Two Beautiful Words & A Random Act of Kindness

This morning, we went to see the surgeon, hoping for good news. I wanted him to say the cancer was gone, my husband was going to be okay and the worst was over. I wanted that more than anything.

I held my husband's hand as his surgeon removed the staples along his incision. It was a foot long, so it took a couple minutes. It stung a bit, but it was worth it because at the end of it all, we heard the words we were longing to hear:

CANCER FREE

(There are no more beautiful words in the English language.)

He will have to have a blood test and a special scan in 6 months to make sure he's still cancer free. He'll be followed closely for the rest of his life. We can live with this-in fact I find this comforting because kidney cancer has no symptoms and usually by the time they discover it, it's already too late. We came very close to not having a happy ending, so vigilance is good.

When we walked out of the surgeon's office, my husband said he wanted to go out for lunch at Red Robin. I said okay-he deserved to celebrate. He'd earned it.

When we sat down in the restaurant, our server, Ashley came to say hello and asked us how we were. He told her we were celebrating his being cancer free and explained a bit about what he'd been through. She took our order. A few minutes later, she returned with Marlaina, the manager. Marlaina told us she'd lost her step dad to cancer and she was very happy to hear our news and that lunch was on the house. We were stunned. I immediately got teary. We've been through so much in the last 2 1/2 months and it was such a sweet, unexpected kindness from a stranger. It meant more to us than she could ever know.

Bad things happen, it's part of life but in the midst of that, very good things happen too. It reminded me of this Native American prayer:

Give thanks for unknown blessing, already on their way.

We are so very grateful.

Rescued Journals

New Journal

So in all the craziness that's been my life lately, I failed to mention that my friends Gisele and Jessica came to visit on the long weekend, just before my husband's surgery. I met Gisele in Vivienne's photography classes and later met her sister Jessica online as well. The both live in Alberta and were coming to the coast to visit family so they decided to stop by. It was a quick 24 hour visit, but we had a great time.

Not long after they arrived, we popped down to the local thrift store to rescue some old books to transform into mixed media journals. We had a little workshop at my kitchen table where I showed them how to gut their books, recover the inside and cut and sew new signatures in. They both managed to get their books assembled in a few short hours.

I chose the little navy hymnal because I like small books that fit in the palm of my hand. It measures 5 1/4 tall x 3 1/2 wide x 1 1/4 thick. Gisele very kindly brought me a stack of old maps of Alberta, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories. I adore Canadiana, so this made me really happy. I decided to cut three of the maps into pages for my journal. I love how random they are. Older maps have such great colours and these are all soft vintage shades of browns, blues and greens. There are 4 signatures of 11 sheets (44 pages) each, for a total of 176 pages in the book. 

I am still trying to decide if I am going to do anything to the cover or just leave it. I'm not religious, so I have no attachment to the words on the cover. If I could come up with the exact right thing to glue over it (like a rusty book plate or a great label) I might be tempted to alter it. For now, I'll leave it as it is.

While Gisele and Jessica were working, we were talking about journalling. Because of the damage to my spinal cord, which affects my hands, I don't hand write anymore. My journals have become places where I glue, sew or tape bits and pieces, so they are primarily visual. I kind of love them this way-I get to use all those things that are "special" in such a way that I will always be able to enjoy them. I just keep adding to them, as time goes on. I have several different journals like this on the go and I often just randomly pick one up and start working on it, so they are all works in progress.

The girls were commenting on how much I seem to love to teach. I do and I miss it in many ways. I always enjoy showing someone what I know and then watching as they take that knowledge and make it their own. It makes me happy to be able to light that spark.

Home Again

Wednesday morning was quite intense. It's no easy thing sending someone you love so very much off to have a major organ removed. I was working really hard not to let my mind go to dark places. Fortunately, my best friend was with me the entire time, which made things so much better. The surgeon is very happy with the surgery and my husband came through just fine. I am extremely grateful.

He's recovering slowly, but surely and his incision, which is epic (a foot long) is healing nicely. He's was in a fair bit of pain in the beginning, but with good pain meds, it was manageable. He was also dealing with nausea any time he got upright, but they also gave him meds for that.

Indy was completely baffled as to where his dad was. Every day at 4 pm, he held a vigil at the window, expecting him to come home from work. When he didn't return, he resorted to lying so he could stare at the back door. It was sweet, but kind of sad, really. Thursday night he must have been lonely because at 2 am, he came into my room and asked for permission to come up on the bed. He curled up at my feet. I didn't mind. The house was far too quiet for both of us.

Surprisingly, good dogs who are well behaved and quiet can visit at our hospital, so on Thursday, I surprised my husband by bringing him with me. At first he though I'd snuck Indy in. (He had no idea where  his room was in the hospital or he would have realized that was impossible.) Indy was so happy to see him and anyone who crossed our path wanted to meet my sweet boy. Indy got to visit twice.

My husband came home yesterday, but not before he was kicked out of his room and into the hallway for a night. I won't even comment on that because I have nothing polite to say about it. Neither of us was impressed. He'll get his staples out in about a week and we'll find out what the scoop is. His pain level is improving, which is good.

Meanwhile, we're dealing with the stress of applying for medical Employment Insurance. Normally when you apply, there's the mandatory 2 week waiting period. On Friday when I delivered the last of the paperwork, I was informed that there's a 4 week processing backlog. This means 6 weeks without a single pay cheque. I honestly do not know how our government can get away with this. I am angry and frustrated. I think anyone who is facing a catastrophic illness should not have to wait 2 weeks, never mind 6! How do they expect people to survive? It's the kind of stress we do not need right now, on top of everything else.

