Fighting the unknown enemy

So, I'm taking up BodyCombat™. It's an indirect battle I'm fighting. The alien doesn't reside in me, though its force is something I'm acutely aware of. I'm joining my dearest friend in her battle against cancer, and throwing all my weight at it. This week, I've found myself getting down on my knees, simply handing over my desperate sense of powerlessness to something greater than me.

"Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference." Winston Churchill

"The human spirit is stronger than anything that can happen to it." C. C. Scott

Battle has commenced. Chemo starts on Friday. I'm heading to my first BodyCombat™ class to push my body through its own trial. It'll be a shock to the system, and hopefully give me 50 minutes in which to focus my anger, and my fear. I am going to kick and punch the injustice that her diagnosis represents. There's no point in thinking 'why?' We'll never know. It's over to the experts on 'how?' and 'when?' so, I'm taking a leaf out of her book, adopting a positive mental attitude. If I can lift my heart rate and burn some calories whilst imagining myself in hand to hand combat with the evil alien, so much the better.

"If children have the ability to ignore all odds and percentages, maybe we can all learn from them. When you think about it, what other choice is there but to hope?

We have two options, medically and emotionally: to give up, or fight like hell."

Lance Armstrong

Comments

Table. Apple. Penny.

Whilst there were several places I might have been that morning, I wouldn't have been anywhere else. The practitioner from the Memory Service arrived promptly. I liked her instantly. Mum was nervous. I think I was a little, too. It's been a difficult year. "It's Friday, it's the fourteenth of December and I'm at home..." No problems there. CAMCOG, or the Cambridge Cognitive Examination is a thorough assessment tool used to assess the extent of extent of dementia, and to assess the level of cognitive impairment. The standardised measure assesses orientation, language, memory, praxis, attention, abstract thinking, perception and calculation. "Table. Apple. Penny." Three everyday items that were introduced at one point, and then referred to again later on. Again, Mum was able to recall each. I am reminded that the...

Glass half full? Glass half empty? Or perhaps the glass is broken

I am, constitutionally, a glass half empty gal. I will always first acknowledge what I don't have, what I have lost, and what it is that I am seeking. I tend to overlook my strengths, concentrating only on those bits of me that are underdeveloped or weak. I refer to myself as a realist, but in doing so compliment myself and insult those who genuinely are simply realistic. My modus operandi is to identify what's not working and acknowledge this before seeing more clearly what functions perfectly well. This has its place: I edit others' written work pretty well. My fastidious attention to detail serves me, and the author. Accuracy counts, for me and I have an excellent memory. I can remember a great many of my sessions with clients verbatim. Even this asset is something I can, and do, diminish the true value of, by concentrating on 'I should have said...' or 'why didn't.... occur to me during the session?' Earlier this we...

Joan Miro: Emotional Art

"Painting and poetry are like love; an exchange of blood, a passionate embrace, without restraint, without defence. The picture is born of an overflow of emotions and feelings." Miro, The Farm 'La Masia' (1921-22) I learnt a great deal about Miro on a recent visit to the Tate. I learnt a great deal about a lot more too. Miro wanted to discover the sources of human feeling. He described his method of creating poetry by way of painting, using a vocabulary of signs and symbols, metaphors and dream images to express definite themes he believed to be fundamental to human existence. The exhibition displays his sense of humor and lively wit. His chief concern was a social one; he wanted to get close to the great masses of humanity, and he was convinced that art can only truly appeal when it resonates with roots of lived experience. "Wherever you are, you find the sun, a blade of grass, the spirals of the dragonfly. Courage cons...

The Reward is the Journey

Search This Blog