Tag: women friendships

Losing a friend, remembering Rose Helena Macedo Kull

Published on by Digital Art--I'm using All of the Crayons2 Comments
Recently, I lost a good friend.  Rose was my best friend in high school, and my maid of honor at my first wedding.  
She was a good person, honest, kind, and wise.  We lost Rose to pancreatic cancer that she discovered she had on her 60th birthday.
Losing a peer at any age is difficult.  But, one always looks at that person’s time line, and compares it to their own.  You reflect, “She was too young, she was so full of life”.  We realize that life is unfair; we are supposed to accept this, and move on.
Here is a poem that I wrote about cancer in my second book, Embracing Your Inner Cheerleader. 
May your day be peaceful and filled with love.
Joan
For Rose and her family, may she rest in peace.

The Invader Within

Was the cause environmental,

Or was it family genetics?

How did this happen?

Perhaps, it was just karma

Bringing me this dark, unwanted gift

This cancer

The alien DNA

Hidden in the structure

Of the genome

Its time bomb releasing

Microscopic invaders burrowing

Into tissue, mytissue

Facing myself in the mirror,

Today, chopping long dark hair

Shorter, and shorter still

Wondering who is this stranger

Who stares back

Stone-faced and resolute?

I begin this deeply personal

Uphill battle, or is it downhill?

Warrior stance—I am ready

“Let’s do this!” to my husband

We travel silently to chemo

Unspoken words blowing through

Our minds like autumn leaves

He holds my hand as we begin

IV dripping, we watch morning TV

Oblivious to the screen, thoughts

Still flowing, overflowing, synchronized

With the IV releasing the drug/poison

I will it to find the interloper

“Seek out the alien intruder, now!”

Many weeks have passed, now

Time has slowed to a turtle’s pace

I have sat in that recliner

Many hours, with needle piercing my flesh,

Chemo flowing, a soft cap covering the baby fuzz

Where my hair used to be

I turn my mind inward, pray and give thanks

Liquid ninja’s course through my veins

“Finish it”, I pray, “amen”.
OTHER WEBSITE:  https://joanszoneblogalicious@wordpress.com/
FACEBOOK PAGE: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Joan-Ellen-Gage/158895910832925
JOAN’S BOOKS:
EMBRACING YOUR INNER CHEERLEADER: http://www.amazon.com/Embracing-Your-Inner-Cheerleader-ebook/dp/B0086WW7AA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&
qid=1340641839&sr=8-1&keywords=Embracing+Your+Inner+Cheerleader
STRANGER IN A STRANGE SKIN: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/95140
WATER RUNNING DOWNHILL: http://www.amazon.com/WATER-RUNNING-DOWNHILL-new-design-ebook/dp/B004PVSOPS
A Redhead Looks at 60: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/189-7867874-1973650?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=a+redhead+looks+at+60
©All creative works by Joan Ellen Gage are her exclusive property, and Joan maintains the legal rights to them.

 

The Bonds of Female Friendships

Published on by Digital Art--I'm using All of the Crayons2 Comments

My friends are my estate.–Emily Dickinson

A friend is a present you give to yourself.– Robert Louis Stevenson

What would we do without our friends–particularly our women friends? They are there to give us support, cheer us on, have a little “girl” fun, and sometimes just to set us straight.

It turns out that there are some health benefits to friendship. Several studies connect female friendship with lower blood pressure, lowered risk of diabetes, heart disease, and depression. Additionally, women use each other for a sounding board to talk about problems at work and in their personal lives. Spending time with girl friends in a variety of situations, and particularly in this exchange of information and feelings make up a support system for us.

Let us give thanks today for our wonderful friends who stand by us through thick or thin. We are blessed to have them.

I leave you with a poem from my book, Water Running Downhill!

ONE TRIBE

Have you felt
With passing years
A more pressing
Need to connect
With other women
To share observations
And laughter
To offer advice
Or garner wisdom?
Do you feel drawn
As if by a magnetic force
To be with your own kind?

For these women
Are a tribe, your tribe.
No one else will ever
Understand your struggle
As they will.
Women are our people.
When we come together
We feel a oneness
A sisterhood united.
When we come together
We are at home.

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