The Christmas Lady

See if you can guess who this is referring to. Hint: If you know me, it shouldn't be hard. :)

THE CHRISTMAS LADY

In August, maybe September
the ideas begin to
insert themselves into her head.

October and the shopping begins.
The ideas continue to expand.
She sees something
at an art fair and
impulsively buys it.
Something she knows her
daughter-in-law will love.
Maybe a pair of earrings
for her best friend.

Thanksgiving
serves as a marker.
In a day or two
the CD player is loaded with
only Christmas songs.
Lights are strung outside.

The tree goes up.
Ornaments collected over forty years
are carefully placed.
Each one a memory.
Some were gifts or
brought home from school
by her children.
Some purchased by her,
some made by her.

The ideas continue.
The list of what she has
purchased for who expands.

Early December and the
shopping is nearly complete
by logical standards.
But for her it’s rarely complete
before December 24th.




The list needs re-checking,
the ideas won’t stay linear.
Four more things pop up
that one son would love.
Now she needs to pare
down that number
or find four more ideas
for her other sons.

Not because they count
or keep track.
But because she does.
They are each loved equally.
Their gifts must reflect that.

Finally- -or already- -
it’s December 24th,
the day they celebrate Christmas.
No more time to
indulge her passion
for choosing gifts for those she loves.

Her children arrive with their gifts,
the tree begins to disappear
behind stacks of bright packages.

First dinner, jokes, horseplay.
Finally it’s time for the gifts.
Each person taking turns opening
one so all can enjoy the process.

The evening ends and
Christmas is almost over.
When they were small it
continued on Christmas morning
with gifts from Santa.

And because she is reluctant
to let Christmas go for another year
she has continued the tradition.

Christmas morning finds one gift
for each under the tree from Santa
with bulging stockings on the mantle.


Now it’s really over.
All that remains
is the clean up.

Piles of wrapping paper to the trash.
Boxes to be put away.
Kitchen to clean up.

The tree comes down
for it is a symbol
of anticipation.
Anticipation that will lie dormant
until August, maybe September.

Hello again

Hi everyone,
I have a favor to ask. If you have read either one of my books, would you go to Amazon.com and write a short review? I'm trying to find ways to increase sales of the books. Your help will be very appreciated. Or any other ideas you may have. :)

Breast Cancer Screening

Hi folks,
This morning I'm getting on my soapbox a little. :)

BREAST CANCER SCREENING: THE LATEST BOOGYMAN

If you believe what you hear and read in the media, every woman in America is up in arms over the new recommended guidelines for having a mammogram.
For years now, the recommendation has been that women should get a yearly mammogram, beginning at age 40, along with doing monthly breast self exams. That has now changed to having a mammogram every two years, beginning at age 50, providing there is no family history of breast cancer. The validity of self exams is also being questioned.
We are being told that many women have written to say they were diagnosed with breast cancer in their 40’s, cancer that would not have been detected were it not for the yearly mammogram.
What we don’t hear are stories similar to a woman I know. She was faithful about her yearly mammograms and monthly self exams. When she noticed a small lump a few months after her last mammogram, she made an appointment with her doctor, and had a double mastectomy a short time later.
What is also not being stressed is that these are recommended guidelines, not a written-in-stone edict preventing women from getting yearly mammograms.
It has also been suggested that these new guidelines have been encouraged by the insurance industry so they can avoid paying for so many mammograms. Given the insurance industries track record, especially in paying for preventative care, this accusation is understandable. Probably not true, but understandable.
What is not being stressed by the media is that these guidelines are based on statistics. Statistics that take into account the many false positives of mammograms that resulted in further needless tests and procedures. Once again the media is presenting a worst case scenario, rather than rationally presenting all sides.
Medicine is not an exact science. Our bodies don’t operate like a piece of machinery. There are many factors that contribute to disease, many that are poorly understood, or not understood at all. What works for one person may not work for everyone.
We seem to be too willing to accept every worst case scenario as fact, and turn over our decision making to someone else. We need to start demanding more rational reporting from the media, along with doing some investigating on our own, then base our decisions on that and on our own ‘gut level’ feeling, rather than accepting any recommendation as gospel.

Worth passing on

I've got something a little different in this writing. I read an article by Dr Robert Heaney of Creighton University. He has been involved in researching vitamin D levels. His findings indicate the current RDA's (recommended daily allowance) for vitamin D are too low. Since these levels were set 13 years ago, much more has been learned about vitamin D.

