"One today is worth two tomorrows." Ben Franklin

      I saw this quote, one day is worth two tomorrows, printed on a tiny notebook, part of a notebook 3-pack, the kind you find at a discount department store.  Reading it made me think of the day The Rock (hubster) and I held hands and floated on top of the water, enchanted by the sea turtles swimming gracefully through the blue, blue water below us, and how much that one day was worth to me in the moment, and how much more that day is worth in memory.

   

"I Can Do Anything Good"

My friend, Jenn, sent me a short email:  "Help me get that evil witch out of my head!" she said.  Then she probably dashed off to do the very thing the mean ol' shrew told her she'd never do, stepped into the light, where all of the magic that is my beautiful friend, Jenn, sparkles.

I have my own witch.  I wake up to her daily lecture.  She raps on the lectern with her #2 pencil while I push off the covers.  "Ahem, let's review," she says, and then she recites the list, my failings, a very long list.  I listen and walk to the sink.  "You will never be a real writer," she says while I brush my teeth. I spit the toothpaste into the sink and say, "Yeah, well I'm leading an interesting life, and I write about it." Then she suggests some kind of liquid in a needle or plastic intervention for wrinkles while I wash my face.  I smile into the mirror just to piss her off.

She rants on, shouts, "You will never get it all done!" while my dogs lead me down the stairs to the door, to the backyard, into the morning and the birds' songs.  I follow the dogs, my guides, their wavy fur and alert ears.  "To hell with her," I say to myself, and step into the heart of my day.

Balance Life and Cycling Training for the Bone Ride | Bike in Balance by Mike Magnuson

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

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'!"

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

Breast Cancer Questions With Dr. Susan Love

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.

Suzanne Somers Puts the "Dumb" Back in "Blond" Part 2

Suzanne Somers' grim forecast for what happens to women who are aging naturally (rather than artificially replacing their hormones and trips to the plastic surgeon's fountain of youth):

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!