Since I went through cancer treatment, I have been aware that my sense of time is altered and altared. I truly do view and experience the moments differently, find each one enchanting, an exploration, discovery, and I enjoy taking the petals off each moment and contemplating the center, and the lift of the air as each petal drifts away. And, then, there is the composting and recycling. Wow!
Here is a look at time by one still going through cancer treatment.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/10/health/10case.html?th&emc=th
My friend Concha's new book arrived in the mail yesterday and I am in delight with it. I had read the manuscript, but reading it in book form brings even more grace, reverence, understanding and intensity.
I highly recommend Prickly Cactus: Finding Sacred Meaning in Chronic Illness by Concha Delgado Gaitan, Ph.D.
I met Concha at the Writing for Change Conference a year and a half ago. We were dealing with similar themes with our books, so matched easily in enthusiasm and intent.
Reading her book last night, I realized the many ways her book is set apart. She knows the legal immigrant route well. She knows what it is to not understand a language, whether it is English, or the language of medicine and health. What does it mean to rest? She asks over and over again what it means as her doctors tell her she must rest.
I believe that many of us in this society have trouble with the concept of rest. It may seem obvious, but consider it now. How do you rest, renew, take care of yourself, listen to what speaks within?
Concha's book can be a guide. It might save your life. For sure, it gives you entry into a beautiful woman's heart, courage, empathy, strength and life. It is also a history of a time period through which many of us lived, the triumph of movements, and the changes which now give us Barack Obama as president, and Hillary Clinton as a serious contender for the highest office in the land.
I am proud to live where a voice like Concha's can so graciously and confidently share and speak.