Blog Posts – I'm not an Ostrich

Maintaining Balance

Posted by Martine on 6 September 2023

The first time for me, naivety, ignorance and an innate belief that health would prevail meant that the waiting for test results was a non-issue. A malignant verdict though, with the concomitant surgery, chemo, radio, recuperation and healing, now means that no matter whether it’s 1 year post disease or 13, the waiting is transformed into a battle between fear and confidence, hope and uncertainty.

Whilst you may know the tell-tale signs to watch out for and the precautionary measures required on a daily basis to safeguard against reignition of any wayward growth, life likes to tease you into ignoring your best advice. After all, you can’t live on edge, tiptoeing around every obstacle so that it doesn’t touch you. Your focus needs to be squarely on the cultivation of an inner peace, a healthy resilience and a sound self-awareness. Learn to react softly to life’s challenges, shifting attention to the breath and the only definitive control you have – your response to the present moment. Nothing else matters – not the past which can’t be changed, not the future which is yet to pass and may or may not transpire as envisaged. Only the present cradles our reality and forces us to confront our reactions.

My 93 yr old Mum is a perfect example of someone who has an amazing ability to shake off the people, circumstance and trauma that inevitably present themselves in life. By no way is she devoid of emotion. Instead, she is nurtured by faith in divine guidance and protection and sustained by a pragmatism that allows her to dismiss the foibles of others as simply unsavoury manifestations of human nature. React, talk it out, then let it go. That’s her mantra and coping strategy, the tempering of response with the knowledge that you can only address what is within your control and thus must reject and put to one side things over which you inevitably have no sway.

Sounds easy but let’s not kid ourselves into thinking that the switch is automatic. It requires effort, persistence and awareness. A perpetual cultivation of what is in our best interests for a healthy, dis-ease-free life.

If you think that meditation isnt for you and that breathing is natural so why would it need to be controlled, it may be prudent to look at neuroscience for the last say. Inner resilience best shows itself when life is akimbo, shifting us off our axis. It’s important to remember then that the mind is malleable and can be tricked into believing and manifesting what you want it to believe. Tell yourself over and over again the state of being that you want for yourself. Make it your daily mantra as you wake and before you sleep. You are and can be what you believe yourself to be, so live your resilience and be your peace, one breath and one thought at a time. Just put your mind and heart front and centre.

Those Ups and Downs

Posted by Martine on 24 November 2022

Fear

It sits at the edge of my consciousness like prickly heat
nagging my senses into recognition
I try to ignore it
pretend it’s not there
distract myself with nonsensical thoughts
but it continues to gather momentum
begins to claw at my knowing
sits like an unyielding mass
at the pit of my stomach
brewing discontent

Then there’s Relief

It peels back the cardboard-like cushioning propped around my fragility
opens the shutters to light
uncoils that spring
releases that breath
nudges me forward with more resolute steps
into that next phase of comfort thought
cradling the now with its boldness

I went through an experience recently that sent me reeling backwards through the years to that first time
when my life was surrounded by
uncertainty
and fear
and pain
and loss
and at times indescribable emotions

I didn’t cope as well with this new incursion
which startled me
Why wasn’t I as strong
as resolute
as at peace
I crumbled inward faced with the inevitable waiting
Test this scan that
analyse discuss review confirm
fragmenting my body into shards
that only served to pierce my self-composure

I know that bodies change as they age
settling into new delineations of who and what they are
but just let mine be cloaked in
cellular functionality of the mundane kind
Not provoked to
singular distinction
cult followings
mass destruction

I’ll do my part I promise
Let’s shake on it
old-school like
Better still, make it a blood oath
as cold and calculating as a stake-out
if that’s what it takes to
stay true the course
on this crazy unpredictable journey

Waiting…

Posted by Martine on 29 December 2021

It’s the day before that gets your stomach churning as thoughts turn to pathways you’d rather leave well alone. Especially when you’ve been there before and know how three small words of 4 syllables can irrevocably change your life.

This time though it’s not my story. I’m the one in the role of support trying not to think of my own past experience in those other shoes and the thoughts I had of what my body was going to be transformed into under the surgeon’s knife. You see, my journey to those 3 words had occurred within the space of a day, hours actually, after a mammogram, ultrasound and subsequent conversation with a doctor. I’d already had a bit taken out to be tested so was awaiting the thumb verdict, like a gladiator of sorts.

