THURSDAY THOUGHTS - A Front Row Seat To The Real Experience

Guest Post...

One of my favorite authors is Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen. Her books "Kitchen Table Wisdom" and "My Grandfather's Blessings" have both had a dramatic effect on the way I live my life. I have long been an over achiever, one who finds it most difficult to sit still for very long. I am happy to report that I am becoming much better at enjoying the moments in my life, and that I am slowing down a bit. I have always been a writer of non fiction because I love to read the real life experiences of others. I feel and have always felt that there is so much we can learn from each other.

Dr. Remen states:

"Everybody is a story. When I was a child, people sat around the kitchen tables and told their stories. We don't do that so much anymore. Sitting around the table telling stories is not just a way of passing time. It is the way the wisdom gets passed along. The stuff that helps us live a life worth remembering. Despite the awesome powers of technology many of us still do not live very well. We may need to listen to each others stories once again. The stories we can tell each other have no beginning and ending. They are a front-row seat to the real experience. Even though they may have happened in a different time or place they have a familiar feel. In some way they are about us too. Real stories take time. We stopped telling stories when we started to lose that sort of time, pausing time, reflecting time,wondering time. Life rushes us along and few people are strong enough to stop on their own. Most often, something unforeseen stops us and it is only then we have the time to take a seat at life's kitchen table. To know our own story and tell it. To listen other people's stories. To remember that the real world is made of such stories. We have become solitary readers and watchers rather than sharers and participants."

I feel that the members of Lifting Hearts know the magical healing power of stories. It is on this playing field that we listen and share with each other. I have found comfort in this group and I know many others have as well. We are safe here to express our concerns, our setbacks and our victories with those who will listen and offer support. I think Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen would be very proud of all of us! We are not letting Cancer beat us... we are allowing it to make us better and stronger!

Kathy Christensen
Member of Lifting Hearts
Survivor
Guest Blogger