We finished our 4th book group reading The Story You Need to Tell: Writing to Heal from Trauma, Illness, or Loss, by Sandra Marinella. This is a book group; writing is not required, but it is encouraged. At our last session we listened to anyone who wanted to read something they had written.
I’m sharing with you (link at bottom), what Kerri Geary read. Kerri has been living with cancer almost as long as I have, so she writes from experience. She was one of our healing story tellers at our 2015, Cancer as a Turning Point, From Surviving to Thriving free conference, in Denver. She has lived with cancer for 25 years. Her piece elicited a lot of laughter, especially from those of us who have lived with cancer for a long time. We’ve all experienced what she writes about. I hope you enjoy reading it. Laughter is good medicine.
Reading Sandra’s book has been a profound step toward writing for many of us. I’ve been working on writing my cancer memoir for at least a year now. I started it before the pandemic gave me more time to focus on it. It’s been such a meaningful way to spend the many hours of staying at home. I want to share with you the first and last paragraphs of the working copy of my introduction:
This is a cancer memoir, but it is not a story of how I became cancer free, because I didn’t. My first cancer diagnosis was in 1989. I have had 3 primary cancers – breast cancer in both breasts and ocular melanoma – and more recurrences than I can count. Essentially cancer has been a chronic illness for me for over 30 years. I have had breast cancer metastasized to my lungs since 2011. My story is about living fully and thriving with cancer.
Most of the stories in this book are about events in my life that helped to form or strengthen the attitudes, beliefs, and lifestyle that have been major resources in supporting me through more than 30 years of thriving with cancer. Even though this isn’t a “how to” book, my stories may stimulate ideas in you that can assist you in thriving with whatever has washed up on your beach.
Whether my book gets published or not, writing it has been a healing process for me. We all have stories in us that want to come out. Writing can help us understand our stories better, and we can even re-write some of them.
Registration is open for the next book group that will start on Zoom in May. We have had waiting lists for every group so far, so I recommend signing up early. I look forward to sharing this profound experience with some of you.
You may read Kerri’s story, Navigating Shoulds, Musts, and Nevers, here.
As always, I welcome your comments; to reply please click here.