Back at home...well sorta

Mom is out of the hospital and back at my sister's house. She is doing surprisingly well! It has been a wonderful learning experience for both me and my oldest daughter. Approaching the subject of sickness and death is sort of uncomfortable for me. When I was young, those subjects were kept hush, hush. And while I understand why,I think that the silence bred more fear than openness would have. This experience with my mother has allowed me to start talking to Phoenix about these types of events in life and I have been amazed at her response. She is very curious and compassionate. I learn a whole lot just from watching her deal with this new information and experience.

Here are some great photos of all of us with our buzzed heads and mom fresh out of the hospital and doing well.



Reagen, Mom, and Phoenix.




Phoenix and me!

Redefining Beauty

So we just got back to Seattle from our annual Floating Woman gathering. We raised several hundred dollars which will go to help support our friend Cat as she faces her battle with breast cancer, and what she doesn’t need will go to support breast cancer research.

And while raising funds was very important, what we learned while we were there was inspiring. As I mentioned before the theme for this Floating Woman was “The bald and the beautiful”, as Cat has lost all of her hair and my mother may also be losing hers very soon. My sister, who is really talented at cutting hair decided to raise money by offering hair cuts for a small fee. The hitch was that the only hair styles she offered were the shave and the buzz cut which cost $5. There was also an “opt out” option that cost $20. So if you attended Floating Woman you had to do one or the other.



Cat kicked things off by shaving my younger sister Reagen’s head and as soon as she saw the finished product her eyes lit up and she said “You look so good!” Well Phoenix, my oldest daughter, loved her aunt’s hair so much that she begged to have her hair shaved down too. Before I knew it her hair was in heaps on the ground and to everyone’s amazement she appeared more beautiful than ever. Again, Cat gasped “She’s so beautiful.” At one point her eyes filled with tears as everyone lined up one at a time to relieve themselves of their hair and she said “I am just trying to process what’s happening right now.”



Within a couple of hours most everyone had shed their hair and the camp was filled with laughter. We were all truly amazed at how beautiful everyone looked. It was so interesting to actually see people without all of the hair to hide behind. And it was touching to see Cat slowly realize that yes, everyone, including her, still looked amazing without their hair. I loved that my daughters felt pretty without long locks of hair, I love that I feel beautiful without my ridiculously priced hair cut (that’s another story).



Tomorrow my mother will lose her breast at 4pm. She will still be a beautiful woman without it. Without her hair and without her breast, she will still be beautiful.