I just heard someone say that time doesn't heal all wounds -- it just makes them worse. I guess it depends on the wound. I imagine losing a child is one wound that never really heals. But I've found that my cancer wounds -- both physical and emotional -- have healed with time. And a trip down memory lane proves it.

Two years ago I wrote about my wounds, fresh and raw and painful, on my Breast Cancer blog.

Confession
Wednesday, February 23rd, 2005

Julia Fikse, founder of Ta-tas trademark brand clothing, who wants to do some good in the world, has built a company based on the philosophy that laughter heals. As Fikse states on the Ta-tas company website, "Our mission is to celebrate the varied beauty of women through playful expressive clothing and accessories. We believe all people are uniquely designed by God and should feel comfortable, valuable and beautiful as they are."

Some of the slogans screen printed on tees include: caught you looking at my ta-tas; ta-tas unite; and save the ta-tas. Fikse is living her goal of doing some good in the world as she donates five percent of every sale to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation in hopes of finding a breast cancer cure in our lifetime.

She is fun and funny, as you will learn as you browse through the Ta-tas website or read the Save the ta-tas thoughts on breast cancer blog. There are more than a few celebrities who think her line of clothing is fun and help promote the cause. A quick read-through finds Fran Drescher wearing caught you looking at my ta-tas tee to an Emmy SWAG party and making the front page of the LA Times Calendar because of the tee. Kate Beckinsale, Abigail Spencer, Haylie Duff, Daisy Fuentes and Jessica Alba have answered "where do you take your ta-tas" in photos published by Fikse.

Fikse asks for photo submissions of people wearing a ta-tas tee and is also open to design suggestions for future tees. Like I said, she is fun. Visit the website, read the blog, save the ta-tas.

In the moment of despair, the cliche time heals all wounds may seem anything but comforting. But that's because it's true. It takes time to heal and we are not in the right frame of mind just as something unfortunate has happened to accept -- or believe -- this advice that might come flowing from a well-wisher's lips. It's popular wisdom. It's commonly offered as comfort. It's easy to spit out. And while our wounds do not exactly fade with the passage of time, we are able to put a more positive spin on them. But it's tough to appreciate this until the unfortunate moment is long gone.

According to a recent study -- summarized in the September 2006 Ladies Home Journal magazine -- memories of distressing events, like the death of a loved one, don't go away but they do gradually get colored by more hopeful emotions. As time passes, we tend to remember strongly emotional experiences as positive even if they were once harrowing. "People are resilient," says one researcher. "We come to terms with our experiences in as positive a way as we can." So we may eventually see the death of a friend as something that made us stronger, something that reminds us to treasure our friendships. Our ability to find such meaning in the saddest of times helps transform it into a valuable experience -- and not just a sad one.

And this is exactly how I feel about having had cancer. No one could have convinced me at the time of my diagnosis that time would heal my wounds. I wasn't even sure how much time I had left on this planet. I was panic-stricken and frightened and tended to defeat conventional wisdom. But now that two years worth of time has passed me by and I am pretty certain I will continue surviving for a long time, I realize time is responsible for my positive outlook. Time did not completely heal my wounds -- I still have days when my wounds are raw -- but it surely bandaged them. And so I do believe time heals all wounds -- in a way -- and I am thankful for each moment of time I have to marvel at this truth.