Dragons and Princesses

My friend Doug has gotten through his first week of chemo. His whole world has changed. What was once so clear is now uncertain except his courage.

So, I am posting my favorite quote for him and all those who might have dragons to slay.

“...perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave. Perhaps everything terrible is in its deepest being something helpless that wants help from us.” Rainer Maria Rilke

Creative Change

How do you creatively cope with change? I invite you to send your thoughts or comments, be it poetry, quotes or ways you have found to walk through change positively.

The Marines Have Landed...the power of metaphor

My friend began his chemotherapy yesterday and adopted a powerful war strategy. He is now trusting his assault team (his medical professionals) and his troops (his chemotherapy) and his personal leadership. The Marines have landed.

I am visualizing this process like Delta Company, Second Battalion advancing through the jungles and up the ridgelines east of Hue looking for a place to bivouac, while they wait for backups to arrive over the next few days in order to have enough strength to advance on the bastards that are trying to kill them and steal their way of life.This really is war at its highest level...Unfortunately, SHOCK & AWE was not an option for my treatment so I am placing my trust in the ground troops. I will count on my doctors to provide the battle plan and the mel/dex to provide the firepower to take out the enemy in quick fashion.As the general heading this up, I have ordered no holds barred. Water boarding, enhanced interrogation techniques and even down right torture are authorized and I don't care who knows that they are going on. If I don't win this war, it won't be because I didn't give it my best shot or that my hands where tied by weak-kneed politicians.

And to this I would add a quote by John Wayne: "If everything isn't black and white, I say, 'Why the hell not?'"

Stepping up to the plate

If you are fortunate to have good friends, you are blessed. I have been. Recently I received a call from my Friend Doug who said he was dying. I thought he was kidding, but he never has joked with me. I guess I just didn't know how to respond. But he did. He repeated, No, I'm not joking. It sucks. It hit me hard because this is a guy you just have to love. He has always made a point of staying in touch with his friends. He has been my friend for atleast 38 years and still counting. He was my best friends' boyfriend in high school and well, we always had an unexplicable closeness (his description). So, what do you do when you receive this kind of news? You say, I love you and mean it and I will be there for you and mean it and then get off the phone and say this is one of the most important moments in my life where I need to step up to the plate. Well here's to one of Doug's biggest fans. I am on your team, sweetie.

stategies for managing change

Here are some thoughts on change as I prepared a hypnosis script. You might find them useful as well.

• Change is a normal part of life
• It is not a question of if there will be change...more of... when and how change will affect your life
• Change is as certain as the sunrise and sunset, like time
• And sixty seconds is a minute and there are sixty minutes in each hour and seven days in each week
• And as you consider change as a certainty....finally consider that change is an opportunity to act not react ...and like time we can distort a certainty in novel ways
• Imagine an activity where you told yourself-- I lost track of time and what seemed like just a few minutes was really an hour of clock time or what seemed like just an hour flew by like a few minutes....change can be seen in this way as well
• Perhaps this change is for the better or perhaps not...only time will tell and your capacity to manage it
• And acting rather than reacting is key to positively influencing a future you don’t know yet
• And a creative act now suggests a work in progress that builds towards a successful beginning.
  
  The great Scientist Albert Einstein said, Nothing happens until something moves. So as you move and shift grow more and more comfortable with possibilities.

And who could have imagined the first foot path would later become a road and years later a highway. And who would have known that the roads would invite the invention of cars...and paths are meant to be followed and roads are meant to be traveled. And what is the price of progress? Change.

Take a minute to reflect on how you can imagine change......

Joseph Henry an American physicist once noted, “The seeds of great discoveries are constantly floating around us, but they only take root in minds well prepared to receive them.”

And I would like to suggest that you imagine a fertile field with dark loamy soil and the sounds of Spring and the sound of plants pushing up through the ground to meet a clear blue sunlit sky as you relax deeper into each moment.

And it can be an interesting experience to feel a lightness within... and the possibility of floating in the sky like a cloud or a breath of mist. And in seeing different views of the same picture...from both above and below you can gain a new perspective.

And fences make good neighbours, but gates invite the possibility to explore beyond your current boundaries.

You may now find that you allow yourself to explore different ideas within you and whether you see, touch upon or smell out new paths...a road is meant to be traveled.