Here's an amazing essay by one of our best writers and a terrific human, Mike Magnuson. I hope it speaks to you and encourages some dream chasing.
Balance Life and Cycling Training for the Bone Ride | Bike in Balance
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Forgive me, Reader, for I have sinned. It's been three months since my last blog posting. I'm living my life, pushing the boundaries of my comfort zone. I'm in a grad school writing program and working on a book. My reward for hard work? I'm working with my favorite writer, Pam Houston (happy dance!).
The writing program is like a two-year marathon--how much can you read and write in two years? Eighty books and we'll see how many pages. I've dreamed of applying to a creative writing MFA for years. Ten years. The thing that held me back was my own thinking that I wasn't good enough, and lots of time wasted, rather than lots of time spent writing and reading.
I don't like it when people say, "Cancer is the best thing that ever happened to me." It rewards the illness. I do like to hear people talk about their journey, how it made them dig deep, find that inner strength that's always been there like an underground stream. Cancer's not the only situation that forces a personal journey; life offers many and various circumstances that propel us into unknown territory. We have all wandered in the desert.
On this day, I'm recommending two books. I hope they will become your new best friends. Contents May Have Shifted, Pam Houston's new book, a collection of 144 stories about seeking your place in the world, finding faith in a faithless age, the things we do for men, and BFF dogs, specifically a Russian Wolfhound named, Fenton. Though the book is fiction, there's lots of Pam in the stories. Her voice is the best friend who will never betray you.
Refuge, by Terry Tempest Williams. Williams speaks from that intimate space that lies between spirit and bone. Her memoir is one about how breast cancer affected her family, a meditative journey through grief, and Williams' determined spirit, her strong connection to nature, and the Great Salt Lake. She has a new book coming out in April: When Women Were Birds.
So there you go. As my writing friend, Amy, says, "Get crack-a-lackin'!"
The writing program is like a two-year marathon--how much can you read and write in two years? Eighty books and we'll see how many pages. I've dreamed of applying to a creative writing MFA for years. Ten years. The thing that held me back was my own thinking that I wasn't good enough, and lots of time wasted, rather than lots of time spent writing and reading.
I don't like it when people say, "Cancer is the best thing that ever happened to me." It rewards the illness. I do like to hear people talk about their journey, how it made them dig deep, find that inner strength that's always been there like an underground stream. Cancer's not the only situation that forces a personal journey; life offers many and various circumstances that propel us into unknown territory. We have all wandered in the desert.
So there you go. As my writing friend, Amy, says, "Get crack-a-lackin'!"
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Breast Cancer Questions With Dr. Susan Love
I know October is over, you're busy with the holidays, but take some time to explore some of these common questions and listen to Dr. Love's calm and clear answers about breast cancer risk provided by Health.com. These short videos are separated by subject and each are maybe a couple minutes long. Staying informed is the best way to protect yourself. Wishing you health and happy holidays. DB
Monday, August 8, 2011
Screening has little impact on breast cancer deaths: Study
Screening has little impact on breast cancer deaths: Study
Careful, Ladies. Take your cue for how to take care of your breasts from Susan Love's Army of Women (see Links) or other breast cancer awareness organizations. Breast cancer diagnosis is a comprehensive process, one that starts with you. Yeah, you.
Leigh Hurst, a young breast cancer survivor, from the homeland, Pennsylvania, founded an awareness campaign whose message is: Feel Your Boobies (I've added this important campaign to my Links). It's a simple and smart idea--awareness starts when you get to know your boobs! It's your body--take charge! The shower is the best place to get to know your girls. Are they lumpy? Do they feel like a bag of peas? Is the tissue smooth? And ask your doctor--"do I have dense breast tissue?"
If you have dense breast tissue, imaging, via mammogram can be more challenging--the image may be less clear. Since more women diagnosed with breast cancer have no history of the cancer in their family, we all have to be vigilant. Follow your physician's guidelines and have a look at the links provided on this page.
We want to kick breast cancer's ass. We want a cure--but that cure starts with you. As someone who has been there and done that, I still advocate for imaging.
Careful, Ladies. Take your cue for how to take care of your breasts from Susan Love's Army of Women (see Links) or other breast cancer awareness organizations. Breast cancer diagnosis is a comprehensive process, one that starts with you. Yeah, you.
Leigh Hurst, a young breast cancer survivor, from the homeland, Pennsylvania, founded an awareness campaign whose message is: Feel Your Boobies (I've added this important campaign to my Links). It's a simple and smart idea--awareness starts when you get to know your boobs! It's your body--take charge! The shower is the best place to get to know your girls. Are they lumpy? Do they feel like a bag of peas? Is the tissue smooth? And ask your doctor--"do I have dense breast tissue?"
If you have dense breast tissue, imaging, via mammogram can be more challenging--the image may be less clear. Since more women diagnosed with breast cancer have no history of the cancer in their family, we all have to be vigilant. Follow your physician's guidelines and have a look at the links provided on this page.
We want to kick breast cancer's ass. We want a cure--but that cure starts with you. As someone who has been there and done that, I still advocate for imaging.
Friday, August 5, 2011
Suzanne Somers Puts the "Dumb" Back in "Blond" Part 2
1). You can't sleep.
