Can We Eat to Starve Cancer?

To understand the role of real food in keeping our bodies healthy, watch this absolutely fascinating video: "Can We Eat to Starve Cancer?"

How to be a Great Friend

I just came upon this great list and felt compelled to post it. Below is a list of meaningful things that you can do if someone you know is diagnosed with cancer:

• Just Call to Chat
• Give a hat shower for your friend. Have everyone bring a cool hat.
• Send out e-mail to co-workers and friends and give your friend’s address so people can send cards and letters.
• Gather together some mutual friends and make a “Walk Beside Me” Quilt.
• Take up a collection and buy a day of house cleaning, window washing or carpet cleaning for your friend.
• Cook a meal for her family on chemotherapy days.
• Drop by with a milkshake.
• Go to a matinee movie and/or to lunch.
• Drop by to do some laundry.
• Run some errands for her: grocery shopping, post office, bank deposits, etc.
• Get manicures and pedicures.
• Get her a gift certificate for a healing massage.
• Just Call to Chat
• Wash her car.
• Help with yard work, and chat while working.
• Go wig shopping and try on crazy colors (the crazier the better!)
• Buy her a new shade of lipstick.
• Add her to your church’s prayer chain; some women’s groups will also send cards and notes.
• Ask her to make you a list of errand, chores and tasks so you can pass them around for others to help
• Have a going away boobie party.
• Invite her to a special lunch, bring out the fancy china and silver. Don’t forget the linen napkins. What are you saving them for anyway. Celebrate your friendship and life.
• Many restaurants have gourmet foods to go. Bring home her favorites and enjoy them with her in comfy clothes.
• There is nothing better than the smell of warm bread, or the taste of warm bread with a slather of butter. Share the experience with her, and of course do the clean up. Slice it up and freeze it, so she can enjoy it later as well.
• Bring over an assortment of herbal teas. Looking for a better nights sleep? Try chamomile. Need an afternoon pick up? Try hibiscus and rose hips.
• Just Call to Chat
• If your friend likes to cook, bring over some fresh herbs, many supermarkets are stocking them these days.
• Ice cream sundaes are always in style, bring over a few toppings and you have instant fun.
• Create a fun “Do Not Disturb” sign for her to use it if she needs some alone time. Great for the bathroom door to take that long relaxing bath or an afternoon nap. Don’t forget a nice basket of bath products.
• If time is short, pay a responsible teenager to do some mundane & tiring errands to take away some of the burden of chores.
• Breakfast in bed is always a hit, don’t forget the flowers to brighten up the tray.
• Take your friend for a new look. It’s more fun to do it together. If she’s up to it, try on some new styles of clothes together. A bald head goes well with punk styles. Pick something you would never normally wear and have a good laugh. Don’t forget the camera.
• Get a few wild temporary tattoos and have fun putting them in daring places.
• Drive your friend around so she can more easily do those errands, it will take some of the stress out of errands and make them more fun at the same time.
• Pamper your friend with a paraffin wax treatment, the warm wax does wonders for circulation and makes your hands soft and smooth. Can be used for sore, tired feet as well.
• When you come to visit your friend, suggest she take a long hot bubble bath while you watch the kids, do the dishes or just field the phone calls.
• Just Call to Chat
• Before she looses her hair, dye it a color she’s always talked about, or get it cut short and sassy. Encourage her to be daring by trying out some new styles or looks. Remember, it’s probably only going to last for a week or so.
• Try some art therapy. Not creative enough? Bring over a couple of coloring books and color crayons and help her feel like a kid again with color book therapy. Good time to talk and bring out the creativity even if she isn’t an artist. Don’t forget, it’s ok to color outside of the lines.
• If your friend is dealing with Lymphadema you could hire a massage therapist that is specially trained to help relieve the pressure and help her relax.
• If you like to do crafts, bring over the supplies and share this new craft with your friend.
• If you have a sweet pet that likes people, share them with your friend. Pets have a special healing power. (check for allergies beforehand)
• One way to pamper your friend is to shampoo her hair (or massage her head with lotion if she has no hair)
• Oh yeah… Just Call to Chat!
• And finally… If she says no, don’t give up, continue to offer to help.

No Need to Fear -- All is Great!

I posted the poem below -- entitled When Death Comes -- in response to the recent passing of my dear friend's father, who died from cancer. I have known him for years and know that this poem is a very good reflection of how he felt about life and so, after reading it, I sent it to my friend. And because it is also a reflection of how I feel about life and death, I decided to also post it here. Unfortunately, some people read this entry and were afraid -- because I offered no explanation -- that this was a reflection of my current situation. One friend of my father's even called him and said, "I have a very delicate question to ask....is everything alright with Julie?" I am so sorry if I caused any alarm! Thankfully, I am happy to report that I am doing fabulous. I am healthier and happier than ever and keeping super busy this summer with the kids and work. All in all, life is great!

I wish that I had more time to write...my life has taken many wonderful twists and turns since I ended cancer treatment almost 3 years ago. I am now Executive Director for a cancer-related non-profit in Marin (where we live) and I am partnering with my oncologist, Dr David Gullion, to open a cancer healing center in Marin. It's been a long and interesting process (that I often describe as "riding a roller coaster in the dark"), but we are making slow and steady progress, which feels great. If I am every lucky enough to have an extra hour or so to sit down and write more, I absolutely will because I have learned so much about what "healing" really means. Until then, please know that life is good. I hope the same is true of each of you who still faithfully read my blog.

When Death Comes

When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn;
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse

to buy me, and snaps the purse shut;
when death comes
like the measle-pox;

when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,

I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering:
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?

And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,

and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,

and each name a comfortable music in the mouth,
tending, as all music does, toward silence,

and each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.

When it's over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom; taking the world into my arms.

When it's over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made my life something particular, and real.
I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.

I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.