FlyingBear
May 11th, 2006, 05:43 PM
Have you heard?
With permission from Oberon Zell-Ravenheart, I forward the following on to let you know of some dreadful news from one of the dear hearts of our community. I know I would not be here if it wasn't for her, and I bet there are many among you who feel the same.
Dear Friends,
I just got home from being with Morning Glory at the hospital since yesterday afternoon. They rolled out a little cot for me to sleep on. I thought she'd be coming home yesterday or today, but they're still keeping her in there. This morning her surgeon did a chyphoidplasty on her to inject some hard dental filler into the breakage in her sacrum. She felt much better this afternoon, after the operation. Her weight is now distributed more evenly, taking the pressure off the spinal nerve, so she can walk with less pain. We're hoping they'll let her come home tomorrow.
She spent some time writing a message in her journal which she asked me to transcribe and send out to everyone, so here it is…
Please feel free to pass this on to anyone whom you think should know…
Blessings,
Oberon
*********************************
MESSAGE FROM MORNING GLORY 5/9/06
For All my Beloved Family and Friends,
Today is the first day of the rest of my life…really!
Now the time has come to gather my words together and arrange them in a new pattern that will reveal truth in a way that is acceptable. They found a tumor on my spine and we needed to know if it was benign.
My Quest began with a fall in March which led to broken bones and many tests by doctors who were very competent but could not seem to find an answer to the pattern of information they were gleaning from my body. They took my tumor as a case before the Pacific Center Medical Board to review. This is a board of multiple specialties and they were able to make an educated guess about my diagnosis; and the first part of confirming that diagnosis was to perform a biopsy of the primary tumor on my spine.
What they found in the biopsy was that the tumor was a Myeloma. This is a very aggressive cancer of the bone marrow and blood which turns the bones and marrow into plasma. It is a currently treatable disease but it is not curable. It can be sent into remission and patients can live for many years as long as they are careful and mindful of their needs for treatment. They did lot of additional bone scans and discovered that I have many of these lesions smaller or the same size all through my bones. I'm not sure that I will be a candidate for bone marrow transplant, but this is also right at the cutting edge of stem cell research. They will be making breakthroughs and holding clinical trials for many years. I will no doubt benefit from this sort of research.
In the meantime, I will continue to live my life and pursue my goals for as long as the gods permit me to. I have numerous books to write and I have a granddaughter to be born and watch to grow into maidenhood. I have Oberon to be by my side loving, supporting, and cheering me along with the same motivation as mine: "To Live and Learn and Love."
You have all been so kind to me and so generous with your interest, passion, and energy, I feel as though I am floating in the seas of your Love and bathing in the fire of your energy. I know that this outcome is not what any of us could have wished, least of all myself. I have been through the anguished dark night of my soul in which I raged at the Gods and Goddesses: "Why, Why, Why!!!" Why me, why this kind of cancer? But the only answer I received was that culling the herd has always been Gaia's way. Doctors say it is a mystery disease that comes about for no reason. It is not causative like some kinds of lung cancer or AIDS. This is a little sneaky silent joke of Eris just to keep things interesting. As the character Death from Terry Pratchett's Discworld books is wont to say: "There's no Justice; There's just Us." (Death always speaks in capital letters.)
So my Dear Ones, this is all that I think I can tell you at this point. I will be working toward being able to walk again without so much pain. There will be radiation treatments to kill the myeloma lesions; there will be various kinds of chemotherapy; and where the allopathic war ends I will begin the healing and reclamation surgery to repair the breakage in my spine. Then of course there will be acupuncture and vitamin therapy. You all are welcome to share healing remedies with me but be aware that I will pick and choose the ones that will be compatible with my overall plan of treatment.
I want to Live and I am willing to fight to keep on living. But now I have no guarantee. Most of us do not anyway, but now my life is bounded and I know how I will die. In many ways seeing the face of your killer is a comforting thing. At least the Mystery is solved.
I remember when I first met Maria Gimbutas—how busy and directed she was. A Woman with a Mission! I heard later that she had lymphoma and I tried to fit that into the vibrant, driven woman that I knew. Maria lived to write her books and to see her work vindicated. An entire movement grew around her teachings. She left a true legacy. I hope to do as well as she did and leave a legacy behind like hers. I can only do that by the Grace of the Gods and the Love of my friends and family.
