There are only a couple of spots left for my
2017 WORKSHOP IN SANIBEL, FLORIDA!
Wake Up the Story Inside: Getting to the Heart of Writing
January 24, 25, 26, Tuesday-Thursday, 1:00-4:00 PM,
Held at the BIG ARTS on Periwinkle
The workshop is not just about writing but creativity and LIFE!
I’m so happy and grateful that I can start teaching Nia * at Helena’s Dancing Lotus Center again after a 4 year timeout because of cancer, chemo treatments (successful), surgeries, and the aftermath that followed. Throughout the ordeal I used so much of what I had learned embodying Nia over the previous years: flexibility, balance, grounding, body awareness, agility, strength. I could draw on the sensation of being grounded on the earth and in balance even as I heard the cancer diagnosis. I knew what flexibility felt like and it prepared me to deal with having my world turned upside down. In turn I have grown in my strength and agility as I’ve dealt with numerous complications in the last two years and at times overwhelming frustration with the obstacles that seemed unending. But this is all a part of life, the good and the hard, the amazing and the stuff that super sucks.
I’m returning to teach with a whole lot of new awarenesses -like going forward with wherever your body is. I’m not waiting to be in perfect shape. My spirit and sense of fun propel me.
I’m super excited that Kathryn Gustin asked me to co-teach. I so admire her style and skill. We’re going to have a blast!
Thanks to the mighty Nia Helena community that has surrounded me with love and care throughout my journey!
* Nia is a cardio dance group fitness class that incorporates martial arts, dance arts and healing arts. The class empowers people of all shapes, sizes and fitness levels to become stronger, fitter, and more joyful. Nia is based on the idea that exercise should feel good. Wear loose comfortable clothing. We dance barefoot unless you require shoes, then we ask that you wear shoes that have white soles in order to keep the beautiful floor clean!
September 13, 2013
I’m sitting in the coffee shop, the General Mercantile or “the Merc” or “Ray’s” depending on how long you’ve lived in Helena, where 2 years ago today I got the results of my biopsy for breast cancer. While cancer is not so funny, in fact it really sucks and I hate it, the circumstances of getting the news were very funny.
I had just gone to the counter to pay for my coffee. Here you don’t pay when you get your drink but on your way out. (Yes, I have left without paying before and had to go back hours later after I remembered.) I was standing there waiting for the barista to be free to take my money when my cell phone rang. I didn’t recognize the number and it wasn’t the usual “406” that comes up with a medical call so I backed away from the counter and answered without much thought. I had been waiting for the news though I pretty much knew it was cancer. I was actually eager to find out the results so I could start treatment. I had things to do. “Lets get this going” was my attitude. This is what I heard in response to “Hello, this is Marilyn,”
“This is Dr. rrr (garbled). Got the results back, and it’s definitely cancer. This is what I want you to do. You’ll go see Dr. Weiner (the oncologist) at 3:30 tomorrow and then you’ll come see me at 4. I want to do a punch biopsy to see if it’s inflammatory breast cancer. Be sure and tell them that you have an appointment with me so they get you right in.” That was in one breath. By then I’d figured out which doctor I was talking to.
I said, “OK, that’s pretty much what I thought. I’m ready to get going.”
Then he says what I think is, “How is your mom?” She had been in the hospital the week before, and he had been one of her doctors.
I say, “She’s doing fine. My sister is here to drive her back to Texas.”
Long pause and then, “You call your breast ‘She’?”
“Wait, what did you ask me?”
“I asked how your breast was doing after the biopsy last week.”
“Oh, I thought you were asking about my mom. I’m at a coffee shop and there’s a lot of noise here.”
“You’re at a coffee shop! Sorry about that.”
Months later I would find out that his daughter works here when she’s home from college. I now see him in here regularly. This is my office away from office. I’m often sitting where I am right now, just inside the front door, tucked away in an area with 4 booths of a sort. I can see people come and go when I’m not totally absorbed in my writing.
On the call, I’m standing where all I can see are joke gifts and gum brands popular 40 years ago, some funny and some meaningful greeting cards. I’m scanning Beechnut gum and candy cigarettes. “That’s all right. I was waiting for the results, and I’m ready to get things going.”
There it was, definitive news. I wouldn’t know the particulars until I met with the oncologist the next day. Two days after that I started chemo.
At first, when I remembered the call, I thought, “He must have thought I was loony for calling my breast ‘She’. On the other hand, he thought I was taking my She-breast to Texas.
No matter where She was going, I had started a journey through a myriad of needles, IVs, speed up/slow down the intestine medicines, cold wet wash clothes, hospital gowns, stitches, witch hazel, drains, unimaginable love and care, and on and on and on.
Marilyn Bennett is a published author, documentarian, and recent cancer survivor. Her business Life Stories (www.marilynbennett.com) helps families and individuals record their stories on video, in a unique keepsake book, or as a written memoir. She is the Writer-in-Residence Emeritus at the Rodney Street Laundry. Her books include We Were Baptized Too (Westminster John Knox Press, 1996), It Happened in San Antonio (Globe Pequot, 2006), and Truth inProgress: Letters in Mixed Company (EmNM Press, 2007, limited release). She is the director of the documentary Truth in Progress.
