Wednesday, October 29, 2008

morning

From my so favorite web site....wonderful gifts..... check it out

May this be a morning of innocent beginning,
When the gift within you slips clear
Of the sticky web of the personal
With its hurt and its hauntings,
And fixed fortress corners,

A morning when you become a pure vessel
For what wants to ascend from silence.

—John O'Donohue

Monday, October 27, 2008

remembering

This is from another creative web site that i check often....

This weekend is the Celtic feast of Samhain and the Christian celebration of All Saint's Day and All Soul's Day which begins a whole month in honor of those who have died.

For the Celts this is the beginning of a new year and an especially thin time when the veil between heaven and earth is more transparent. As you begin a new year, you might consider calling to mind the memory of your ancestors and offering gratitude for all they have done to make it possible for you to exist. We tend to neglect our ancestral heritage in our culture, but in other cultures remembering the ancestors is an intuitive and essential way of beginning anything new. We don't recognize the tremendous wisdom we can draw upon from those who have traveled the journey before us and whose DNA we carry in every fiber of our bodies. As a way of honoring the past before we welcome in the future, consider engaging in practices that help you to connect with your own ancestors and the stories that form the roots of your own. Consider weaving these practices into your New Year's ritual as a way of recognizing that we never leave the past behind, but simply build on its foundations. A tree needs a strong root system to be able to reach its branches wide and tall.

Practice: Ancestor Stones
In the winter of 1955, the great psychologist Carl Jung chiseled the names of his paternal ancestors on three stone tablets and placed them in his courtyard. "When I was working on the stone tablets," he wrote, "I became aware of the fateful links between me and my ancestors." Consider going on a walk in the woods or on the beach at the end of the year and gather stones together. Bring them home and paint the names of your ancestors onto each stone and place them in your altar space or create a special altar for them. Make some time to hold each of them in your hands, make space within yourself to receive their gifts and wisdom, and reflect on the journeys of the people whose stories are so much a part of your own.

I have brought home many stones from the ocean and other places and intend to do this simple remembrance hopefully sometime next week while it is the season of remembering.....

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Spiritual Practice
of the Day


The cloud weeps, and then the garden sprouts.
The baby cries, and the mother's milk flows.
The Nurse of Creation has said, Let them cry a lot.

This rain-weeping and sun-burning twine together
to make us grow. Keep your intelligence white-hot
and your grief glistening, so your life will stay fresh.
Cry easily like a little child.
— Rumi - translation by Coleman Barks

To Practice This Thought: Express your emotions freely to keep your life fresh.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

the lymphedema journey continues

this post is probably goiong to be TMI (too much information)for some of you as i describe my visit with the RN who runs the lymphedema clinic in Morgan Hill (about 45 minutes away.)
I was there for 2 hours to get fitted for some kind of bra or garment that would provide compression to my very swollen and fluid filled breast. Her first suggestion
which was heavy black quilted fabric in this style, i turned down as something i know i would not wear.....
since this condition is a lifetime achievement with no cure, it doesn't make a whole lot of difference, i hope..........
we then proceeded to try over a dozen different styles of post mastectomy bras that have pockets in them into which i will insert a piece of heavy quilted garment similar (but a little smaller) to thisthat will provide compression.....this is a less satisfactory but for me more realistic solution.... so much for lots of my clothes that will just not look or fit right in this get up......i got 2 so that i don't have to wear the same one every day........
i then was fitted for the arm sleeve and glove
which i will wear during the day -all day and wear the heavy black one that i've been wearing daily only at nite....
it was a horrific couple of hours accompanied by quite a few meltdowns...
it's all pretty overwhelming......
add to the trauma the fact that insurance pays for none of these treatments so charging $400 later ( and that's without a custom glove which she recommended) the trauma intensifies.....
if i had had a mastectomy, it all would be covered!!!!! so much for our health care system......
i am worn out and feeling pretty low.....
tomorrow the sun will shine and i will breathe a little easier.... i hope sleep comes quickly tonite....

