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Thirty years ago, I watched the six-part PBS series, Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth, and was profoundly changed. Appointing my intuitive heart as chairwoman of my internal “board,” I moved my rational head to director of support. I become a test case for bliss.
At first bliss was elusive. As many of us do at least once in our lives, I’d tried so hard for so long to be what others wanted me to be, that I no longer knew what I loved. Slowly, however, I became conscious of yearning for water. I was living in California—I could reach the Pacific Ocean in less than an hour—but salt water didn’t do it.
I wanted Lake Michigan, that sweet, approachable inland sea, with its beachy dune fragrance of sassafras, cedar, and pine. Lake Michigan dominated my happiest youthful moments: family vacations at rented cottages, high school beach parties and bonfires, hours at the end of the Grand Haven pier sprayed by crashing surf.
Knowing specifically what one wants is a gift not to be ignored. I moved. For ten years I watched Lake Michigan daily, near Saugatuck and on Beaver Island. I learned to paint. One fall and winter, renting a cottage unusually close to the shore, I painted 160 tiny, card-sized watercolors, and published the best of them as two posters: Lake Effects I and II. I’ve sold 3,500 of of those posters and they’re almost gone.
I never got to do Lake Effects III: the summer poster. I moved to Bay City and for seven years I’ve been living happily on a friendly street corner in town. But since my diagnosis with breast cancer, I’ve been leaning toward water like a witching wand. I can feel it physically, desire revving to bliss, refusing to be ignored.
So in a few days, I will drive my little Subaru over the exquisite green and cream Mackinac Bridge to the Upper Peninsula, where, at a new window looking south on Lake Michigan, and over eight weeks of summer, I plan to do little more than play and paint Lake Effects III.
This is my 100th blog for this HealthCentral.com page. I’ve been writing here about my life after breast cancer twice a week for more than a year. It’s enough. Now I am giving myself the gift of focus, of bliss without distraction. As a survivor, I am acutely aware of time. This is my time. My inner child is beside herself with glee.
What fun it’s been, sharing my life in this column! Thank you so much for listening. I’m moving on, but I’m not finished blogging: I’ll continue writing about my life as artist, writer, Jungian, traveler, breast cancer survivor, and spiritual adventurer, but at my own convenience and on my own website, where my breast cancer blog began.
Mary B is on the go—check in now and then and catch up!
At first bliss was elusive. As many of us do at least once in our lives, I’d tried so hard for so long to be what others wanted me to be, that I no longer knew what I loved. Slowly, however, I became conscious of yearning for water. I was living in California—I could reach the Pacific Ocean in less than an hour—but salt water didn’t do it.
I wanted Lake Michigan, that sweet, approachable inland sea, with its beachy dune fragrance of sassafras, cedar, and pine. Lake Michigan dominated my happiest youthful moments: family vacations at rented cottages, high school beach parties and bonfires, hours at the end of the Grand Haven pier sprayed by crashing surf.
Knowing specifically what one wants is a gift not to be ignored. I moved. For ten years I watched Lake Michigan daily, near Saugatuck and on Beaver Island. I learned to paint. One fall and winter, renting a cottage unusually close to the shore, I painted 160 tiny, card-sized watercolors, and published the best of them as two posters: Lake Effects I and II. I’ve sold 3,500 of of those posters and they’re almost gone.
I never got to do Lake Effects III: the summer poster. I moved to Bay City and for seven years I’ve been living happily on a friendly street corner in town. But since my diagnosis with breast cancer, I’ve been leaning toward water like a witching wand. I can feel it physically, desire revving to bliss, refusing to be ignored.
So in a few days, I will drive my little Subaru over the exquisite green and cream Mackinac Bridge to the Upper Peninsula, where, at a new window looking south on Lake Michigan, and over eight weeks of summer, I plan to do little more than play and paint Lake Effects III.
This is my 100th blog for this HealthCentral.com page. I’ve been writing here about my life after breast cancer twice a week for more than a year. It’s enough. Now I am giving myself the gift of focus, of bliss without distraction. As a survivor, I am acutely aware of time. This is my time. My inner child is beside herself with glee.
What fun it’s been, sharing my life in this column! Thank you so much for listening. I’m moving on, but I’m not finished blogging: I’ll continue writing about my life as artist, writer, Jungian, traveler, breast cancer survivor, and spiritual adventurer, but at my own convenience and on my own website, where my breast cancer blog began.
Mary B is on the go—check in now and then and catch up!
Pink DaysAgo, inspired by co-inventor Kathleen Whitehurst's eighth anniversary as a breast cancer survivor, will be sold on the company's Web site.
Saint Helena, CA, 2008 – When it comes to breast cancer, early detection is the key to survival. No-one knows that better than Kathleen Whitehurst, co-inventor of the award-winning DaysAgo™ Digital Day Counter -- and an eight-year breast cancer survivor.
Whitehurst's company, double u products inc., is introducing a new pink DaysAgo counter as part of her commitment to helping women of all ages get into the habit of doing regular self breast exams. Details about the pink DaysAgo can be found on the company's Web site, http://www.howmanydaysago.com.
“I feel very blessed to be a survivor of breast cancer, the most common cancer in women,” said Whitehurst, who underwent a mastectomy and chemotherapy to fight her disease. “I want women to remember every month to do their self exams, which are designed to find early tumors. When breast cancer is found early, and confined to the breast, the chances for survival are the greatest.”
The award-winning DaysAgo counts days to help families manage and organize anything in their lives that needs tracking. Originally designed by Whitehurst and her business partner, Debbie Stephens Stauffer, to help busy families keep track of food freshness in their refrigerators, the DaysAgo has become a lifestyle product that is used for everyday tasks ranging from taking medications to changing water filters.
Winner of the 2007 Good Housekeeping “Good Buy Award,” the DaysAgo affixes to containers, cabinets or mirrors through either a magnet for metal surfaces or a suction for others, and has a digital screen that counts up the days after the touch of a button.
The idea for the pink DaysAgo was conceived by Kathleen's daughter, Jamie Whitehurst, who was inspired by her experience of helping her mom through her illness and walking side-by-side with her in the 3-Day Walk after she recovered.
“When I was diagnosed, my son and daughter were 22 and 20. Jamie was getting ready to graduate from college, and we were also in the middle of planning her wedding,” Whitehurst said. “That really kept me going — we managed to have such great laughs together. She made sure that my bald head, and missing eyebrows and lashes didn’t stop me from feeling like a million bucks on her wedding day.”
Jamie now works with her mom as vice president of double u products, inc.
October is breast cancer awareness month, and the pink DaysAgo is available for retail purchase as well as distribution at fundraising events for this important cause. For information on purchasing the special edition at wholesale cost, please visit http://www.howmanydaysago.com, call 1.800.401.4906, or email orders@howmanydaysago.com.
About double u products inc.
The DaysAgo™ was invented by two friends, Kathleen Whitehurst and Debbie Stephens Stauffer, who were inspired by a desire to keep the food in their own refrigerators safe for their families. Their company, double u products, inc., is based in the city of Saint Helena in California’s Napa Valley. An online press kit of the DaysAgo is available at www.howmanydaysago.com/press.php
PRESS CONTACTS:
Christine Dunn
Savoir Media Co.
Telephone: (617) 484-1660
cdunn@savoirmedia.com