The Pause: Navigating Life's Priorities After Cancer

Every moment counts. That's the lesson cancer taught me, and it's hitting home as I watch my son—now taller and stronger than me—prepare for his freshman year of high school.

Since transforming this into a cancer-focused podcast, something unexpected happened. My inbox floods daily with pitches from authors, people who have had cancer, and researchers eager to share their stories. While I never planned an interview format, these voices deserve to be heard. Meanwhile, I've found a new comfort in sharing my own cancer journey, even fielding interest about turning my story into a book.

But a simple phrase stopped me in my tracks: "You only have 18 summers with your children. Make them count." Before cancer, I consistently prioritized work over family. After facing mortality, I promised myself that would change. Now, with my main business Hike Like a Woman demanding attention—preparing for a Utah trip, another Kilimanjaro expedition, and managing website redesigns—something has to give.

Family and adventure are my core values. To honor them, I'm pressing pause on this podcast, at least until I return from Kilimanjaro. Then I'll either reinvent it or let it go entirely. Cancer taught me that time is precious, and sometimes the most powerful choice is knowing when to step back. What would you like to hear if this podcast returns? Your feedback matters as I contemplate this next chapter. Until then, cherish your summer moments with those who matter most.

Chapters

• 0:00 Podcast Direction Challenges
• 1:32 Balancing Family and Work Priorities
• 3:00 Decision to Pause the Podcast
• 4:52 Future Plans and Farewell

Transcript

Speaker 0: 0:30

Since switching over my podcast to talk just about cancer, a few things have happened. First, my inbox has been full. I probably get two to three pitches every single day from people who have written books about cancer or people who have had cancer or people who have a podcast about cancer or a YouTube channel about cancer who want to come on the show to share their books or their stories or their channel or their research. And that's cool and that's great, but I never intended for this to be a interview show. At the same time, some of these people sound really interesting and I'd love to give people a platform to share. So I've been kind of mulling over whether or not to take the podcast in that direction and open it up to give more people who have had cancer or who are doing really cool things in the area of research about cancer a voice. The other thing that's happened is I found that it's much easier for me to talk about my cancer experience and open up about those stories, and I even had someone approach me about writing a book about my experience with cancer, which is intriguing but also not a task that I'm mentally ready to take on right now, or something that I'm not even sure if I wanna do that. And the third thing has happened. A little while ago there was a poem going around or a little quote that was like you only have 18 summers with your children. Make them count. And next year my oldest son will be a freshman in high school and I dropped him off at mountain bike camp a few days ago and I looked at him and he's taller than me, he's stronger than me, he's faster than me and I just had this realization that I need to just slow down a little bit and really be there for my children as they approach these really weird and awkward high school years, especially during the summer when they don't have school. So what does that have to do with a podcast about breast cancer? I think this is a way of me saying that came out of the gate hard with this podcast about cancer and now I'm wondering which direction to take this podcast. And I'm also really busy at Hike, like a Woman Got a group trip to Utah coming up next week and physically and mentally preparing myself for Kilimanjaro again, and then we're redesigning our website and I brought on an employee and all of these things. So I feel like it's a very busy moment and hike like a woman pays the bills, and my little silly breast cancer podcast does not pay the bills. So it's time for me to pause one project so that I can be there for my children this summer and be around to drive them to all of their mini activities and be there to go for a bike ride with them or to go for a walk or a hike with them, or just be around.

Speaker 0: 3:45

Before, when I was diagnosed with cancer, I owned an outdoor retail store, I owned a seasonal ski shop and I was running hike like a woman and I felt like I always put work before my family and before my children and coming out of cancer, I just decided I wasn't going to do that anymore. So, in staying true to my values, which are family and adventure, I'm just going to pause the pod for a little while I don't know how long and figure out what direction to take it If it needs to just continue being a place where I share my story or if I need to open it up for interviews. I just need to think about that and I'm going to take some time and give myself a little break until I come home from Kilimanjaro, and at that point I'm either going to delete the entire podcast or it's going to be fresh and revised and new. So stay tuned. That's what's going on. I'd love your feedback on maybe what you're interested in hearing here on the pod. So, thank you, have a great summer. Thanks so much.