You know, I had thought of making my own subgroup and had a good chat with Becky about that. As a recent Administrator here though, I've decided that I'll try this first. I'm so happy to see the main board doing what it needs to do be doing again. In this thread though, anything and everything goes. Sex, politics, religion, faith, LGBTI issues, heterosexuality, alcohol, drugs, tobacco and passing doobies because that's how I roll. The only rule here is that all exchanges are positive and supportive and show tolerance and respect for a difference of opinion and life experiences. Otherwise, this is probably not the thread for you.
Big sigh of relief. I am hanging in there without drinking alcohol but sure do miss it. I went to a BBQ yesterday at my sister's new employer. Good ribs and cookin.' so much alcohol was available although people were drinking responsibly before we left. All that nice wine and beer. I had a cream soda that looked like it was in a beer bottle. That kind of helped me feel normal.
I love faith and spirituality for many and will support whatever beliefs bring people a positive impact in their lives. I don't pretend to know all the answers but it never ceases to amuse me when others do.
Drugs, wow they can be fun and dangerous. I'm glad to not be doing any hard drugs in my life at this time. Pot can be fun, medicinal or not. I smoked with my sister yesterday for the first time in over 2 weeks. Made the BBQ food taste even better but dealing with strangers stoned for the first time, well that can be funny and odd.
Sex, in the words of Austin Powers, "Yes please!" I had it again last night. It makes you feel human especially on treatment. Human touch is amazing and this guy has the body of a gymnast. It's good to have buddies. My interest in sex has certainly dropped down though since diagnosis and starting treatment. Previously, I could be the energizer bunny at times. Woo-hoo!
I love being gay. It's been a fun and interesting life growing up against the grain. One of my most unfortunate experiences with it up until age 44 though? .... Well you all witnessed it. Amazing to me. I love my heterosexual and bisexual friends here and those that tolerate and see human beings first. How beautiful is that?
Anyway, you get the idea. Anything positive goes. Reflective discussion encouraged. What do you want to talk about?
Big sigh of relief. I am hanging in there without drinking alcohol but sure do miss it. I went to a BBQ yesterday at my sister's new employer. Good ribs and cookin.' so much alcohol was available although people were drinking responsibly before we left. All that nice wine and beer. I had a cream soda that looked like it was in a beer bottle. That kind of helped me feel normal.
I love faith and spirituality for many and will support whatever beliefs bring people a positive impact in their lives. I don't pretend to know all the answers but it never ceases to amuse me when others do.
Drugs, wow they can be fun and dangerous. I'm glad to not be doing any hard drugs in my life at this time. Pot can be fun, medicinal or not. I smoked with my sister yesterday for the first time in over 2 weeks. Made the BBQ food taste even better but dealing with strangers stoned for the first time, well that can be funny and odd.
Sex, in the words of Austin Powers, "Yes please!" I had it again last night. It makes you feel human especially on treatment. Human touch is amazing and this guy has the body of a gymnast. It's good to have buddies. My interest in sex has certainly dropped down though since diagnosis and starting treatment. Previously, I could be the energizer bunny at times. Woo-hoo!
I love being gay. It's been a fun and interesting life growing up against the grain. One of my most unfortunate experiences with it up until age 44 though? .... Well you all witnessed it. Amazing to me. I love my heterosexual and bisexual friends here and those that tolerate and see human beings first. How beautiful is that?
Anyway, you get the idea. Anything positive goes. Reflective discussion encouraged. What do you want to talk about?
Big thunderstorm right on top of us. Gotta get off here and pull the plug.
GREAT THREAD ERNIE. Spank me, Joe. I love you.
THANK YOU ECC. This is what we needed.
And of course I'll have other subjects as well.
Like how to medicate an aggressive cat (Skyler a/k/a Crackler - named that by none other than ECC).
My sister is gay- she came out about 4 years ago, after her third divorce. She is happier in her life than I have ever seen her! Her partner, Kathi, who I affectionatly call "Charlie" has been a wonderful mom to my 16 year old niece. So much love and stability in their house- all of my niece's friends love to hang out over there, which is great.
I also have an uncle, who is more like my brother who is gay. He's only 5 years older than me- took me to all the gay bars in Houston when I wasn't even old enough to drink- we had a BALL!! I love him- he reminds me of you, ECC. Funny, sweet, you even look like him too!
I bought a little weed from a friend at that party I went to 2 weeks ago- smells awesome, but I haven't tried it yet. That may be something for my celebration after treatment! In the past, I've not been a very good stoner, but maybe it was beacuse I was so fucked up on other stuff too?? Who knows...
