Joy Mining
Finding something good in the middle of cancer, IVF, and motherhood
I sat down with Sarrah Strimel Bentley for a virtual interview which, if I’m being honest, is not my favorite way to connect.
There’s usually a lag. A distraction. A sense that something is slightly off.
But this wasn’t that.
Somewhere between her toddler moving in and out of the frame and the two of us talking about everything we’ve lived through to get here, the screen disappeared. It just felt like two women, in it together.
Her story is the kind that stops you.
A breast cancer diagnosis at 38. IVF rushed in before treatment. One embryo. One shot. Rounds of chemo, surgeries, the kind of physical and emotional toll most people can’t fully comprehend. And still, somehow, she held onto the belief that motherhood was not off the table.
And she didn’t go through it quietly.
She documented the entire journey as she was living it. The fear, the waiting, the hope, the setbacks. In doing that, she’s given so many other women something to hold onto in their own stories.
What struck me most wasn’t just what she went through. It was how she talks about it.
She calls it “joy mining.”
The idea that even in the hardest, most uncertain moments, there is still something worth noticing. Something good. Something alive.
And sitting there, listening to her toddler in the background, hearing the life she fought so hard for just existing in real time, it made sense.
It didn’t distract from the conversation.
It deepened it.
Because that’s the thing about motherhood, about survival, about all of it. It’s rarely quiet. It’s rarely clean. It’s almost never convenient.
But it’s real.
And when you’re talking to someone who has walked through cancer, infertility, IVF, and still comes out the other side talking about gratitude, you realize connection doesn’t depend on perfect conditions.
It just requires honesty.
And maybe a little willingness to find the joy anyway.
If this resonated, you can find clips, conversations, and behind-the-scenes moments on Instagram:
@keeshawscott
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