I need to tell you that there will be times I will need to draw inward to husband my strength. It is easy to get overwhelmed by so much good will and well-meaning gestures. So I thank you all here and now for all that you are giving me.
But sometimes the gift I must ask for is silence and absence. There will be days when I won't be able to answer the phone or solve problems or cook dinners or have visitors. Please understand that this is not my weakness; it is the necessity of turning inward to ground and center, so as to learn to endure the unendurable.
So my dear ones, as Galahad said, "Use well the days!" The Phoenix will rise in many ways and I am learning to soar on broken wings. Magick is not only what we use…it is what we are. I will keep you posted on my progress.
Many Blessings,
Morning Glory
*********************************
It's taking me most of the evening to type these few words, because the keyboard keeps getting all wet and I can barely see, or breathe. I never thought anything could be this difficult to wrap my head around. Morning Glory and I are cosmic soulmates, and our 33-year romance and passion are legendary (our wedding anniversary is still listed every year in the Llewellyn Calendar!). We're supposed to grow old together, not this…
Morning Glory wrote this right after her diagnosis on Monday, and since then we have learned about a number of people who have lived quite a long time with this condition. As Mehitabel said, "There's a dance in the old dame yet; t'jours gai, t'jours gai!" (Archie & Mehitabel)
Since we first started letting people know that there was a problem, we have received many e-mails, letters, and gifts of love, support, prayers and magick. We thank you for these. I have printed out the e-mails and we have made them part of our Healing Altar for Morning Glory. I know that many of you will be writing back in response to this post, and I must apologize in advance for our being unable to respond personally to all of you.
But I have an imminent deadline to complete the editing and formatting for the book we were supposed to be writing together—Creating Circles & Ceremonies. Our Publisher, New Page, has been very generous in extending all the time possible for this project, but MG's inability to contribute and the days I have been spending at the hospital are really making it difficult to complete this work on schedule. That's why we are sending these generic reports to all our many friends at once. So please forgive our inability to respond individually; we still read and appreciate all your letters. And if you wish to send anything by mail, our mailing address is below.
Brightest Blessings,
Oberon
PO Box 758
Cotati, CA 94931
With permission from Oberon Zell-Ravenheart, I forward the following on to let you know of some dreadful news from one of the dear hearts of our community. I know I would not be here if it wasn't for her, and I bet there are many among you who feel the same.
Dear Friends,
I just got home from being with Morning Glory at the hospital since yesterday afternoon. They rolled out a little cot for me to sleep on. I thought she'd be coming home yesterday or today, but they're still keeping her in there. This morning her surgeon did a chyphoidplasty on her to inject some hard dental filler into the breakage in her sacrum. She felt much better this afternoon, after the operation. Her weight is now distributed more evenly, taking the pressure off the spinal nerve, so she can walk with less pain. We're hoping they'll let her come home tomorrow.
She spent some time writing a message in her journal which she asked me to transcribe and send out to everyone, so here it is…
Please feel free to pass this on to anyone whom you think should know…
Blessings,
Oberon
*********************************
MESSAGE FROM MORNING GLORY 5/9/06
For All my Beloved Family and Friends,
Today is the first day of the rest of my life…really!
Now the time has come to gather my words together and arrange them in a new pattern that will reveal truth in a way that is acceptable. They found a tumor on my spine and we needed to know if it was benign.
My Quest began with a fall in March which led to broken bones and many tests by doctors who were very competent but could not seem to find an answer to the pattern of information they were gleaning from my body. They took my tumor as a case before the Pacific Center Medical Board to review. This is a board of multiple specialties and they were able to make an educated guess about my diagnosis; and the first part of confirming that diagnosis was to perform a biopsy of the primary tumor on my spine.
What they found in the biopsy was that the tumor was a Myeloma. This is a very aggressive cancer of the bone marrow and blood which turns the bones and marrow into plasma. It is a currently treatable disease but it is not curable. It can be sent into remission and patients can live for many years as long as they are careful and mindful of their needs for treatment. They did lot of additional bone scans and discovered that I have many of these lesions smaller or the same size all through my bones. I'm not sure that I will be a candidate for bone marrow transplant, but this is also right at the cutting edge of stem cell research. They will be making breakthroughs and holding clinical trials for many years. I will no doubt benefit from this sort of research.
