Friday, June 1, 2012

Life and lemonade

In the past two months life has been lived beneath the lemon tree. No cherries, grapes, or Bartletts. Only lemons. In this hiatus time I have learned things I never wanted to know about. Like cancer and how it grows. Like the difficult paths to it's defeat. Like how much courage it takes to walk fearless over hot coals in very bare feet. Like the unspoken fears that are horrific compared to the ones that are speakable. I never wanted to know a surgeon up close and so personal that he could lift a whole system up and out of my body. Like his incredible skill with a robotic scalpel. Who wants to know that on a personal level? Why is it essential to be intimate with a now unreliable bladder, and it's quirky failures on the way to surgical recovery? My journey has only begun and getting a good start out of the gate to health land required serious activity upon my body, from which I am still recovering, so that I can get to the really hard work of chemo which will include hair loss. Not maybe, or, we'll see, but definitely,definitely, and very soon after the first treatment. Omg. At my age I stupidly thought I'd gotten safely past this deep dark forest. Wrong, wrong, wrong. I am in very deep woods and for now the memoir is tabled, twitching there like some blob trying to hang on to it's importance. When some of this is under my belt, perhaps I can return to those chapters, get them edited and out to an agent or whatever we are to do now in the fragmented world of publishing. But that I have found my blog and marshaled my thoughts before the next siege, it is heartening, as even with chemo hard on my heels, I have found my thought process and determined that in the midst of this misery, I am alive and have every hope of wellness at the end of this cure. Not maybe. Definitely. And you who read this will walk with me and hopefully talk with me until one day in late November I will have this behind me. Hope is the beacon.

4 comments:

  1. Barbarann, I am here with you and will support you on this journey. I hope that blogging your way through it will help you find the comfort and strength even in the darker moments. Sending healing thoughts.

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  2. I love you for your faithfulness to one you might never meet face to face. That is more valuable than if you were my neighbor living on my street.

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  3. Barbarann, I am so sorry to hear this news. You have shown through your writing how strong you are, so I hope you are able to defeat this foe handily and rapidly and are back to full-time writing soon. As always, I will be reading and sending you my best wishes.

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  4. I am blessed to have you as a cheerleader. I depend on your encouragement. I hope to continue writing on the up days and sleeping through the down days. Life looks very different from my new and scary vantage point. Even in this there is much to be thankful for. You are one of my gifts.

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