Share A Smile

I have written poems for as long as I can remember.

I started painting first on clothing then walls, wood and stone finally on canvas. This is my way of dealing with my daily chronic pain. Most of my poetry is accompanied with my own original art.

I would like to share some of my stories. I will make you laugh, cry, feel sympathy for some, dislike others. You will learn things about the hairdressing world you may have never thought about.

My short story “A Cut Above Discrimination” will make you think.

Next time you visit your hairdresser you may look at her or him in a whole new light.

It is my belief that laughter is a healer. If it be for a moment, a day or forever.I am an old hat at dealing with pain. Mental emotional and physical pain. Mental and emotional pain is sometimes just as hard to deal with as physical pain. I now deal with this on a daily basis. When Ron & I got married we didn’t know that “FOR BETTER OR WORSE” would come and bite us on the ankles. Ron once said to me. I don’t mind the love, honor and obey part but where was I when I promised to empty the bed pan?” We were only married 6 years, we had our daughter and one son by then, when we had the car accident that changed our lived forever. A drunk driver took our life as we knew it away from us in a flash of a second. I went from hairdresser, model. makeup artist to being bedridden. I was that way for 6 months until I had unsuccessful surgery on my back.  A year later I was operated on again, unsuccessfully. When I was able to get up & walk it was like starting all over again. Ron became a mother, father, housekeeper and nursemaid to our family, as well as working full-time. I am now 67 years old and have chronic pain everyday since. I have been in 6 car accidents, each one making me worse. None by the way being my fault. I’ve had four mylograms, lots and lots of injections, therapy of all kinds, I’ve attended several pain clinics, had hydro-therapy, acupuncture, herb & natural remedy therapy, many, many hospital stays, pills, pills and more pills.  Still I have fibromyalgia, arthritis, stomach problems, shoulder pain, leg pain, chronic back pain, angina, hiatus hernia, high blood pressure, thyroid cancer and several other tumors. The list goes on. Including unavoidable weight gain. I certainly know what depression, pain and wanting to give up is all about. We also have three children but had five pregnancies. It took me a long time after being so active and normal to get used to the fact I was not the same person any more. I believe that which is taken from you is given back another way and it is up to you to know how and when to use it. I always wrote poetry but now I do a lot more, I use my pain to find the feelings I needed, to do that. I truly believe that without the world of laughter, I may not have made it through as well as I have. Many Drs. have told me they are surprised that I am still walking. I pride myself on not letting those who don’t know me see that I’m in pain. One day on TV  there was a lady on a show from Arizona. She was complaining that when it rained she had pain and wanted to commit suicide, I was here all by myself and out loud said, “Give me a break!!!! I’ll show you pain!! I live in Canada!” I’m sure anyone walking by would have thought I was a nut talking to myself. I do get comments, about me having pain so long I should be used to it by now. lol yeh that happens. Learn to live with it maybe. A while back when my surgeon told me I had  thyroid cancer he asked me how I was able to keep my sense of humour seeing as I had so many health related problems.. My answer was how could I not. Life is much too short to spend it moaning and complaining. Furthermore who wants to be around someone who always complains. I am not interested in broadcasting that I am in pain and my friends & family already know. After that meeting with my Dr. I decided to start a support group called SAS “Share a Smile” a place for those with pain to come and laugh for a while. A good belly laugh. I know this is not a cure-all but if for just a moment you can forget the pain how wonderful! RIGHT? I made an arrangement with the funeral home in town. Asking the families to donate flowers to our group. We in turn took them apart and hand out individual flowers to those in nursing homes. All we asked in return was a SMILE lol. Let me tell you we got many of them. It is a great feeling to be able to share like that. One of the main rules of SAS was that while we are at our meeting we DO NOT dwell on our problems we are there for support and not for complaining. I struggle with my weight now due to meds and I sometimes wonder what my life would be like if this accident never happened. But because of it  I would like to think I have become a better person, more understanding and loving. I believe that laughter is the best therapy and that with this form of therapy we can each control our own dosage. ” Share A Smile”. I do not go into this blinded. I know about pain, suffering, debilitating and being discriminated against because of it. Two very potent chemicals in our bodies, serotonin which make us happy and endorphins that are natural pain killers are released through laughter. I try to release these as often as possible (giggle). It is nice to know there is something other than pain meds from a bottle. Laughter should not be reserved as a pain-killer as I believe it should be something we do each and every day just for the heck of it. Wouldn’t it be nice if we all found more to laugh about or even someone to laugh with. Maybe we could all do our share in making just that thing happen. Come tickle your funny bone, and share stories, jokes, embarrassing moments, poems and friendship.