In this case, for my husband, it’s a niggly thought stemming from being told that PSA levels are in the equivocal range, a notion conjuring up a space of grim uncertainty that could tip the scale either way.

I believe though that even though cells in your body may be going rogue, there are ways both medical (albeit invasive) and non-traditional but especially personal (since that is the one over which you have the most control) that you can take to rein them in. This I know as fact from my own experiences over the last 11 years of life beyond that doctor’s pronouncement and the surgical, chemical and electromagnetic treatment that my body underwent.

For now though, it’s simply a matter of waiting to be called into the doctor’s office. And breathing down the sensation of feeling sick. Time enough for the real thing…

THE VERDICT

We’re none the wiser. More tests to be had; more uncertainty to be weathered as we wait for the numbers to imply a more definitive trajectory. And then, it will only lead to more tests, more probing to determine a more exact prognosis, one way or the other. In the meantime, turn the clock back mentally to that time of unknowing, prior to this current preoccupation with cellular threat. Hug your body from the inside out and rest your heart against that pillar of peace that only you can fashion, one breath at a time…

My 10 Year Celebration

Posted by Martine on 2 July 2020

It’s been a long time since I posted on this blog but I’m sure that those of you who’ve had cancer will understand why. There comes a time when you have to switch off from that somewhat grisly conversation with disease and get on with the business of living, armed of course with the learnings, lessons and experiences you’ve found along the way to keep you well.

Today I return though to celebrate and reflect.

It’s been 10 years since my journey began. Ten years since my relationship with that offensive lump changed the course of my life forever.

I still don’t like saying the word. You know, that C word. The one that can subdue a conversation the moment it’s mentioned; that lingers in the air like smoke until an inevitable platitude of sorts shifts talk to something else. Easier to chat about the weather, politics, family; anything other than our own human frailty.

Ten years.

I would like to say that I’m as far away from that experience as I can be, but to be honest, whilst the cinematic horror of that time is tucked neatly away in a place that I would prefer not to revisit, memories have a way of nosing their way into our reality when least expected.

I’m not going there today though. I’m here to celebrate.

I’m told that I now slot firmly back into the general populace, with the same risk of cancer as everyone else but for whom is that reassuring? What about the doctor who told me that having had it once means that my body has a propensity towards that trajectory. Or the hospital I visit for yearly mammograms that initially made me feel as if they were touting for return business.

Too fatalistic to sound like celebration? Not really. My journey in wellness hasn’t been about dismissing what I would prefer not to hear. Quite the opposite. I work instead on arming myself with the knowledge and information that will allow me to have some measure of control over my “physical destiny.” More reassuring to believe that it’s in my hands.

10 years.

I’m very grateful to be here; ecstatic in fact to be so far removed from that gut-wrenching moment when I realised that there actually was something under my skin that shouldn’t be there; something that I couldn’t ignore. It’s taught me vigilance about every aspect of my body, health and wellbeing; about the need to be happy; about mindfulness and the precious gift of each day and those that I hold dearly.

I know that so many have not survived this journey; that so many are facing their own battles right now. For me, time may have diluted the past but it can never efface it. It’s marked indelibly on my psyche, part of my vernacular even if I try to limit that to my own internal conversations.

Time to shake off my retrospection though. I can’t change what’s happened. I know though how much it’s changed me and continues to shape my direction. That’s my focus. My celebration.

Finally, News of a Genetic Kind

Posted by Martine on 18 February 2018

Well, my 3 months of waiting for test results is over. This time, it was genetic testing to ascertain whether the familial thread between me, my ancestry, relations and consequently present and future descendants includes an errant cancer gene. Necessary, I’m told, in light of when and with what I was diagnosed. Although I was privileged to have the distraction of an amazing adventure in France and Spain with my husband during this waiting period, I’ve since found myself once again in unsettling territory the closer I’ve come to receiving results.

You see, there’s always a Before and After with cancer. The Before, to me, was that shadowy other world prior to diagnosis when fear was cushioned by a child-like hope in divine benevolence versus the After, that moment when I was hit by the brutal reality of being told that I had the disease. Now, I had to face the prospect of being further embroiled in its tentacles and, at the same time, widening its sphere of influence. My logical mind told me that my own research into my medical family tree pointed to my disease being an “anomaly” rather than genetically manifested but there was always that other voice.

