I wrote the 1st line of this email, then deleted it, then found my eyes wet. Guess that means it was a good line and I should use it: Mom’s favorite flower was the rose. I don’t know if there was a specific rose, but just roses in general. She certainly loved red ones, especially when my dad got them for her for ‘no good reason’ other than to remind her that he loved her.
I don’t know if mom ever made it to the International Rose Test Garden in Portland, OR, but if she did I’m surprised she ever left. I took over 300 pictures of roses and the garden wasn’t even close to peak season (it was mid-September!). I’ve been to the Queen’s Rose Garden in London and, while this garden is smaller in terms of acreage, it put’s her garden to shame. Sorry, your majesty, but it’s true. And you know what’s even better? This garden was designed by an Irishman. Mom really would love it!
We can learn a lot from roses, but I’m not going to start going into that territory. What I will tell you though is that as a result of seeing these roses and taking these pictures I do have a new appreciation for rain drops, or, more specifically, water droplets. They made the pictures, they made me focus on the small things. A month ago I would have been annoyed that it was cloudy and rainy when I was trying to look at these roses. Last week I looked at them with some serious excitement (hence the 300+ pictures!).
So what does my rose picture taking obsession have to do with cancer connections and Portland? Nothing and everything all at the same time. Without the thought provoking cancer connections that I’ve made in the past 2 1/2 weeks I wouldn’t have had the perspective that I did when looking at the roses. I don’t even think that I would have had the same perspective had I not met Dean Parker at lunch prior to going to the park.
I had lunch at Mio Sushi (as I was so ordered by my friend Ali Marcus) and ordered the Baked Green Muscles. Dean was sitting 2 down from me at the bar. He had ordered the sushi pizza. I traded a muscle for a piece of pizza. Next thing you know we’re talking and I tell him about 29 Days Until 29. Dean’s dad was diagnosed with stage 4 brain cancer. He was told that he had 6 months to live. Dean’s dad refused to believe that and decided to pursue a treatment route that isn’t once we hear about on the news.
He went all natural. He went to the Gerson Institute. You can read more about the treatment HERE. According to the website, “The Gerson Therapy is a safe, natural treatment developed by Dr. Max Gerson in the 1920’s that uses organic foods, juicing, coffee enemas, detoxification and natural supplements to activate the body’s ability to heal itself. Over the past 60 years, thousands of people have used the Gerson Therapy to recover from so-called “incurable” diseases such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease and arthritis.”
I know that everyone has their opinion about things like this, but the fact is that Dean’s dad lived for 6 1/2 more years. Longer than anyone else with his type of cancer had ever lived prior to that. And he lived a full and happy life, granted with some odd dietary restraints. What that meant to Dean was to be more ‘at 1’ with nature. And no, I don’t mean that in the hippie sense, I mean that in the sense that we certainly fill our bodies with some junk and, while it may not CAUSE cancer, it certainly doesn’t help that we eat the way that most of us do.
My ‘nature talk’ with Dean had me thinking as I was in the park, as I was looking at the roses, that there is certainly something to be said about all of us appreciating nature a little more. It’s something that I hope to change about my self once I get home. I’m hoping that I’m going to stop and smell the roses a little more often.
And, at the end of the day, I’m not really worried if Mom ever got to see the International Rose Test Garden, as I’m sure that the rose garden up in Heaven makes both it and the Queen’s garden look like a collection of overgrown weeds.