Just a short blog today. I visited Dr P yesterday and had my cancer-fighting injection, so today I feel like crap. It’s worth it, of course, because here I am, five years along from diagnosis day, and I’m doing okay. What’s a couple of days of lousiness compared to years of life? Right?
I just thought I’d better pop my head out of the bunker to ask: are you all okay? What with people bombing Aleppo into a pile of gravel; the Zika virus creeping its way up through South America; people still starving to death in the Sudan and neighbouring countries; IS (or whatever the hell they call themselves this week) still merrily beheading, burning and crucifying people who haven’t got long enough beards or who don’t go along with their version of religion; Japan still bent on eradicating all whale species for the sake of “research”; the arctic circle melting, the Australian Government treating asylum seekers as if they’re terrorists, and the fate of the free world soon to be decided in the USA with two candidates who both seem to be hated by large groups of people…well, I would’t blame you if you were feeling just a little bit wobbly.
After being bombarded on social media, with horrendous pictures of abused animals, abandoned children, victims of domestic violence and disenfranchised (and abused and traumatised) first people’s groups, I find myself feeling slightly depressed. I can distract myself during the day by keeping busy, and in the evening by watching reruns of TV shows from the 90s, but there’s no way of stopping the nightmares.
Then yesterday, after I’d seen the doc, the Old Boy took me to lunch in Port Adelaide, in a tavern by the sea, looking out at the old sailing ships and dolphin cruise boats and little fishing boats. My son, who works nearby, met us there for lunch, which was the cherry on the cake. I breathed in the salt air. I said hello to my parents ashes, somewhere there in the sands on the edge of the sea. I was thankful for the day.
If you’re feeling a bit “how’s your father” lately, a bit flat, a bit wibbly-wobbly, then I recommend taking a few minutes to look at something lovely. Take a deep breath of fresh air. Spend some quality time with people you love, and find something to be thankful for. It doesn’t get rid of all the darkness in the world, but it lights a little candle in the corner where you are.