Consequently, I found myself returning to the past and that experience between pre and immediately post confirmation of my cancer, news that was so disturbing that its memory is impossible to eradicate. It’s like the branding of cattle except that it has remained permanently tattooed on my consciousness. I can hide it, ignore it, even forget it for a while but it comes back each time I’m faced with the results of a check-up or some form of testing. The only difference is that now I know how much the After can shatter the Before. I’m no longer naive. Ignorance isn’t the innocence of bliss. It’s just waiting for news, good or bad, trying not to second-guess the outcome.

Instead, by day I’ve tried to closet myself within my daily life as if nothing is wrong until I know one way or another. By night though, I’ve found myself staring at the ceiling when I should be sleeping. Thinking. Feeling. Knowing that my vulnerability or resilience at this stage is just a fictional construct played out by an imagination bent on assuming control. No point trying to bargain with God. The dice has been cast. And like before, I will inevitably learn to take that one tentative step after the other in my renewed quest towards healing, whatever I’m told.

When good news does come (my cancer was an “anomaly” after all), though it’s the outcome I hoped for, it’s like a sucker punch, unexpected and intense. I may want to feast on relief but prefer to keep myself in check until I can process the emotional damage in private. After all, though my stars were fortuitously aligned, every bullet dodged is a bullet faced with the repercussions being a peeling back of that scab that, for the most part, stops me from facing what I’d prefer to have left behind.

Perhaps next time I’ll handle cancer testing better but, for now, back to the warp and weft of life, with that lid put back on the past and an eye keenly trained on each precious moment of the present.

Why They Call It Dodging A Bullet

Posted by Martine on 1 December 2017

It doesn’t get any easier. Going to a cancer hospital to have a yearly mammogram. Waiting for results. Speaking to an oncologist. Talk of further testing. It’s funny how past memories and feelings of fear and trepidation come flooding back, invading every cell of your body so that part of you is part of the conversation and part of you is somewhere else altogether.

Trauma moves me. Jerks the words out of my consciousness. Bubbles poetry to the surface. Tears the scab off a wound that, if dug, would descend to the pit of my core if I let it.

I breathe in, steady myself and look around. Distraction is my best bet at self-composure.

It’s big business, cancer. A revolving door of cellular mutation. So many heads like shorn sheep. The difference I see now in my second successive visit to an Australian hospital since returning home is a sexy new approach to what is commonly regarded as a dreaded disease. Headbands, turbans, caps, beanies. For those who belong to the sisterhood, vulnerability has taken on a new spectrum of sassiness. The quarter boob, half boob or no boob at all no longer makes you a pariah, depending on your circle of influence of course.

I’m travelling in France with my husband at the moment, having put a lid on those raw emotions that made me temporarily come unstuck 4 months ago (until the next appointment anyway). Cancer can’t be eluded though. In the city of Lille, in a prominent city square, I come across a goddess statue, symbolic of France’s resistance against the Austrians in 1792. It sits atop a giant column and presents an impressive photo opportunity. What stands out though is her garish pink bra, apparently in support of Octobre Rose, France’s Pink October dedicated to breast cancer awareness.

And, on le Pont Iéna, the main bridge leading to the Eiffel Tower, a series of large, stylised photos of women who’ve been subject to breast cancer – alone, with family, mothers, sisters, daughters, friends, partners. A celebration of redefined bodies, unashamedly naked and beautiful in their resilience.

The photo above is from the pinkribbonaward.fr website

It wasn’t what I was there to see in this city of spectacular history. But it did bring home to me that I’m simply one of many. And that here cancer, or rather breast cancer, was being rewritten as a story of promise, with a new kind of allure and, of course, as an inspiration to others. I could see that not everyone was comfortable with such direct confrontation. But maybe that was the whole point, to bring it the fore, out in the open and make the scars and body loss as much a part of our vernacular as the traditional western body image we tend to covet.

After all, rather than lament the “dodged bullet,” we need to champion a new direction, one that empowers and builds anew la puissance féminine (female strength). It’s essentially the key to moving forward for so many of us now.

Grand Jury Prize
Estée Lauder Pink Ribbon Photo Award 2017
(By Victor PODGORSKI)

Why Go Organic?

Posted by Martine on 1 October 2017

Eating healthy isn’t just about choosing vegetables over fried food, or fresh fruit over processed sugar. It also involves considering the best options in the range of food we consume. For me, that’s where the issue of organics comes into play.

