Did ya' miss me? Did ya' wonder if I was out after midnight getting into trouble or hibernating? Last week were days 13-19 in my 21 day chemo cycle. It is when you have your most energy and feel your best! So, I would go like a crazy wind up toy until the wind wore down (usually a dawn to dusk cycle), then fall in to my easy chair for the evening. While in my easy chair, I had time to ponder the political news of the week....the Etch-a-sketch, seriously, if this is the best that 24/7 news media can do for a news story. This is about as hard news as what the Kardashian family is doing. Every editorial drawing, or picture in WSJ had Obama, Romney and the Etch-a-sketch. Being that I have an idle mind during the evening, my mind started wandering...I remember the Etch-a-Sketch---it was a stone age, manual Ipad/IDraw that was popular when I was growing up. Kathy and I (and even our children) had the toy, however, did not possess the artistic nor manual dexterity to create anything more than lines and a couple of mazes. My favorite manual doodler was a daisy doodler. There is a snazzier 2012 version that Crayola makes with a similar name, but it is just not the same. The old daisy doodler had wheels and cogs on a etch-a-sketch style screen, but the pen (a pack of color pens, if I remember correctly) was up, and it made circles, and more importantly, flower petals. You could create simple but perfect petaled flowers like a daisy or good crazy and do layer upon layer of petals and create a huge mum. Gosh, I liked making flowers, perfect flowers.
Fast forward to my current situation. If I were asked what kind of flower I would draw myself as with my daisy doodler, it would be a Gerber Daisy. More complex than the regular daisy, or the black eyed susan wildflower, a little more colorful, interesting center with little short petals. I think of myself as a single Gerber Daisy in a bud vase, with a circle of a few close friends, represented by each of my petals. My busy week last week brought me in contact with many of my petals (friends). (Some got to see the "wig"---told me it looked great, even better than my real hair---note to self, find new stylist. Others got to see my expanding collection of do-rags and scarves.) I began to imagine them as daisy doodler flowers (told you, an idle mind can sooo run amuck) There were mums, spider mums, roses, marigolds---each person represented some sort of flower, each different, each with different petals. It was only when talking to my flowery friends---with comments like, "Paula sends her best, her ODK group is praying for you"--I know Paula B, Paula E, Paula W which one....had not even thought of them when making my doodle daisy flower. Another flower friend chimed in, "Deb wants to get together for lunch next time she is here". And yet another, "Carol said...when she was doing chemo". Oops, a few more petals missing from my daisy. I realized that if "no man is an island", then no women is a single flower in a vase. She is part of a big bouquet of flowers, with petals of each of the individual flowers touching and overlapping. In overlapping, the circle of who we touch and share becomes wider, the prayers, strength, pain and joys are multiplied. So, I thank you for reminding me that I am but a flower in a huge arrangement, and together we make life and the gift of friendship beautiful. Doodling on to Tuesday's 7:00 AM appointment.
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