Vitamin D is well known for it's ability to help the body absorb calcium from food. It's now been found to play a key role in the body's immune system. Low vitamin D levels have been implicated in disorders as varied as premature birth, high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, osteoporosis, multiple sclerosis and many infectious diseases. Dr Heaney stressed that low levels of vitamin D do not cause these things, but merely interfere with the body's natural defense system.

The recommended dose now for pregnant and lactating women is 2,000 IUs a day. Many scientists who are studying vitamin D indicated they are taking 3,000 IUs of vitamin D a day.
Dr Heaney's suggestion is that we could easily add 1,000 to 2,000 IUs of vitamin D to our daily routine.

Use of sunscreen and the increased amount of time many of us spend indoors are factors in low vitamin D levels. While baking in the sun for hours is probably not a good idea, perhaps we've taken our caution about sun exposure a little too far.

Old?

I know it's a cliche', but really, who IS that person looking back from the mirror at me? Who ARE those people in my high school class reunion photo? I can't be pushing 70! I simply can't. I don't feel that old. Inside I'm about 40. Well, maybe 50, but 70? No way!

I wish people would stop trying to convince me I'm old. Oh, they don't argue with me. No, it's much more subtle than that. It's things like softly moaning when getting up after they have been sitting too long, and lamenting about getting old. OK, so I moan a little too, but it's not because I'm old. It's simply because I get a little stiff if I sit too long.

Then, there are the comments about doing things to keep your mind active. As if your mind runs down like a clock with a weak battery. If you can speak, your mind must be working. And if it's working, it's active.

Or saying they like to be around children because they keep you young. Personally I like to be around children just becasue they are such a delight to watch.

Or making comments about how things aren't the way they used to be. Can you name even one thing that always stays the same? Why would you want it to? That would just be boring.

In our 30's we say we wish things could slow down just a little. Then, when they do, we complain that it takes too long to accomplish any given task. What happened to wanting to slow down?

I think maybe the problem is with our focus on what numbers mean. When I was 50 my son asked me how old I was. When I told him, he replied,
"Really! I didn't know you were that old."
I informed him I was NOT old. He recovered nicely by quickly saying,
"I know you're not. I just didn't know the number was that high."

So, how about we stop attatching a meaning to our birthday number? How about celebrating every time the number gets bigger?

Meanwhile, I think I'll stop looking in the mirror.

Last spring I met three other women who, like me, were looking for a writer's support group. The four of us hit it off right away, and we've been meeting twice a month since then. We've completed one joint project so far and have submitted it for publishing under the pen name of Vier Dammen. One of our members, Marcia, did an excellent job of describing Vier Dammen:

Vier Dammen is the name of a creative female force. Each writer sees through her unique perspective, and together they cover a topic like a rich ganache. Individually, the writers are Loretté Teal, Michelle Pierce Battle and Joyce Dunn of Omaha, Nebraska, and Marcia Calhoun Forecki of Kansas City, Missouri. Their collective product is far greater than the sum of their very considerable wit, clarity and bite.

For our first joint project each one of us wrote about a paticular aspect of body image that resonated with us. When we get it published, I'll let you know where you can read it. :) For those of you who don't speak German, Vier Dammen translates as Four Ladies.

In my first blog I promised to tell you about the book I'm currently working on. For now, you'll have to be satisfied with a 55 word hint of what it is about.


REPRIEVE

“It’s stage 4, incurable.”

She feels only a need to get everything organized before she leaves. Her sadness is for the pain her family will feel, and regret that she won’t be there to help them.

A Lakota Medicine Man provides the healing that medicine can’t, allowing her to continue to be there for them.

Untl next time...

My first book was Fate, Chance or Divine Design. It is a series of vignettes of the people I worked with at an alcohol treatment center, some patients, some staff members, plus information about alcoholism and chemical dependency: how recovery works and why it sometimes doesn't. The seed for writing this book was planted years earlier when a co-worker and I were laughing about the antics of one of our patients. I commented that I should write a book and title it ATC: Fruits, Nuts and Vegetables I've Known and Loved. When I began writing this book my idea was to make it a series of funny stories. While some of them are funny, the book evolved into something more than a humerous read, so I decided to find a different title. Hindsight tells me it might have been better to stay with the original title.

My next book was a novel, loosely based on a great aunt of mine, who was our family black sheep. Belle: Rebel In Red Silk was pure fun to write. At the risk of sounding like a kook, it felt like Belle was doing some of the dictating. The first two pages are true, and will offer insight into my fascination with her. With one small exception the book is pure fiction. You'll have to read the book, then contact me if you want to know what the other true part is. :)

Now I'm working on another book, but I'll tell you more about that in my next entry.

Both my books are on Amazon, or can be purchased from the publishers: Outskirts Press.com or Eloquentbooks.com, or directly from me.