Rituals, Centering and Connecting

One of the best things which has come out of our cancer journey is the presence of ritual in our lives. Every morning Meagan prepares our matcha tea (an incredibly powerful antioxident, and what is used in the Japanese Tea Ceremony - although our version is the medium grade, not the ultra expensive tea ceremony version). Using the right bamboo whisk is important and we joke each morning about the amount of froth which is developed through the mixing process (matcha is finely ground tea leaves, and you mix it with water - it is not steeped). We then drink it out of our special, authentic tea bowls our friend Dennis gave to us. It gives us an opportunity to share some time talking about the day ahead, the journey ahead,and what we are grateful for.  Then it's my turn - while she jumps onto Facebook and email - I make the special oatmeal, and serve it up and we share a meal together.

There is something about each of us making and offering to each other the tea and oatmeal that is powerful. It's supportive, an act of kindness, and sets the stage for an ability to connect. We laugh a lot about how much froth there is in the tea, and how we don't drink it properly according to Japanese ritual (or so we've been told). Or how filling the oatmeal is, particularly with the chia seeds. In our world of up and down news about the cancer, this act is very centering and grounding.

Now this is what a cancer fighting fridge looks like! How a husband supports his wife.

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Juicing, your immune system and cancer

I confess, we have two refrigerators. The one in the back room has, up until now, been used mainly for beverages. It has now become home to a twenty pound bag of “juicing” carrots and two pounds of kale. Two pounds of kale is about the size of a microwave oven. In the future it will likely look like the organic vegetable section of Whole Foods, stuffed with beets, broccoli, kale and carrots. All of which will last about 2-3 days. I understand and appreciate all the reasons for juicing. We discovered “Thrive”, an excellent raw and juice place up on Roosevelt and 65th. They have great juices, smoothies and salads. Meagan needs to get 10 helpings of vegetables each day for their nutritional and cancer fighting properties. But eating that much - cooked or raw - would be impossible. So juicing is us. We bought a nifty machine today. It will mean we will need to go to the store quite often to get the veggies, a big change in lifestyle aside from drinking the damn stuff. Although the suggestion to mix in some organic apple cider is a good one and should make it quite tasty. I thought juicing was only something those old hippies did. Turns out it could be quite the life saver - pun intended.