Saturday, October 18, 2008

the hard part

it's that time again = laying in bed and hurting a lot....every nite i want to get up and write about the pain - and i don't - tonite i did get up.....
tonite is a particularly hard one -not sure why
pain everywhere which i assume is the drugs and/or polymyalgia, but tonite the lymphedema is aching a lot...arm, hand, fingers.....i even looked it up again to see if i was crazy and read an article on the "truncal" lymphedema pain which i have in my right breast and chest and shoulder....it's very real and often worse than the pain in the arm....so i just lay there and hurt - i pack on ice as the physical therapist suggests that versus heat...i need to do some more reading on that.....
the internet is loaded with lymphedema pages -but they are overwhelming to read so i haven't done a lot of research - i just kind of ignore it as much as i can which is nearly impossible because of the compression sleeve and the pain
i am so very tired of pain and the pain medication that doesn't really work.............
tonite i can't stop crying................................
the beautiful autumn day and the flower arrangements i worked on are a fond memory


Thursday, October 16, 2008

my hero gloria steinem


yes - hero she is
and is one of the women being honored by Maria Shriver so she appeared on oprah today........
one of the things she said in the conversation will stick with me forever......Many things she has said over the years have become part of my life.....and today i really loved what she said that fits what i have felt so often.......it comforted me to have my sadness validated and know that what i often feel is not depression...
I have come to know...
Depression is when nothing matters
Sadness is when everything matters


Tuesday, October 14, 2008

joy, joy, joy




the three munchkins came for a sleepover on sat nite so we could make our halloween cookies - a holiday tradition.....christopher joined us to provide an extra pair of hands.....as always the boys were more than angels - we created our "rules" for the visit and posted them, ran around in the dark with glo sticks - a $1.00 well spent for nighttime fun, wished on the almost full moon, watched charlie brown great pumpkin dvd for a bedtime story and then all cuddled down really late and really tired..........everyone went right to sleep........
sunday morning was cookie making time with of course lots of sugar sprinkles.....auntie christine joined us for the great dough roll out...... i think more dough got eaten than made into cookies.....
then off to the playground and back for a picnic lunch in the backyard.....
i am still revelling in the joy that 3 little boys can bring.........my heart is filled to overflowing and i am lonely and sad that they are all gone home.....the previous post fits the situation well.......
my camera is taking some really blurry pictures, but you get the idea

Monday, October 13, 2008

TEARS

I absolutely love this quote found today on a web site i try to check out often....
When tears come, I breathe deeply and rest. I know I am swimming in a hallowed stream where many have gone before. I am not alone, crazy, or having a nervous breakdown . . . My heart is at work. My soul is awake.

Mary Margaret Funk in Thoughts Matter



To Practice This Thought: The next time you cry, explore what your heart and soul are telling you through your tears.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Breathing easier

HOORAY for "normal" mammogram and ultrasound for the 6 month checkup.....
i can now breathe a little easier for the next 6 !!!!!!

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Retreat to the Ocean


no appointments today..... first free day in a long time.... nervous about thursday's mammogram and ultrasound so decided to run away to the ocean where i always find healing and peace.
I walked a lot - sand walking is murder on the back and legs....extra pain tonite....
took my little camera and just took lots of pictures of the beauty....wish i had a better camera but am pleasantly surprised at what i did capture without a viewfinder in bright sun.....
there was even a sleeping seal and i had the beaches all to myself....
you can see them at Snapfish- it's free to join and look....
This beautiful face of the goddess was laying wait for me.....of course she came home with me....

Monday, October 06, 2008

Life in the Pain Lane

pain, pain, pain, and more pain....it's everywhere....even in my toes...
is it the PMR, the anti-cancer drugs or left over cancer treatment that is the cause ? some people have taold me their bodies have never been the same since chemo and radiation treatments....
doctors don't know..... they test, they prescribe, they commiserate and send me off with more pain....
i'm taking narcotics !!!!!! 4 times a day and now the rheumatologist has increased the steroid dosage once again on a trial basis.....he told me that the latest research on PMR states that patients must just get used to living on steroids as there seems to be no other treatment that works....so he upped the dose of the prednisone - a terrible, awful drug to be living on....
the worst is laying in bed at night - the pain pills only take the edge off.... mornings are hard to get moving with the accompanying stiffness (PMR related)
chronic pain is exhausting so i feel tired all the time......
my 6 month check up mammogram and ultrasound is this thurs - let 's all think CLEAR,CLEAR, CLEAR.....i'm more scared and nervous than i thought.....
MEANWHILE....i keep dancing......
it is a true life-saver

Sunday, October 05, 2008

A Call to Arms by Anne Lamott

One of my favorite authors has this to say -read anything she has ever written - you won't be sorry


How to handle the fury brought on by this election? Register voters, hit the streets, pray. Stop talking about her. Talk about Obama. By Anne Lamott | September 16, 2008


I had to leave church Sunday morning when it turned out that the sermon was not about bearing up under desperate circumstances, when you feel like you're going crazy because something is being perpetrated upon you and your country that is so obscene that it simply cannot be happening.

