Monday, August 16, 2010

Mouthy Mondays...

Finally! Mouthy Monday returns. And so hopefully do I. My schedule is erupting. It looks like I will be able to schedule some time for my cyber friends again. I have several half written posts, I have stories in my head and a few interesting ideas I'm dying to share.
So Iwill be trying for 2 posts a week through the month and then I'll have some breathing room.

I don't think I've posted this story. It's lovely, funny and brave. So if you've already read it, I apologise, but it seems worth a reread to me.

Talk to you soon.
Mugs


THE ART OF THE EXHALE (http://lymphomamusings.blogspot.com/2009/02/art-of-exhale.html)

When I was in the hospital, they initially put me in a ward for the thoracic surgery candidate-type patients.

The nurses were awesome, very competent and friendly. I think they enjoyed a patient who, while definitely the worse for wear, wasn't one of the pain-med fuzzy, post-surgical majority.

The day after I was diagnosed, (it was understood that I'd be moving from the Thoracic section to Oncology, but they were still sorting out rooms,) one of my regular nurses came in and sat with me for a while. She wasn't used to things like this, she said. She hadn't expected that I might have cancer and or that surgery wasn't in the cards. She handed me a box of tissues, but really, she needed them more than I did.

Hey, a nurse who can cry over you is a wonderful person indeed, but it's a little unsettling, y'know?

Once I moved to Oncology, I had another visitor. This time, it was the hospital chaplain. Without hesitation, she also handed me the ubiquitous box of tissues, then waited for me to... oh, I don't know. Vent? Bawl? Rage at the universe? Who knows?

I didn't bother. I think she was a little disappointed.A few weeks later, after I was cozily ensconced back in my home sweet home, the phone rang. It was a nurse who worked for my insurance company, assuring me that "We're in this together." (Presumably as long as the premiums continue to arrive in a timely manner.) We went over my treatments, my meds, how I was feeling, what side effects I had or could expect, etc. etc. etc.

And then she asked how I was handling my depression."If it happens, I'll let you know," I assured her.

"It's only natural," she soothed, apparently still reading from a script that I'd unwittingly deviated from. "Has your doctor prescribed anything for it?"

"Uh, not unless you count the Lorazepam." (Lorazepam, by the way, is an anti-nausea medication, but it works mostly by knocking you unconscious for four hours. Thus, it is also considered an anti-anxiety medication.)

"If I need anything though," I added, "I'll definitely ask."

There was a long silence at the other end of the line, then she clarified. "You're not depressed?"

"Cartwheels in the streets? No," I said. "Depressed? Also no. It is what it is."

Which has, in a way, been my catch-phrase through the entire mess. It is what it is.

Now to be completely honest, I did give depression a try about ten years ago. Post-divorce, I was so depressed that I was practically catatonic with it.

I never even went to a doctor or counselor, because, you know, no one cared about me anyway.
*Snurfle.*

All it did was give me raging indigestion. So yeah, I'm not going to sink into a blue funk over cancer, but shouldn't I, at the very least, have been scared out of my tiny little mind?

Over the weeks and months, even a few of my closest friends have given me the doubtful eyebrow twitch and expressed a belief that I am not emoting as honestly as I ought.

I haven't bawled, or shed more than the occasional private tear, or raged at the unfairness of the universe.

Instead, I've cracked jokes and played video games.

My friends don't think it's... well, healthy.

In fact, it got to the point where I was starting to wonder about that myself. It's not that I don't care. It's not that I'm not concerned. And though I am serene in the knowledge that my Redeemer lives and that there is undoubtedly a niche for me in Heaven, that doesn't mean that I haven't earned the right to at least a moderate hissy-fit or two here on Earth.

This is what I've come up with. I've spent the majority of my years working, in some capacity, with horses. (Oh come on, you knew I'd bring horses into this, right?) From summer camp, to riding lessons, to stable management school, to actually managing a stable, to giving riding lessons to kiddies, to training and mucking and grooming and even owning a succession of four-legged carrot-crunchers myself, I have dealt with horses on and off for thirty-three years.

Horses are reactive creatures.

What's more, they're prey animals.

Lions and tigers and bears, (oh my!) think that our equine friends taste mighty fine .

Naturally therefore, horses are always instinctively on the lookout for the next bug-eyed horse eating monster. (Especially the tricky ones shaped like trees, rocks or plastic grocery bags.) At the first hint of danger, most horses will gather themselves, leap into the air, bolt for the horizon at Warp factor 9, and ask questions later.

Horses, to be succinct, are paranoid freaks.So, what's the worst thing a human can do around a horse?Show fear.

When you're trotting along on a brisk October morning and a flock of birds erupt from some nearby trees and your horse's head shoots up in the air, ears at rigid attention, and he plants his feet, bunches his muscles and snorts a triple exclamation pointed countdown for launch, what does the smart rider do?

Exhale. Sigh.Relax.

And then, just maybe, if you're lucky, ol' Thunderguts will pause a moment and think things over.

Hmm. Rider isn't scared. Rider is... bored? This is boring? Why would– oh. Oh!

Those are birdies! Oh. Ha. Yeah. Oops. This is embarrassing. Uhm, we can trot again, right?

Yeah, okay. Sorry. On the other hand, if the birds explode from the trees and you snatch up the reins and start shouting, "Whoa! Whoa!" I can guarantee that your hayburner will be making tracks for the next county.

Maybe you'll still be on board when you get there. Maybe not.