In the meantime, I will continue to live my life and pursue my goals for as long as the gods permit me to. I have numerous books to write and I have a granddaughter to be born and watch to grow into maidenhood. I have Oberon to be by my side loving, supporting, and cheering me along with the same motivation as mine: "To Live and Learn and Love."
You have all been so kind to me and so generous with your interest, passion, and energy, I feel as though I am floating in the seas of your Love and bathing in the fire of your energy. I know that this outcome is not what any of us could have wished, least of all myself. I have been through the anguished dark night of my soul in which I raged at the Gods and Goddesses: "Why, Why, Why!!!" Why me, why this kind of cancer? But the only answer I received was that culling the herd has always been Gaia's way. Doctors say it is a mystery disease that comes about for no reason. It is not causative like some kinds of lung cancer or AIDS. This is a little sneaky silent joke of Eris just to keep things interesting. As the character Death from Terry Pratchett's Discworld books is wont to say: "There's no Justice; There's just Us." (Death always speaks in capital letters.)
So my Dear Ones, this is all that I think I can tell you at this point. I will be working toward being able to walk again without so much pain. There will be radiation treatments to kill the myeloma lesions; there will be various kinds of chemotherapy; and where the allopathic war ends I will begin the healing and reclamation surgery to repair the breakage in my spine. Then of course there will be acupuncture and vitamin therapy. You all are welcome to share healing remedies with me but be aware that I will pick and choose the ones that will be compatible with my overall plan of treatment.
I want to Live and I am willing to fight to keep on living. But now I have no guarantee. Most of us do not anyway, but now my life is bounded and I know how I will die. In many ways seeing the face of your killer is a comforting thing. At least the Mystery is solved.
I remember when I first met Maria Gimbutas—how busy and directed she was. A Woman with a Mission! I heard later that she had lymphoma and I tried to fit that into the vibrant, driven woman that I knew. Maria lived to write her books and to see her work vindicated. An entire movement grew around her teachings. She left a true legacy. I hope to do as well as she did and leave a legacy behind like hers. I can only do that by the Grace of the Gods and the Love of my friends and family.
I need to tell you that there will be times I will need to draw inward to husband my strength. It is easy to get overwhelmed by so much good will and well-meaning gestures. So I thank you all here and now for all that you are giving me.
But sometimes the gift I must ask for is silence and absence. There will be days when I won't be able to answer the phone or solve problems or cook dinners or have visitors. Please understand that this is not my weakness; it is the necessity of turning inward to ground and center, so as to learn to endure the unendurable.
So my dear ones, as Galahad said, "Use well the days!" The Phoenix will rise in many ways and I am learning to soar on broken wings. Magick is not only what we use…it is what we are. I will keep you posted on my progress.
Many Blessings,
Morning Glory
*********************************
It's taking me most of the evening to type these few words, because the keyboard keeps getting all wet and I can barely see, or breathe. I never thought anything could be this difficult to wrap my head around. Morning Glory and I are cosmic soulmates, and our 33-year romance and passion are legendary (our wedding anniversary is still listed every year in the Llewellyn Calendar!). We're supposed to grow old together, not this…
Morning Glory wrote this right after her diagnosis on Monday, and since then we have learned about a number of people who have lived quite a long time with this condition. As Mehitabel said, "There's a dance in the old dame yet; t'jours gai, t'jours gai!" (Archie & Mehitabel)
Since we first started letting people know that there was a problem, we have received many e-mails, letters, and gifts of love, support, prayers and magick. We thank you for these. I have printed out the e-mails and we have made them part of our Healing Altar for Morning Glory. I know that many of you will be writing back in response to this post, and I must apologize in advance for our being unable to respond personally to all of you.
But I have an imminent deadline to complete the editing and formatting for the book we were supposed to be writing together—Creating Circles & Ceremonies. Our Publisher, New Page, has been very generous in extending all the time possible for this project, but MG's inability to contribute and the days I have been spending at the hospital are really making it difficult to complete this work on schedule. That's why we are sending these generic reports to all our many friends at once. So please forgive our inability to respond individually; we still read and appreciate all your letters. And if you wish to send anything by mail, our mailing address is below.
Brightest Blessings,
Oberon
PO Box 758
Cotati, CA 94931