I think the stress of the past week has caught up with me. I am not feeling very good-I think I'm coming down with something. I'm trying to rest as much as possible.

Thank you to everyone who has showered us with prayers, positive vibes and good wishes via email or phone or who stopped by the hospital to visit. The love and support has been very much appreciated. 

The High Watch

Healing Buddha

Taking a deep breath here today as our family prepares for my husband's surgery tomorrow morning. We are holding positive energy for his surgeon and care team as they work to heal him completely from cancer. We are envisioning a smooth recovery and optimal pain management. If you feel moved to, please join us in manifesting a positive outcome for everyone involved, by whatever devotion you practice. We'd really appreciate it.

I'll be away from my blog for the next few days. I'm holding the high watch.

11*11*2012

In remembrance of our Canadian Armed Forces veterans 

and the men and women who are serving still. 

Thank you for your sacrifices and those of your families.

And for my Grandfather,
Kenneth George Chick,
RCAF Home Guard, WWII.

Lest we forget.

"On November 11, 1999 Terry Kelly was in a drug store in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. At 10:55 AM an announcement came over the stores PA asking customers who would still be on the premises at 11:00 AM to give two minutes of silence in respect to the veterans who have sacrificed so much for us. 

 Terry was impressed with the stores leadership role in adopting the Legions two minutes of silence initiative. He felt that the stores contribution of educating the public to the importance of remembering was commendable. 

 When eleven o'clock arrived on that day, an announcement was again made asking for the two minutes of silence to commence. All customers, with the exception of a man who was accompanied by his young child, showed their respect. 

 Terry's anger towards the father for trying to engage the stores clerk in conversation and for setting a bad example for his child was channeled into a beautiful piece of work called, A Pittance of Time. Terry later recorded A Pittance of Time and included it on his full-length music CD, The Power of the Dream."

The Pulse Charity Auction

This is my friend Seth Apter, who is one of the kindest, most generous and genuine people I know. 

Seth lives in New York City and while no harm came to him personally during the storm last week, he, (like many of us) has been touched by the stories of devastation and loss Sandy left in its wake, particularly in his hometown. Seth, ever the instigator (and I mean that in the nicest way possible!) has a fantastic plan about how we can help the people of New York City recover. 

Here's what it is, in his own words:

"As I traveled around promoting the book, I obtained as many signatures as I could from all the contributing artists I met along the way, as I knew that one day there were be a special reason to do this. And today is that day. I have decided to auction off a copy of the book, (signed by 30 artists) along with a piece of my art to benefit the victims of Sandy. The charity I have chosen is The Mayor's Fund To Advance New York City. I will be donating 100% of the proceeds and this fund uses 100% of the monies received for direct aid."

This is a beautiful book, made all the more special by merit of having been signed by so many of the artists involved. It took a community coming together to create this book and it will take a community effort now to make a difference for those who so desperately need our help.

Seth has posted all the details of this effort on his blog, which you can find here. In addition to the book, there are also some original artworks that will be included. 

There is the option to make a straight donation of any amount, if you would prefer. Every little bit helps. You can also help by spreading the word if you have a blog, twitter or facebook. Please tell your peeps and ask them to tell their peeps and let's see how much good we can do, because it's the right thing to do.

"There's a destiny that makes us brothers,

none goes his way alone. 

All that we send into the life of others

comes back into our own."

~Edwin Markham


EDIT: So many of the artists involved in the book wanted to help Seth with this auction that they've donated even MORE art to the cause. As a result, Seth now has two bundles he's auctioning off and there will be more added. Please click the link to get all the details and check back often to see which new bundles that are available.

Good Mail Day!

It's here! Stampington's Somerset Studio arrived in the magic mailbox today! I didn't know they were going to send me a complimentary issue. They usually do when you write an article for them, but I forgot they also do it when they publish your work. I am glad they did-I haven't been able to track one down in stores here yet. (Though certainly not for lack of trying!)

So here's my work between the pages. I posted images of my entire 5x5 submission here, if you'd like to see the whole thing. Seth did a great job on the article, all TEN pages of it! It's really nice that Stampington made so much room in this issue to showcase some of the 110 pieces Seth received for this call. Congratulations Seth! Long live The Pulse! Seth is now working on his second book, which is wonderful news. I can't wait to see it!

Also in the November/December issue is a great artist profile by Rice Freeman-Zachery about my friend DJ Pettit. DJ is one of the nicest people you'll ever meet and she crazy talented. She does amazing work combining her beautiful photographs with paint and textiles. I've taken a class with DJ and the techniques she's developed are like nothing I'd ever seen before. It was great reading this article and seeing how her work has grown over the years. She sent me one of her handmade books years ago and I treasure it. It's so uniquely DJ.

In addition the the magazine, the mail also brought my order from Artchix Studio. When I saw these really cool palmistry wood cuts online and had to order some for myself. (I have a thing for hands!)

Helga always ships things lightening fast and they're always beautifully packaged.

She also includes something a little extra and these were the extras this time. Love them! Yesterday was a good mail day all around! 

Wee Post

Wooden Printing Blocks, Maiwa

October has faded and November is here already.
Where does the time go?

I'm holed up in the studio writing articles, editing photographs and working on collaborations. Next week is going to be crazy busy, but right now it's just inspiration, a cup of tea, my faithful dog curled at my feet and some good music to see me through.

I'm wishing you the same.