Went to the doc today- with the exception of a little fatty liver, I am good to go!! Bloodwork the week of September 10th, and a last follow up appointment October 15th... Wow... I was thinking about it today- it has been so long since I have felt "good"- I can't WAIT to see what that's like! I've ben diagnosed with this crap for 6-7 years (I think), and before that, i can pretty much pinpoint when I got it in 2001. SO, that means I've felt like shit in one way or another for almost 12 years... Jeeze- I hope feeling good is all it's cracked up to be!! Well, I've hogged the board enough for now- love you guys!!
Thanks coolcat!! This is great! :)
Nancy
I'll do a bit of how I got to where I am spiritually. I grew up in a small town in PA. Lots of Irish folks. My grandfather stowed away on a boat out of Belfast, not a penny to his name. My grandmother was Scottish. (This is my mom's side of the family). That generation was still adamantly fighting the Catholic vs. Protestant civil war. We were Protestant. The Catholic kids went to a separate school and we were forbidden to mingle with them (so of course I did). I would sneak out of the Presbyterian Church, with its vast corridors and secret passageways, put a scarf over my head and half my face and go to Catholic masses. I really love the Christmas mass. When people would kneel I would too. I had no idea what was going on; everything was in Latin, with the incense wafting, so much ritual. So I was a heathen from the get-go. I knew exactly when the Presby. service would be over and would high tail it back to the church (for some reason I was always allowed to sit in the balcony, so it was easy to escape) and walk out telling the minister how great his sermon was. HA NEVER got caught. But I knew that "traditional" religion was not for me and never would be.
We moved to Florida when I was 17 - a junior in high school. TRAUMATIC. But my dad told me I didn't have to go to church anymore. YAY.
College. I took a course in Eastern Humanities. My entire world changed. I took classes in Buddhism, Hinduism, Zen (THAT was interesting) and truly felt called to Buddhism. But I had no time for that. This was the late sixties. I became a weekend hippie and an A student in college (takes a Bipolar II to do that). I went to a couple of weekend Buddhist retreats and knew it was for me, but again, I enjoyed the drug fests. Enjoyed the fantastic music that will never be equaled. Pot was never my thing - some ppl get paranoid on it - I did. So I'd wash it down with a LOT of beer.
But I did EVERY drug out there except peyote. That was the one I should have done actually. Mushrooms were my fave. (Suddenly I'm mixing drugs and religion here). But unfortunately, my little commune group kept going farther and ended up smack heads (heroin addicts). I honest to God only mainlined maybe a dozen times - knew that I just couldn't "tune in, turn on, drop out" - I could do the first two AND DID, but not the last. So... "where did you get Hep C?" Dirty needles. I'm no longer ashamed of it.
MANY MANY MANY years went by - about three years ago I came full circle. I learned about His Holiness the Karmapa, the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader of the Karma Kagyu lineage. Strange how I learned about him, but it was karma. And that was that. Boom. The connection was instant. I started watching his teachings on youtube. Then he started doing teachings from India via webcast. He escaped from Tibet and crossed the Himalayas at midnight at the dawn of the millennium. He was 15 years old - and that journey would kill most normal human beings. But he's not a normal human being, by far. The Dalai Lama was in exile in India - most high level Tibetan spiritual leaders are. They fled the Chinese invasion. The Karmapa wanted to learn from him. And so he has. Different lineages but no matter. The Karmapa is like the Dalai Lama's favorite son. I could get really really involved in this part, but I won't.
I "took refuge" exactly two years ago - meaning I became a Buddhist "officially." And I have been blessed. I may never be face to face with HHK17 ~ His Holiness the Karmapa (he is the 17th Karmapa - we believe in reincarnation, of course) - but I know him in my heart and he knows me. I went to Vancouver, Canada a year ago for a week long prayer session - all in TIBETAN. Oh my! What a trip THAT was.
I have a dear "dharma" friend who lives in Seattle. He is a student of HHK. A few months ago, early April, I received a package from this friend, who told me to just leave it alone until I got further word. RIGHT before all this HepC shocker stuff came out - CT scan all fucked up; biopsy that blew my socks off - my dharma friend told me to open the package and take out the book that was in it. Told me that HHK had given it to him when my friend was in India in March for a month's teaching - told him to give it to "the woman in Arizona." The book was....... the Medicine Buddha ritual. Get that? It's in Tibetan, Chinese and English. My dharma friend had not been given "training" with that practice and said that HHK told him to tell me to just "go with it."
And I have. Right after that happened this journey began. I practice Medicine Buddha on a regular basis. Strange as it may sound to anyone here, I know for certain that I will make it thru tx. I wll be SVR. It's a blessing from HHK.
And I've written another book. But now you know.
http://www.kagyuoffice.org/karmapa.html