tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3576844065076358632.post6590147916399452998..comments2023-07-03T11:08:01.365-04:00Comments on Never Felt Better: SmorgasboardUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3576844065076358632.post-77073696710098371652007-11-23T14:29:00.000-05:002007-11-23T14:29:00.000-05:00It seems I am one of those strangers you mention -...It seems I am one of those strangers you mention - we have never met but I know your mother. We met Jean and Joe when they were visiting relatives in Victoria. Jean and I have corresponded ever since, sharing passions for family, family history and quilting. And now we share something else. I too am in a family travelling through the dark valley of cancer. I can relate so powerfully to so much of your experience. My contribution - Arthur Clough's poem:<BR/><BR/>Say not the Struggle Naught availeth <BR/> <BR/>SAY not the struggle naught availeth, <BR/> The labour and the wounds are vain, <BR/>The enemy faints not, nor faileth, <BR/> And as things have been they remain. <BR/> <BR/>If hopes were dupes, fears may be liars; <BR/> It may be, in yon smoke conceal'd, <BR/>Your comrades chase e'en now the fliers, <BR/> And, but for you, possess the field. <BR/> <BR/>For while the tired waves, vainly breaking, <BR/> Seem here no painful inch to gain, <BR/>Far back, through creeks and inlets making, <BR/> Comes silent, flooding in, the main. <BR/> <BR/>And not by eastern windows only, <BR/> When daylight comes, comes in the light; <BR/>In front the sun climbs slow, how slowly! <BR/> But westward, look, the land is bright! <BR/> <BR/>Churchill quoted this poem in a speech just after America entered the war. The brightness to the west was the hope brought by America. Here, the brightness is the cure.<BR/><BR/>Your chemo nurse's decoration of your chemo drip bag - the firehose image - I related this to a friend who had undergone radiation. He saw himself playing a computer game like the old Space Invaders (you are probably too young to remember it!) with himself aiming the radiation at the bright red cancer cells, destroying them. He is seven years post-treatment, and healthy.<BR/><BR/>I have the GREATEST respect for your self-discipline with respect to exercise and diet. I have been able to maintain my exercise program (except for a couple of weeks after surgery) but diet is another matter. Food has always been my stress-reliever and it doesn't seem possible to find another one now!<BR/><BR/>Roberta RivettAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com