Progress is fickle. On the one hand, it’s championed with the advances in human ingenuity it brings about but, at the same time, thinking can often go full circle to come back to popularising instead the simpler practices of the past. The concept of organic farming is a case in point. Prior to the introduction and development of chemical pesticides and herbicides, agriculture was organic in principle and practice. With the advent of a more synthetic approach to the cultivation of food, however, things changed and we’ve been paying the price, good and bad, ever since.

To better understand this, we need to explore the origin and development of organic farming, a movement that originated in the early 20th century in both Europe and America. Interestingly, though this occurred in each country relatively independent of the other, the stimulus was similar – a crisis in the farming sector sparked by soil degradation and poor quality crops. This was the period between the two World Wars, a time of Depression and social malaise. The Industrial Revolution that had occurred more than 100 years earlier had left a double-edged impact. On the one hand, mechanisation of farming practices, along with chemical control of pests and weeds, had made the business of agriculture less labour intensive. An important downside though was the impact of overt chemical use on the health and integrity of crop soil, which now compromised taste and quality of what was produced. In fact, the increased use of mineral fertilisers and pesticides engendered new human health concerns, with German & English scientists in the 1920s and 1930s respectively confirming the link between increased nitrogen fertilisation and lower vitamin levels in fruit and vegetables. During this time, studies into the higher potassium levels in cancer cells were also proven to have been caused by an increase in the potassium fertilisation of crop soil (file:///C:/Users/Martine/Dropbox/I’m%20Not%20An%20Ostrich/Research/Organic-Farming-An-International-History.pdf, p. 11).

It’s no wonder then that attention started to turn to an alternative, less aggressive means of farming, with the humus-based agricultural practices of India and Asia being of particular interest. This was popularised by Sir Albert Howard (1873-1947) the Englishman generally considered to be the founder and pioneer of organic farming. Howard was not only born into a farming life, he spent most of his adult years involved in agricultural science, research and administration. Of particular note is the work he did in India over a period of 26 years, which helped to cement his theory of organic farming, “A living connection between soil fertility and plant and animal health, the Law of Return…[the recycling of all organic waste materials] and composting” (//www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/farm-ranch/a-history-of-organic-farming-transitions-from-sir-albert-howards-war-in-the-soil-to-the-usda-national-organic-program/).

It’s taken many years for organic farming and its benefits to be firmly recognised. In America, this didn’t really occur until the late 1970s and, to this day, there are those who, whether out of ignorance, politics or commerce, choose to discredit its value. In one vein, proponents believe that, “While organic foods have fewer synthetic pesticides and fertilizers and are free of hormones and antibiotics, they don’t appear to have a nutritional advantage over their conventional counterparts” (//www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/should-you-go-organic). What is of concern though is the long-term impact of herbicide and pesticide bioaccumulation in humans, considering the toxic nature of these substances in the first place. The “big guns” in this regard are DDT which was discovered by a Swiss entomologist in 1939 and yet banned in America and elsewhere in 1972, and glyphosate, the key ingredient in the still widely used herbicide RoundUp which was approved in America in 1974 and Europe in 2002. In March 2015, however, glyphosate was classified as a probable human carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (www.slowfood.com/network/fr/ddt-glyphosate-une-histoire-qui-se-repete/). Studies have also linked it to birth defects, autism, liver disease and Alzheimers amongst other conditions.

For me, it is exactly the aspect of bioaccumulation that is the issue. As someone who has had cancer and been treated conventionally, I know that I must work at reducing the toxic load on my body if I want to keep my immune system functioning at an optimum level and consequently help reduce the prospect of cancer re-occurrence. I, therefore, rely on organic food as much as possible, since even though many may argue that herbicides and pesticides have their place in modern farming, to me, that “place” is better kept outside of my body.

TO HELP YOU MAKE INFORMED FOOD CHOICES & REDUCE YOUR EXPOSURE TO TOXIC PESTICIDES, THE ENVIRONMENTAL WORKING GROUP’S RECOMMENDATIONS BELOW ARE A GOOD PLACE TO START.

Why A Diet Based on Plants?