I sat outside a 7-Eleven and had a sacramental Dove chocolate bar. Jeez: Here we are again. A man and a woman whose values we loathe and despise -- lying, rageful and incompetent, so dangerous to children and old people, to innocent people in every part of the world -- are being worshiped, exalted by the media, in a position to take a swing at all that is loveliest about this earth and what's left of our precious freedoms.

When I got home from church, I drank a bunch of water to metabolize the Dove bar and called my Jesuit friend, who I know hates these people, too. I asked, "Don't you think God finds these smug egomaniacs morally repellent? Recoils from their smugness as from hot flame?"

And he said, "Absolutely. They are everything He or She hates in a Christian."

I have been in a better mood ever since, and have decided not to even say this woman's name anymore, because she fills me with such existential doubt, such a sense of impending doom and disbelief, that only the Germans could possibly have words for it. Nor am I going to say the word lipstick again until after the election, as it would only be used against me. Or polar bear, because that one image makes me sadder than even horrible old I can stand.

I hate to criticize. And I love to kill wolves as much as the next person does. But this woman takes such pride in her ignorance, doesn't have a doubt in the world about her messianic calling, that it makes anyone of decency feel nauseated -- spiritually, emotionally and physically ill.

I say that with love. As we say in Texas. (Also, we say, 'Bless her heart.')

We felt this grief and nausea during the run-up to the war in Iraq. We felt it after the 2004 election. And now we feel it again.

But since there are still six weeks until the election, and since the stakes are as high as the sky, which should definitely not be forced to endure four more years of the same, we have got to get a grip. There are millions of people to register to vote, millions of dollars to be raised. We really cannot go around feeling flat and defeated, with the need to metabolize the rotten meat that this one particular candidate and the media have forced upon us.

One of the tiny metabolic suggestions I have to offer -- if, like me, you choose not to have her name on your lips, like an oozy cold sore (I say that with love) -- is to check out a Web site called the Sarah Palin Baby Name Generator. There you can find out what she and her husband would have named you if you had been their baby. My name, Anne, for instance, would be Krinkle Bearcat. John, her running mate, would be named Stick Freedom. George would be Crunk Petrol. And so on.

First of all, go find out what your own name would be. Then for one day refuse to use the name of these people who are so damaging to earth and to our very souls -- so, "I don't have to understand anything, it's all fuzzy math. Trust me. I'm the decider." From now on, when working for Obama, talk about Obama, talk about his policies, the issues, the economy, the war in Iraq, poverty, the last eight years, Joe Biden. You don't have to mention Crunk Petrol, or his sidekick, Shaver Razorback.

And you sure as hell don't have to mention Claw Washout -- she is absolutely, hands-down the most ludicrous person ever to be nominated. She's a South Park character. There was a mix-up. Mistakes were made.

Everything you need to know about how to bear up during these two months is already inside you. Go within: Work on your own emotional acre. Stand still, and hurt, and feel crazy. Then drink a lot of water, pray, meditate, rest. Rest is a spiritual act. Now, I am a reform Christian, so it is permissible for me to secretly believe that God hates this woman, too. I heard God slam down a couple of shooters while she was talking the other night.

Figure out one thing you can do every single day to be a part of the solution, concentrating on swing states. Money, walking precincts, registering voters, whatever. This is the only way miracles ever happen -- left foot, right foot, left foot, breathe. Right foot, left foot, right foot, breathe. The great novelist E.L. Doctorow once said that writing a novel is like driving at night with the headlights on: You can only see a little ways in front of you, but you can make the whole journey th is way. It is the truest of all things; the only way to write a book, raise a child, save the world.

As my anonymous pal Krinkle Bearcat once wrote: Laughter is carbonated holiness. It is chemo. So do whatever it takes to keep your sense of humor. Rent Christopher Guest movies, read books by Roz Chast and Maira Kalman. Picture Stick Freedom in his Batman underpants, having one of his episodes of rage alone in one of his seven bedrooms. Or having one of his bathroomy little conversations with Froth Moonshine. (Bless their hearts.) Try to remember that even Karl Rove has accused him of being a lying suck.

Reread everything Molly Ivins and Jim Hightower ever wrote. Write down that great line of Molly's, that "freedom fighters don't always win, but they're always right." Tape it next to your phone.

Call the loneliest person you know. Go flirt with the oldest person at the bookstore.

Fill up a box with really cool clothes that you haven't worn in a year, and take it to a thrift shop. Take gray water outside and water whatever is growing on your deck. This is not a bad metaphor to live by. I think it is why we are here. Drink more fluids. And take very gentle care of yourself and the people you most love: We need you now more than ever.

compliments of Zena Moon

p.s. - I have one of her OBAMA candles burning