TWOsday ~ cancer

Nowhere Hair ~ by Sue Glader, illustrated by Edith Buenen, 2011, children's

This is the story of a young girl who tries unsuccessfully to find her mother's missing hair, only to learn that medicine has made it fall out.  She learns that she didn't cause the cancer, she can't catch it, and Mommy is still very much up for the job of mothering.  The book, written in rhyme, explains hats, scarves, wigs, going bald in public, and the idea of being nice to people who may look a little different than you.   It ends with the idea that what is inside of us is far more important than how we look on the outside.  It's silly, and touching, and real.

The Heart's Code ~ Tapping the Wisdom and Power of Our Heart Energy ~ by Paul Pearsall, 1998, social and spiritual

A synthesis of ancient wisdom, modern medicine, scientific research, and personal experiences that proves that the human heart, not the brain, holds the secrets that link body, mind, and spirit.  You know that the heart loves and feels, but did you know that the heart also thinks, remembers, communicates with other hearts, helps regulate immunity, and contains stored information that continually pulses through your body?  Dr. Paul Pearsall explains the theory and science behind energy cardiology, the emerging field that is uncovering one of the most significant medical, social, and spiritual discoveries of our time:  The heart is more than just a pump; it conducts the cellular symphony that is the very essence of our being.  Full of amazing anecdotes and data, this book presents research on cellular memory and the power of the heart's energy and explores what these breakthroughs mean about how we should live our lives.  By unlocking the heart's code we can discover new ways of understanding human healing and consciousness and create a new model for living that leads to better health, happiness, and self-knowledge.

You may wonder what connection I see between these two books.  My sister died of lung cancer on August 5th, and my daughter recently "rang the bell" after finishing weeks of radiation following her mastectomy, a ceremony that indicates she's still cancer-free.  So I've had cancer on my mind for months now.

My daughter got a wig so she wouldn't scare her three grandchildren (her words), so I was surprised to run across what I had written about Nowhere Hair on this blog five years ago.  I've never seen the book, but that post has a video of the author, and it shares her story.  I may have to buy the book now to share with my daughter.

I'm just getting into The Heart's Code, but I underlined a couple of things I'd like to share from the introduction.

"...cells can remember..." (p. 9).

"My cancer seemed to be the result of cells that had become heartless" (p. 3).

Heartless?  Let me put that in context:

"...despite what my brain said, I did not 'have' cancer. ...my cells had lost their memory for how to multiply in a more connective, healthy way and, as a result, were engaging in a thoughtless 'cancering.' ...my cells were not getting the right information to teach them how to stay in harmony with my other body cells because they had somehow become disconnected from their coordinator of healthy energy — the heart.  My cancer seemed to be the result of cells that had become heartless" (p. 3).

What an interesting concept.