The fact is, your tension and quick movements and shouting only reinforces the scariness of the situation.

My rider is freaking out and she's a carnivore who eats cows in a bun!!!! Eeeeek! Those birds must be piranhas with wings!!! We're all gonna dieeeeeee!!!! Time to jet!!!!!!!!

It's not foolproof and it's not fail-safe, but the relaxed approach beats out the panicked one 999 times out of 1,000.

So, you practice.

You practice the exhale.

When the excrement hits the oscillation in the tiny little mind of your loyal steed, you learn not to take the time to evaluate what the "danger" actually is.

By then it's too late. No, at the first sign of tension, you perfect the practice of sighing meaningfully.

You learn how to relax your muscles and sink down into the saddle and become just a little heavier under the weight of your utter boredom in the face of the unexpected.

You learn to center yourself.

And eventually, when he finds himself (or herself) not being eaten by those vicious plastic bags and menacing rocks, your horse starts to pick up the same habit.

He draws his confidence from the rider on his back, or the hands on the reins, or the schmuck at the other end of the lead rope.

He learns to exhale too.

So maybe, just maybe, my lack of reaction isn't really a lack of reaction at all, but just a long established habit.

Maybe all those years with the horses taught me an invaluable coping skill that I never realized I had until my friends started bugging me about how much I wasn't... well, bugged.

Maybe in a small way, I've learned the art of the exhale.

21 comments:

  1. Love this piece. Thanks for the reminder, for horses and for life, to exhale first, evaluate second.

    Few share such a calmed reaction to a cancer diagnosis. Thanks for sharing an alternative.

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  2. Wonderful. Thanks for sending it along. Glad you'll be back at the keyboard/blog/internet/cyber horse land...

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  3. AHHHHHH, what a wonderful reminder.

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  4. That was a wonderful read! We're all very glad to hear you're back and look forward to more good stuff!

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  5. A very beautiful essay. I'll be carrying it with me throughout the day....

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  6. If we all started breathing more we could save the world.

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  7. very, VERY nice. Thanks. I needed that.

    (was I the only one breathing deeply by the last sentence?)

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  8. What a beautiful spirit. The message hit home as well. I just had a conversation today about making exhalation my default reaction to anything my horse dishes out. Practice makes perfect.

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  9. After a trail ride this morning, on a VERY WINDY DAY next to cornfields full of horsey eating trolls and monsters, this piece was EXACTLY what I needed to see.

    Maybe next time I won't have to dismount from my own fears zeroing in on my horses perceptions. Exhale, sigh, relax.....

    I think this is one of my favorite mouthy Mondays, thank you so much for sharing your gift with us.

    And Mugs, thrilled to see you back.

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  10. Now there's a blog I've long neglected, and it's long overdue for some updating. Thanks for sharing that part of my story, Mugs! And thanks to all of you for your kindness! :) Two years ago this month I was diagnosed with my cancer. I am very happy to report that I've been in remission for over a year of that time.

    While I'm still sorting out the aftermath, I'm unfortunately horseless, but I like to think that all of those years schlepping around the barns gave me the ability to be reasonably... (wait for it) stable in the face of something I never saw coming. :)

    Hugs to all!

    Sue

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  11. great writer. I book marked her blog and will be spending some reading time there now....

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  12. Very nice. I'm sending a link to a friend of mine who has cancer.

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  13. " your horse's head shoots up in the air, ears at rigid attention, and he plants his feet, bunches his muscles and snorts a triple exclamation pointed countdown for launch, " I just LOVE that discription! Made me laugh. I had a friend that has a horse named "Hobo" and when he got scared of something, you could feel him sink down and you felt like he was going to launch, but you didn't know if he was going up, down, left or right! We called it the "Hobo Shuffle"

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  14. Perfect. Spiritual. Honest. Fearless.

    I needed that, too.

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  15. That's how it's done! When I got blindsided by health problems overnight, my OT said they were concerned that it " hadn't hit me yet". Nope. I had gone into the mode of thinking that brought me most comfort. A) How can I move past this, and B) when can I get on a horse again. Lol! I even used Centered Riding techniques during my (lengthy) rehab. Us horse people are used to getting up again and dusting ourselves off!
    www.tripletakestudio.blogspot.com

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  16. I agree with all...this is great! Horses are a great way to learn about life and how to handle it!

    Jackie

    horsesandturbos.blogspot.com

    whatsdrivingmissdaisy.blogspot.com

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  17. Thanks for sharing. As a nurse, I found it especially touching. I am, in fact, a nurse who works on a thoracic surgery unit- we get a lot of lung cancer patients... after the cancer gets cut out, that is. Cancer is a hard thing to talk about with patients... I personally force myself, because it's not fair to expect them to face it if you can't.... but it's still hard.

    I enjoyed the beautiful writing. Cracking jokes and playing video games.... a totally me thing to do! Thanks so much for sharing this!

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  18. Mugs, hows your roping coming along? I am ALMOST ready for a calf...OMG.... scary! lol

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  19. First, Mugs, postings like this are the reason we love you! Thanks again for the wonderful find.

    Second, Sue, I am so glad you posted! I was instantly intrigued to see your blog and was subsequently worried to see that it had been some time since you had posted on any of them! Not complaining, just concerned, and I'm looking forward to reading this blog of yours from the beginning. I am so glad you're doing great! Feel free to update if and when you have the inspiration. Thank you so much for this wonderful essay. It is truly helpful, as well as laugh-out-loud funny and I'm going to keep it where I can find it (I hope).

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