Hello February!

Brain cancer is...

 ...celebrating February.

Darrell says, "Cheers, February!" and celebrates with a tuna sandwich at Panera.  Only the best to welcome in a new month.

Word of the Year:  Report on its First Month

You may recall that we and some other Team D members each select a Word of the Year, as explained first on our 2/28/16 posting. Our word for 2017 is open.  We typically check on the word's "fit" as the year unfolds.  Open worked well in January.  Here's its progress report:

• We really felt open to you with your happy moments, struggles, and adventures during January.  Thanks for being open to share.
• We feel open to strangers' experiences.   Here's one quick vignette.  In the parking garage at UCLA, a man was singing as he and his wife approached the elevator where we stood. He paused his singing to ask Darrell, "What are you wired for?  Not television?"  This fellow's openness to learn about Darrell's Optune encouraged a conversation that had the fellow, his wife, and D and A crying as we shared both the shock of cancer diagnoses and the miracles of medicine.  He was alive only because UCLA accepted him as a patient needing a transplant after chemotherapy irreparably damaged his liver.  There was only one hospital in the nation that would take him:  UCLA.  We parted expressing gratitude for UCLA, other great facilities, and advances in the treatment of cancer.  Each couple wished the other well with the sort of intensity known especially by those facing tough diagnoses.  Those 5 minutes near the elevator were the best minutes of our day, and they happened because people were open to each other's hurt and healing. 
• We continue to feel open to the wonders of the natural world.

Like these!

•  We are using the word to understand our emotions.  Despite how much we love life every day, we are sometimes sad.  The word open is proving useful because it encourages us to be open to sadness in the midst of immense gratitude.  It encourages us to let emotions settle in.  When we give sadness or other emotions enough time, we think more clearly about how to incorporate them into our larger experience.  So far this approach has proven successful in pushing us back into the light.  All that therapy in just one word! 

If you picked a word for the year, how is it working out?