many hard things about it both physically and emotionally. The following eight women (who represent a variety of breast reconstruction procedures) attempt to answer that question today. Heather Lau – Reconstruction with Tissue Expanders It was definitely physically hard for me. I got expanders put in two months after chemo, and my body was still recovering from that. I thought the drainage tubes were awful….