Posted by Martine on 30 August 2017

The relationship between diet and health never figured in any conversations I had with my doctors, surgeons and oncologists pre, during or post my experience with cancer. And yet, the more I’ve looked into making and keeping myself well, the more I’ve realised the absolute importance of everything I feed my body. Central to this has been vegetables, that much maligned food generally touted by mothers yet detested by kids. But what is it about a plant-based diet, of which vegetables are a part along with fruit, whole grains, nuts, seeds and legumes, that makes it integral to health, especially in terms of recovery from disease?

In previous Posts, I’ve highlighted the fact that cancer is derived from a cellular dysfunction; an anomaly in the DNA configuration of a cell that turns it rogue so instead of normal metabolic behaviour, it changes its fuel source from oxygen to glucose and creates an environment that will allow it to replicate and override the inevitability of cellular death. This being the case, since it all begins in the cell, it makes sense to focus each and every day on nourishing, maintaining and protecting our cellular health as much as possible.

Whilst deep breathing and exercise especially in the form of rebounding, help to oxygenate the cells, diet is a key component since what we eat, through the digestive processes that break down food into its constituent molecules, becomes the nutrients and energy that fuel every cell in our body.

We all know that nutritionally poor diets loaded with sugar, dairy, meat and processed foods combined with sedentary lifestyle choices, stress and the added implications of smoking and over-use of alcohol can cause dire health consequences. According to documented research, however, “Epidemiological studies provide support that individuals who consume a plant-based diet have a nutritional advantage over conquering chronic degenerative diseases” (//thetruthaboutcancer.com/rainbow-diet-cancer/). This is due to the strong antioxidant properties of fruit and vegetables.

To make sense of how and why this is important, an understanding of oxidation, particularly oxidative stress, is required. Naturally, oxygen is key to the chemical processes that occur in the body to sustain life, however, the unstable nature of the oxygen molecule means that it readily attaches to “free radicals” which are byproducts of regularly occurring chemical reactions within us that create unpaired electrons. In order to become stable, they steal the required electrons from adjacent molecules, thereby creating further “free radicals” in the process. If this continues without check, the impact is oxidative stress, which is an imbalance between the antioxidants that can surrender their electrons without risk of becoming destabilised and the pro-oxidants or “free radicals” that are causing the damage. Factors such as poor diet, stress, toxins, pollutants, infections, alcohol and radiation are all contributing factors to oxidative stress. In fact, oxidative stress which impacts on healthy cells in the body, has been “implicated in the pathogenesis of at least 50 diseases” (//www.news-medical.net/health/What-are-Antioxidants.aspx).

In the case of cancer, documented studies show, however, that a plant-based diet is able to “protect us from environmental and ingested carcinogens by arming our antioxidant enzymes [and] enhancing DNA repair pathways” (www.bjmp.org/content/phytochemicals-cancer-prevention-and-management). What’s more, the phytochemicals of a plant-based diet have a direct impact on reducing inflammation in the body, which is a proven link to disease, especially in terms of cancer development. Scientific reviews conducted by the World Cancer Fund and other academic bodies confirm that people who consume a plant-rich diet experience lower incidence of cancer or relapse after treatment .

Longitudinal studies also highlight the benefits afforded by the lifestyle adoption of a plant-based diet. In a 12 year study of the health and dietary habits of over 73000 Seventh Day Adventists in America and Canada (2002-2014), researchers identified that those among them who were vegetarians not only lived longer but showed less incidence of cancer and heart disease. In another landmark study called the China Study, a collaborative project spanning 20 years was conducted by researchers from Cornell University, Oxford University and the Chinese Academy of Preventative Medicine. It involved following the diets of 6500 adults across 65 counties in China and incorporated a total of 367 variables. The results were irrefutably in favour of the health benefits of a plant-based diet in lowering the risk of developing and even reversing chronic disease such as cancer and heart disease.

Essentially, we are and become what we eat. It’s not up for debate. What is, are the choices we make. And for me, at least for the most part, my preference sits with Hippocrates’ wisdom: “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”

REFERENCES

Nutrition Studies
Vegetarian Dietary Patterns and Mortality in Adventist Health Study 2, Orlich, Dr M.J., MD, Dr Singh, P. N., Dr PH, Dr Fraser, G. E., MBchB, PhD, [//www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4191896/]

The China Study, [//nutritionstudies.org/the-china-study]

Plant-based Diets, McCrea, B., (www.cancercenter.com/community/thrive/plant-based-diets/)

Antioxidants
What are Antioxidants, Dr Ananya Mandal, MD, (//www.news-medical.net/health/What-are-Antioxidants.aspx)

