Category: Writing

Breast cancer, Cancer, Empowerment, Faith, Fear, Healing, Hope, poetry, Stories, Writing

Empowerment through Poetry

Mona Alvarado Frazier

 

And-in-the-end-its-not

Lately thoughts of cancer have floated through my mind. The word is still with a lowercase ‘c’, but it’s there, in my daily life.

I’ve learned to not stuff disturbing thoughts down into my body or heart. They always pop up somewhere, like an evil jack in the box.

When I try to stuff the thoughts, the feelings associated with the word ‘cancer,’ morph into capital letters until the word is entirely in CAPS like it’s screaming out.

I remember a phrase I read from a book whose author I can’t remember:

Feelings are energies that can be moved and transformed.

When I first read that sentence I thought “Wow, that’s empowering.” I get to direct my feelings, move them around, and create something else.

I can stop the stories in my head and create a new story.

So I grab a piece of paper and write out my thoughts, examine them, and try to figure out if I’m feeling anger, grief, fear, or all three.

Many times it’s not necessary to find ‘the answer,’ only to feel the feelings and examine the threads that make the word stand up in my mind.

Sometimes I thread those words together until they become something else, something not scary or ominous.

 

Lowercase cancer

I remember when

cancer had me by the breast

the slash, poison, burn

 a bald toxic dump.

Nurtured by family

powered by faith

seeds of hope planted

until a garden grew

a wasteland no more.

Dare you to try again

been there and back

you will meet defeat

little c

because now I’m not afraid

to die, after I’ve lived

If poetry isn’t your thing, you can also examine or deal with negative feelings by practicing meditation, deep breathing, journaling, listening to your favorite music, drawing, or reading something inspirational.

The point is you can stop the negative feelings in your head and create a new story in your heart.

Make new stories this weekend.

Encouragement, Inspiration, Writing

Obituary and Passion

Mona Alvarado Frazier
From Birmingham H.S. Project-flickr.com
From Birmingham High St. Art Project-flickr.com

You know, the Greeks didn’t write obituaries. They only
asked one question after a man died: “Did he have
passion?” – Serendipity, the movie

 

Whether the Greeks wrote or didn’t write obituaries isn’t as important as the question.

Passion is a zeal, a fervor, a barely controllable emotion towards a subject or person.

Do you have that feeling for something? Art, writing, cooking, service…

a feeling that if you did not do this ‘thing,’ your spirit would dampen, keep you in regret, have you say ‘what if?’

For me, if I’m not writing, I’m not truly living. My body and spirit often feel like a container of thoughts, waiting for my hands to hold a pen or hover over a keyboard ready to dive in and release those thoughts into a journal or on a keyboard.

To not set free those thoughts, is to keep everything in a container until it’s in danger of imploding, or worse, create a slow burn from the inside out.

The word passion comes from the Latin verb patere meaning to suffer.

Sometimes we suffer when working towards that passion. We always suffer if we don’t even make the attempt.

I say this only to give an example of what can happen when not heeding your enthusiasm.

Sometimes we do this to ourselves. Other times we allow someone else, through their criticism, to reduce our conviction for a subject.

It’s not their fault, it’s up to you to fulfill your own dream. To crave it so much that you hear their words and work on your passion anyway.

Critics can either wrap your passion in words of doubt until your light goes out or you can decide to follow your dreams and see where they lead. 

Your art, writing, cooking, ‘fill in the blank,’may not lead you to fame or fortune. You may need to work hard to fulfill your dream, and this might takes years…

but your family or friends could affirmingly answer the obituary question;

better, yet, you would know the answer before anyone wrote your obituary.