2). You gain weight.
3). [Your partner] (she said "men"--I'm saying partner) goes out and finds the younger version of you.
Does this make you feel more empowered? No? Me neither.
Somers predicts that if you allow yourself to age naturally, you're going to be a fat insomniac. Oh, and your partner is going to leave your fat ass.
Actually, that was the point where I wanted to kick my TV for saying bad things out loud.
Somers' message: Those of us, over 50, are headed for Sleepless In (Name Your Town), unless we sign up for a bunch of hormones. Ms. Somers prescribes a regimen, a bunch of pills, a cornucopia of pills, to make us become "hormonally balanced." When has that ever occurred?! I don't know about you, but my hormones have never stood in a straight line.
Researchers continue to find threads that link HRT to certain cancers.
Here's the thing: Ms. Somers is stuck at pretty. Never mind confidence, the sexiest trait any woman can possess. Forget smart. Forget fierce. Forget wisdom, courage, and influence. It's easy to see that Ms. Somers does not see any value in aging women. And, let's face it--we are all aging!
Oh, um, by the way, excuse me, Ms. Sommers, You've aged! But it's ok. Aging is a privilege.
"I see my body as an instrument, rather than an ornament." ~Alanis Morissette, quoted in Reader's Digest, March 2000
Thank you, Ms. Morissette!
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
The SCAR Project by artist David Jay
The SCAR Project, and inspired still image and documentary project, honors the valour of these young breast cancer survivors. These images show strength, resolve and a way forward.
Monday, July 11, 2011
Suzanne Somers Puts the "Dumb" Back in "Blond" Part I
Suzanne Somers appeared on CNN's Piers Morgan's talk show tonight crowing about her anti-aging, hormonal injected, sixty-supplements-a-day, organic food, tequila drinking secret to curing cancer and reversing aging. The sixty-four-year-old actress who played Chrissy Snow, the blond tool from the 70's show "Three's Company,"believes herself to be the voice in the wilderness calling all of us cancer patients and survivors from our heavy slumber. Her stage IV ego is matched by her ignorant assumption that she speaks for the cancer community.
Somers said that those of us who choose traditional cancer treatment are passive victims of a two billion dollar business. While she admitted that chemotherapy cures some cancers--she cited Lance Armstrong's cure--she personally believes that for the rest of us it is a chemo for dollars scam by the medical establishment. She insists that chemo is not a cure for breast cancer (and she would know 'cause she's a celebrity, right?).
But here's the part where I wanted to punch her fat, lumpy, stem-cell transplanted face: she insists that those of us who have had chemotherapy have permanently altered or damaged DNA--that every cell in our body carries what she referred to as a little kerosene that will eventually start a smouldering grassfire of cancer. She condescendingly looked into the camera's lens and suggested that those of us who chose traditional medicine, who dragged ourselves to chemo, wigs and ball caps warming our bald heads, are now ticking time bombs.
When she was diagnosed with breast cancer (2004) she refused the chemo, radiation and the after-breast-cancer drug Tamoxifen that "the rest of us," poor bitches we, have invested in. According to Somers, we cancer survivors have chosen to age. But she's the one that's clueless.
Isn't aging the side-effect of living longer?
My medical team and I worked together on my treatment. Back on that dark day of diagnosis, my rock star oncologist told me, "We're going for cure." Like many of you, I didn't blindly or passively accept their prescription. I sought second opinions. I chose my surgeon and treatment center. My med team saved my life. I was wide awake while I made the choices that became an investment in the rest of my life. How dare this goofy actress suggest that we--all of us cancer survivors--are sleeping?!
Check back for Part II: "Suzanne Somers Thinks She's Not Aging"
Somers said that those of us who choose traditional cancer treatment are passive victims of a two billion dollar business. While she admitted that chemotherapy cures some cancers--she cited Lance Armstrong's cure--she personally believes that for the rest of us it is a chemo for dollars scam by the medical establishment. She insists that chemo is not a cure for breast cancer (and she would know 'cause she's a celebrity, right?).
But here's the part where I wanted to punch her fat, lumpy, stem-cell transplanted face: she insists that those of us who have had chemotherapy have permanently altered or damaged DNA--that every cell in our body carries what she referred to as a little kerosene that will eventually start a smouldering grassfire of cancer. She condescendingly looked into the camera's lens and suggested that those of us who chose traditional medicine, who dragged ourselves to chemo, wigs and ball caps warming our bald heads, are now ticking time bombs.
When she was diagnosed with breast cancer (2004) she refused the chemo, radiation and the after-breast-cancer drug Tamoxifen that "the rest of us," poor bitches we, have invested in. According to Somers, we cancer survivors have chosen to age. But she's the one that's clueless.
Isn't aging the side-effect of living longer?
My medical team and I worked together on my treatment. Back on that dark day of diagnosis, my rock star oncologist told me, "We're going for cure." Like many of you, I didn't blindly or passively accept their prescription. I sought second opinions. I chose my surgeon and treatment center. My med team saved my life. I was wide awake while I made the choices that became an investment in the rest of my life. How dare this goofy actress suggest that we--all of us cancer survivors--are sleeping?!
Check back for Part II: "Suzanne Somers Thinks She's Not Aging"
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