How this Normal Body Process can contribute to More than 60 Diseases, Mercola, Dr J., (//articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/05/16/all-about-antioxidants.aspx)

Antioxidants Explained: Why these Compounds are so Important, Fontenot, B, (//www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2011/10/antioxidants-explained-why-these-compounds-are-so-important/247311)

How Antioxidants Work, Berkeley Wellness, (//www.berkeleywellness.com/healthy-eating/food/article/how-antioxidants-work)

Free Radicals
What are Free Radicals?, Szalay, J., (//www.livescience.com/54901-free-radicals.html)

Phytochemicals in Cancer Prevention and Management?, Thomas, R., Butler, E., Macchi, F. & Williams, M., (www.bjmp.org/content/phytochemicals-cancer-prevention-and-management)

Celebrating Milestones

Posted by Martine on 11 July 2017

July 2010
This time, 7 years ago, my roller-coaster ride with cancer began – tumour found, biopsied, condemned. Living the norm of what was my life one day; a world inexorably off-kilter the next. The surreal nature of this experience is a memory I will never forget. A life-changing moment that made everything before it seem separate from the skin that I now somehow had to call my own.

July 2014
This same time, 3 years ago, a different country, different hospital and I’m struggling to breathe. Fighting for my life in ICU with acute pneumonia. Memories of quarantine, masks, swollen hands and round after round of painful antibiotic solutions. Throw into this mix the doctors dealing with 3 victims of this infection – one cured, one dead and now me. And amid this trauma, the death of my mother-in-law in Australia requiring of course the departure of my now grieving husband from my bedside.

July 2017
This time now, I stand strong, graced with health, wellbeing and awareness. My heart goes out to others not so fortunate. I now enter my 8th year post cancer, my 4th year post illness. And I celebrate each day with gratitude and appreciation.

Milestones are blessings, defined as significant stages in the development of, in this case, our life journeys. They remind us of where we were and how far we’ve moved on. They remind us too of the transient nature of experience, good or bad.

Health milestones are even more poignant, reminding us of our amazing innate potential for healing. For me, July is a special month framed by trauma and sadness. With each year that goes by though, I reclaim it, celebrating what I’ve learnt, how I’ve grown and all that I’ve had the opportunity to experience. Another milestone. Another chance to savour memory, remembering how the past can continue to shape the present for the better.

TAKING STOCK – A Reminder to Listen to What Your Body is Telling You

Posted by Martine on 29 June 2017

Don’t ignore that quiet voice inside you
the one that cautions you to rest hydrate eat well
and take time to savour la jouissance of life
or it will grow
into more than just a whisper
perhaps become a nagging discomfort
or a knowing
a dis-ease
unable to side-step your awareness

Let it heckle your inertia
encourage your attentiveness
challenge you to face yourself
in between amongst aside from
all the business of daily life

Like a loose thread
let it unravel the tension that bubbles beneath the surface
knocking against your temples
coiling around your heart
sinking its teeth into the fabric that makes you who you are

Don’t be drawn to life’s rigours
as if they were your Alpha and Omega
leaving the body mind and spirit
careless respite
to languish with whatever little crumbs
you care to leave behind

You won’t survive
such a relentless assault
not with every bit of you intact
Inevitably as life will have it
a glitch will catch you when you are
least inclined to look

Instead allow yourself often
to inhale
deeply fully and in communion
with every inner cell that
bathed in the splendour of your breath
does nothing more or less
than what is right and to be expected

Exhale too with consciousness
bidding a thankful farewell to
every toxic thought and memory
making each present moment
the focus of a life lived with deliberate intention

Treat your body with a merciful hand
shaping its integrity from the inside out
like a master craftsman
whose envy is his work
Let nutrition be the key
to that redemption
remembering always
that when faced with
the pernicious hand of fate
you are more than what your genes dictate

Of course even if only to escape life’s treadmill
don’t forget to move
or jump walk run and dance
jostling your body into action
with frequency and purpose
Your insides are after all the sum total of
the vitality you yourself bestow

Don’t I implore
ignore that quiet voice inside you
as I did
allowing life’s ills to distract me from myself
I paid the price
am here though as harbinger of hope
It’s never too late
to greet yourself anew
redress neglect
and hold each infinitesimal part
of you in awe with the respect owed to
you as warrior and shield in
what is ultimately
your own defence