It’s been almost 2 years to the day that I last wrote a substantive blog post, but it doesn’t actually feel that long. So much has happened in the intervening time that it seems two years can’t have held it all. On May 9, 2011, I wrote about my new business, Life Stories. (The symmetry of those dates are nice, but truth be told, I haven’t written a long rambling post since late 2010.)
What I have not posted here is my experience with stage 3 breast cancer –diagnosis, treatment, and recovery. I wrote about it while it was happening but only to a certain circle of friends, a number that I could imagine, people who struck me as the ones to have near through my words. There were many more who were supportive, and I’m sure there were people I thought were on the list but weren’t, but, hey, I had cancer. You can only do what you can do when that card turns up in your hand. It’s about focusing inward to the deepest part of oneself in order to tap into the body, mind, and spirit’s core healing properties. (more…)
Marilyn will be presenting a workshop at the conference Mountains of Courage: Dialogue with the Living about Death & Dying sponsored by the Gallatin Valley Circle of Compassion, Saturday, February 23, 2013, at the Baxter Hotel in Bozeman, Montana.
This looks to be a powerful, informative, and practical all-day event. Click here to see the schedule and download your registration form. Registration is required. And be sure to come by the Life Stories booth in the exhibit area!
Everyone has a Story: Capturing Your Legacy on Paper – Marilyn Bennett – 1:40-2:35 pm
Wake Up the Story Inside You: Sparking your Creativity for the New Year
Writing workshop led by author, video biographer Marilyn Bennett
Saturday, January 26, 9:00 a.m.–12:00 noon
Dancing Lotus Center, 40 N. Last Chance Gulch, Helena, Montana
Cost is $30 (limited number of scholarships available)
Must register in advance: Call Marilyn Bennett at 406-459-4142 or email at [email protected]
This workshop is for you, if you:
Marilyn brings her humor, insights, and positive viewpoint to the class. She will lead you through exercises to spark creativity, get you writing, build confidence, and plan your next steps for the New Year.
No writing experience or specific goal necessary.
Marilyn Bennett is a published author, documentarian, Nia instructor, and a recent breast cancer survivor. Her business Life Stories (www.marilynbennett.com) helps families and individuals record their stories on video, in a unique keepsake book, or as a written memoir. She is the Writer-in-Residence Emeritus at the Rodney Street Laundry. Her books include We Were Baptized Too (Westminster John Knox Press, 1996), It Happened in San Antonio (Globe Pequot, 2006), and Truth inProgress: Letters in Mixed Company (EmNM Press, 2007, limited release). She is the director of the documentary Truth in Progress.
I will be teaching a FREE writing class through the St. Peter’s Hospital cancer care program for cancer patients and survivors –I refer to all of us as “thrivers.” No matter if you’re experiencing chemotherapy or radiation, anticipating or recovering from surgery, or have all the treatments behind you, the fact that you are going or have gone through treatment means you’ve got the gumption to not only survive but thrive. We go through these brutal treatments not just to get on the other side of cancer but to arrive there AND live with new meaning, love with more openness, and relish the experiences we are afforded by surviving. (On the other hand, the term “survivor” alone does conjure up an image of being tossed onto a beach after being washed ashore from a shipwreck. In that sense, I am a “survivor” of the capsized side effects of cancer treatment, the chemo that spits one up after beating down the cancer cells!)
No matter how you describe yourself, I invite you to attend a three-week writing class at St. Peter’s Hospital cancer care program. Writing has always been a way for me to sort through my thoughts and feelings and make some sense of where I’ve been and where I’m going. It’s helped me see the story that is my life. This is important for my own health but also for those whom I share it with, just as other people’s stories impact my life.
Having the “cancer experience” can be a great motivator to get our stories written down or recorded in some way. This class will help you get started!
Wow, a lot has happened since my last post in May, 2011. Before September 2011, I had only the regular kinds of excuses not to write. However, 15 months ago I was diagnosed with Stage Three Breast Cancer. I am not ashamed to use the “cancer card” as an excuse as to why I have been absent from my blog. I have had 8 chemotherapy treatments, 2 surgeries, and a couple of hospital stays that kept me occupied, exhausted, irritable, amazed, and grateful –to name a only a few of the multitude of emotions and experiences.
I’m happy to say that after all the treatments and kind caring family, friends, oncologists, nurses, surgeons, and so many others, there is “no evidence of disease” (NED). Even my head has hair on it.
I will be back soon with more blog posts; but I am very happy to report that I will be teaching a FREE writing class through the St. Peter’s Hospital cancer care program for cancer patients and survivors/thrivers. To register, please call Kari Palmer, Breast Program Nurse Navigator, at 495-6780.
I’m back to the blog in just under 7 months, feeling behind but a little ahead too. It’s all about perspective, isn’t it?
Some changes in 2011. In January I left my day job as the development director at the Myrna Loy Center and launched a new business, Life Stories™, working with families to record their elders’ life stories and family history for future generations. I offer several ways to go about getting this oral history, starting with the most basic of interviewing the family member on camera and producing a set of DVDs for the family. Life Stories™ can also professionally design and print a memory book with photographs, letters, postcards, and vignetters or assist in writing and publishing a full memoir. (more…)
