On endless shores...

[Judith]

Creativity post diagnosis: children (and adults) playing on endless shores as the Indian poet Tagore said…

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Many people find their creativity is pushed into being by diagnosis—here’s what I heard Sheryl Crowe say on Woman’s Hour:

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The American singer-songwriter had a breast cancer diagnosis 8 years ago and when she left the radiography unit the consultant said ‘you should have a look at your history and your narrative.. that’s what I’d advise’…so she did: weeding out what she called (as many do) ‘toxic’ relationships—she then went on to adopt two little boys and she has just made a new recording and here’s one of the songs here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhOVL0qUCwM http://www.sherylcrow.com/

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First of all how amazing is that, a radiologist thinking about emotional issues—(this was in the States)—and also we need to bear in mind that history isn’t destiny, it’s putting it to rest which is crucial, altering the narrative for better things to come.

So this forum is for all of you cansurvivors to add your own creative links & creations – this IS your story now.

[Judith]

Glad to get cancer?

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Eve Ensler, creator of the Vagina Monologues, was diagnosed with Stage 3-4 cancer 5 years ago –‘Cancer was just like a smash into the wall- When I sat there and they said the cancer might be in your liver too, it was like a new world. Wake the fuck up, sister! And I bless it…’ Was I glad to get cancer-‘Are you kidding? Of course I am. I wasn’t in the beginning. But then I really got it. …I’d always been out to prove myself-was I going to prove myself to death? Now? I’m missing seven organs and 70 nodes, and I’m functioning. How would I not love this body? Once you live in your body, you can just be’.

Eve’s organisation One Billion Rising aims to end sexual violence against women-one billion women all over the world this Valentine’s Day will dance outside key buildings on the planet …how creative is that.
She feels NOW she is reaching her full potential, and she does that in style… there’s a lot more to her story (see link here http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2014/f ... ion-rising) but this post is about the creative potential which gets released after diagnosis and treatment… we can all celebrate the creativity of others on this path and release our own..whatever it is...the shores are indeed endless...do you have a poem, a painting, a photograph, a story...share them with us all....

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[Judith]

Shirley Temple Black RIP—she of the cute little curls and the cute little dresses, romping through movie after movie when she was barely more than a toddler- but what a role model…she had a mastectomy in 1972 and went public on it, one of the first high profile women to speak openly about this emotive subject-

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then when her film career ended, she went into politics…Ok she was a Republican and some of us may have views on that, but she DID keep going and survived till she was 86! After diagnosis life can surely move us on to new paths...

[Charles]

Losing a loved one (my mother, when I was an adolescent) because of cancer was a long shoreline I unhappily walked, until I dreamt of a cancer scrapyard and realised I needed to do therapy to get over it. In the process as I looked back, one thought I had was "Why didn't anyone tell me I needed help?" Of course, all of us all needed help with our guilt, the loss and the helplessness. It was so good to release it all, though it wasn't easy at first.

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It ultimately has/had so much to do with forgiving and loving both myself and my mother (both parents, in fact). Such a wonderful woman.

[annee]

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I was working creatively before my diagnosis and although I continued 'creating' within my company it took quite a while to recover that desire to create on a personal level... until the last of my three children went to live on the other side of the world. Now I have Sam in Japan, Will in Sydney and Ruth in NZ... Here is my poem illustrated by a self portrait of me in my 'nest'.

Empty Nest:

Should I have seen the invisible words
Written in speckles on pale blue eggs?
An Antipodean spring, where breeching whales wink at the sun
Casting shadows on the weeping forests of Tiraua
And the fragile wrappings of Okayama
Call across the ocean.
The sun-dried grass and oriental blossom
Weave into the fabric of my nest
And the chicks take flight.
So here I sit upon the fragments of my life
Rearranging the stolen jewels of time
Listening for my own call to fly
And on waiting,
Tend my beloved
In a nest of dreams.