-
world cancer day: a reprise
My breast cancer is not just about me as I discovered when my daughter decided to break her silence about it. In her own way. On Facebook. On World Cancer Day 2012. Thus, on a day designated for speaking up and out, I share with you her words and mine from February 4, 2012 . . . The Real Warrior in our House I didn’t know about a World Cancer Day. Until today, I’d known only about Breast Cancer Awareness October when the world turns pink for an entire month, so when I detected the lump on my breast on October 30, I should have been grateful for having made it until the end…
-
catching poetry’s life lines
My parents were raised in rural County Derry at a time and place that produced the “folk healer,” that individual uniquely gifted with “the cure” or “the charm” for whatever ailed them. Consulted only after it was determined that the medical doctor was flummoxed, the folk healer meted out charms in plasters and poultices, in potions that swirled in brown bottles. It was to the healer my father turned when the local doctor told my mother there was nothing he could prescribe for her bout with jaundice. Dissatisfied with this from a man with formal medical training, my father ventured deep into the Derry countryside to the home of a man with “the charm.” Observant and eager to…
You May Also Like
Primavera Forever.
For my Father on his Birthday: A Harvest Bow
once in a blue sky
-
Uncategorized
‘time for a few small repairs, she said…’
~ perhaps you have stopped here because you too are considering the lilies and the view from where you are. Maybe you don’t know why or how you arrived at my little corner of the blogosphere; you just took the road less traveled to get here. Whatever the reason, I’m glad you found Time to Consider the Lilies and hope you’ll stay a while. As for me, I will be taking a break from writing for a while. I’m not sure for how long but hope to resume normal activity with more ‘lessons from the field’ very soon. Until then, the blog will still be here, with eighty-eight reminders to…
-
‘spared’ & other euphemisms in cancer country
Throughout the day, I have caught myself looking at the clock, wondering what I missed on January 19th one year ago, when I underwent the mastectomy of my right breast and its reconstruction. I am loath to declare the day a “cancerversary,” the cheery-sounding sniglet used by many ensnared within the disease to mark milestones – the day a lump was discovered, a diagnosis delivered, or a surgery undertaken to remove a tumor, a breast, a piece of a lung. Made-up words tend to euphemize and minimize, making us smile when we should be serious. I remember attending a talk by one of my favorite authors, Sherman Alexie. I laughed…
