Here's a Bonus Gift for you from an as yet unpublished book

8th December already and Christmas is on its way. But I am looking well ahead, to March 2011, when I'll be helping doctors and other health professionals find the words to use to help us, their patients - and how to use them.

For I've been invited to give 2 x 75 minute workshops at the '12th Annual International Summit on Improving Patient Care in the Office Practice and the Community' for IHI (Institute for Healthcare Improvement).

That's in dear old Dallas, Texas. And I'm so looking forward to it.

In the meantime my heart goes out to those thousands of people coping with cancer at Christmas time, when everyone else is in joyous mode - and that can make it harder, by comparison. So I've dipped into the 5th book I wrote as I made my adventurous way beyond my initial cancer experience, to open up some of the mindset that keeps me optimistic. This is my Christmas gift to you. It's not published yet, so read 'Cancer - a Journey' and 'After Cancer - the Journey Continues' [available through my website http://www.anotherlife.com.au] to keep you going in the meantime -- and let me know if you simply can't wait to get your hands on the next three.

The title of this 5th book is : Cancer - Survive or Endure ----- and I am Surviving

IT’S JUST ANOTHER BUMP IN THE ROAD

We roll down life’s highways

byways

rivers

and streams

Slide on the ice

walk through the rain

surf across it all

for,

after cancer

you’ve learned to bounce

to fly

to step out while you can

travel the road you’re

sentenced to take

learning your strength

is better

finer

Strong

more than before

smoothing the rocks and rolls

barrelling along

Seeing panoramas

slide toward you

recognising no barrier

experience

flattening the hills

as they come

calling them only

now

just another little bump in the road.

AND NOW IT’S ALL OVER

If you’d asked me

seven years ago

could I endure –

possibly –

by any stretch of imagination –

all that time

all that ongoing wretchedness

Or that I would

never the less

come out the other side

praising God

whatever you believe this

mother-of-the-womb

to be

And know that I would love not only life itself

but indeed

my own very blessed

creative life

Would I

Could I

have known

imagined

that tonight

my life would be filled with stars

in a heavensent sky

so bright

that it lifts me up

to stand tall

yet once again

and still love ------

EPILOGUE (to ‘And now it is all over')

For this is what I have done

in the face of everything that has happened

to me and those I love

Suddenly the clouds have shifted,

drifted away.

DON’T BRING ME DOWN

They stand in their certainty

tell many – as if they knew

‘Without your health you have nothing’

Well – don’t tell me

I have no life to live

no mountains I can climb

no work or joy or love

to partake in

My experience

has not brought me to this

but is a template for others

when they choose

to hear my story

of reality

accomplishment

strength of will

A beacon for others – I am told

Incorrigible – they tell me

because I still make jokes

about cancer

and the fear that lurks around corners

waiting for unwary souls

those who have not – yet

learned

to stretch themselves

beyond the stories others would tell

who have not – yet

learned

to hold up their accomplishments

their overcoming

of that fear

and all those silly people

who say

because they know not

‘Without your health ------‘

Don’t tell me

This is the life I reside in

the light

where I shine

and trust that’s enough

to draw those to me

who live

through their pain

reach for the sky

have a life to live – and do

We have

We are

We know

the transcendence of love beyond limits

for though walking through darkness

we lift our eyes

look past the know-nothing pontificators

see our lives

our somethings

that leave the nay-sayers behind

So – Don’t try to tell me!

AND I LIVE AGAIN

How do you live after cancer?

You live like anyone else

one day at a time

or perhaps

one moment at a time

And today I have once again learned this lesson

listening to a tape on how to be invited onto television

as I’ve been before

they told me an idea

that raised for me

my own

my own next poem

own next thought

own new thinking on what I’d written

before

People talk about our need to discipline ourselves

if we are to succeed

at our chosen ‘norm’

but for the creative spirit

discipline might mean allowing

allowing myself to start something new

when the urge strikes me

lest I lose that thought

that specific idea

this particular way with words

might also mean finishing what I start

or allowing myself to not finish

but be a true creator

shifting from one job to another

as the thought strikes

my discipline may be

to not allow any original expression of me

to slip unaltered from my grasp

For me

this is life

the life I choose

the life I cannot help but live

because I live

truly live

only through my loves

I am because I write

I am because family is all – well, nearly

I am because others live also

their best lives

chosen

so they tell me

for their own reasons

I would have it no other way

Use me not as your ‘seer’

I ask

question

sift

help where I may

retreat not from my own thoughts into yours

yet retreat not from loving that you think for yourself

and do not try to be a clone of me

This is living

MORE THAN EIGHT YEARS ON

I look out at a beautiful blue sky

green tree

breeze softly blowing

and I am glad to be alive

Today

I vacuumed my whole room

the one where

I spend so much time

now

and regardless of the poverty

illness has wrought on my life

it is still a beautiful room

in a beautiful life

because I am alive to see it.

28^th November 2009

THE GIFT

To have lived the life you have

well

to be able to look back

and say

I loved as much as I was able

looked on

sometimes

at the world speeding by

Threw myself into it

when I was at my best

Lifted the view of others

through my vision for a future

the way I stretched out my arms

to possibilities

hidden

for the moment

behind troubles too dense to see through

raised their hopes for me

by my decision to live

in each day I hold onto

as if it were my last

until it is

And I go forward

with a smile on my lips

having accomplished

a life

good enough

to leave as a talisman

That is a gift beyond price

And don't you forget it!

I wish you a happy Christmas, Hanukkah, whatever you are celebrating. And here's my email address. berylshaw@netspace.net.au Write to me.

Much love

Beryl

Courage and Cancer

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Six Courageous poems for People with Cancer at Christmas

AND NOW IT’S ALL OVER

DON’T BRING ME DOWN

They stand in their certainty

AND I LIVE AGAIN

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