Journaling - The Write Stuff For You?

I'm Roy, first timer to this page, first brush with cancer. If I wanted (as I do) to attach a 1-page Word doc (as I er... maybe do) right to you, how do I get it to you?

Unusual Musicians
1

This poem is old, and originally had just one line, the second one. In the Chinese language, it means the same as ”don’t cast pearls before swine”. This version and image are all mine.
There are several versions of my poem, one - not shown here – says it’s most important to have a different kind of musician, so that the cows and oxen can enjoy the music freely. My version here says they are music lovers, this version says they are happy inside.
I was sitting in a Chinese audience in HangZhou, by the famous Westlake, waiting for a medieval opera concert to begin, when the conductor walked slowly past. He spoke to me, as I suspected he might, foreigners being a bit rare outside on a damp Sunday. He took my poem (I thought he might do that too). And read it.
“Zege nide? (this yours?)”
“Dui”
“Deng yi xia (wait a moment)”.
He turns back to the stage, walks to the percussion stand, picks up the orchestra percussion sticks, bows and offers them to me.
“Today you will play percussion for us...”
He didn’t know, and I know he didn’t know, that playing percussion in a Daoist orchestra was the very top of my bucket list. It’s an untrodden path, dissonant but relevant to the action. There’s no score, it’s all empathy and drama. While they were singing, the singers said they would lock eyes with me so I caught every nuance.
He beckoned, I followed. Up on stage, the band nodded to me, the leader bowed, the singers – ah, the singers – curtseyed together in a soft Chinese way, and in a very few seconds we were off. Me first... For the next two hours, reported on local TV, the whole works.
The question now arises, why do I tell you this as my opening topic? What do you know about me so far?
Nothing?

I don't write a journal as such, but I write on my FAMILY TREE daily. As I enter names I also enter what I remember about them or what has been handed down about them over the past years.
The pages get long when I write about my family. My Father and Mother...Both are deceased, but I write every word I remember in my discussions of them. How they grew up. friends they had, how they met and married and life after...
My stories are not limited to those I know. I have stories that have been handed down to me - some funny some sad, but I write what I know is true so that those that follow me can know them too.

My therapist recommended journaling. I thought it was a good idea So instead of starting on a blank page I looked for a guided journal. It’s very helpful.

@hongshan Welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. An interesting story. I honestly cannot say I know much about you from this post, as I am not familiar with Chinese music productions.
Ginger

@barrington16 Welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect! Many of us here are nodding our heads, understanding the fear/hesitation of a blank page! A guided journal can be very helpful. Another trick is to take a key word, or phrase, place it in a circle in the center of the page, put ideas or words about it "shooting" off from it, and then expand on the whole concept. Have you tried that?

Will you share your writings with your therapist?
Ginger

that's a great idea. I do share a page here and there when it's something I need outside ears for.

gingerw
Thank you, an audience of one is plenty. The story is true. On my return from China, I said to a US friend "...wow, they really took a risk on me..." and he replied "... you haven't mentioned the risk you took on them..." "... what risk?"...

And that, if crafted a little, could be the focus of a discussion or morale group on a topic close to the patient's heart. People often resist being first-to-speak, and may cover similar ground over and over. Add some stories that are unusual but true. And cheerful for everyone. I have 2 wives dead from cancer, one of whom could not get to sleep without a couple of stanzas. Sad but true? I prefer true but sad. Death is also a relief. I also have over a year recovering from malignant melanoma. The trick is to see where and how this is important.

I was diagnosed with mm while traveling in Taiwan last year. Oh, said the intake nurse, did you know you are our first white patient?

@hongshan We never know what words will spark a response for others as they read them, or listen to them. When we are listening, the speaker can place inflections where they want, and voice the grammar breaks. As we read, our brains will do that [almost automatically] for us!

I'll wager that your wife found your voice soothing as you read to her, and given in a loving manner, it was certainly a gift from you to her. I am also a malignant melanoma survivor!
Ginger

Thank you, you are a kind and thoughtful writer. As time progressed, I had read to her all of her personal library that was light enough, and then she turned to me, eyes glinting. "Make me laugh" she said. "I can't seem to sleep now without laughing", (which was true). Just a laugh or two." "You can make me laugh." And the kicker. "You'd do it if I was a child." I can do this, in fact, but the strain is enormous. And I believe, in my own MM case now, my caregivers are suffering worse than me, feeling that every knot tied, every fish fried is inadequate and they must do it better.
Enough complaining. Ginger, how would you progress if you were me? I want to move my case from the team in Taiwan to the US, where a great team would regulaarly monitor my strange lack of disease. And lack of stamina, typing this short note took forever. I have no 2ndary issues, I'm a carefully polished 70 years old white mail. The first white male served by the Taiwan hospital who have done great things.
Thank you.
Roy Hirst

@woogie your comment about writing here, there and everywhere made me smile because I have sooo many spiral notebooks and other pads with notes, thoughts, ideas of other writings, poems, inventions, whatever! Like you, I find notes or even a few pages everywhere. I finally discovered it's good to have a primary 3-ring binder to write in because when I find other random pages I want to keep, I can just punch holes in them and file them appropriately in my binder. Tabs for different topics work too. No formal or fancy diary is necessary since I don't always want to keep things I've written spur of the moment. Have fun writing! It's good for the soul!