ABOUT THE BOOK
A Time for Healing is a story about survival and about being human. It is
written in such a manner that it speaks to people from all walks of life.
It is of value, not only to those suffering with breast cancer,
but also to those suffering from any illness or adversity. It helps them
to name and accept their own experiences and makes them feel less lonely.
It is also of great value to family members and friends who want to better
understand what their loved ones are experiencing.
Clinicians and students in the medical or health care professions
can especially benefit. The poetry provides new insights into the range of emotions
and feelings that can be experienced by those who are struggling to heal.
The book consists of sixty poems that catalogue a passionate
journey of healing during the year following the author's discovery of a lump in
her left breast. It can be read as a story from beginning to end or it can be used piecemeal as a
tool in the healing process. The book is written in the form of a diary. Each poem is preceded by the date and
a short paragraph of prose which introduces the reader to events leading to the feelings
and the healing experience then expressed in the poem.
FROM THE AUTHOR
When I first started to write the poems I had no thought of writing a book.
I was trying only to get clarity in a time of great chaos and confusion. However,
as I shared the poems with the medical community surrounding me, I received overwhelming
feedback to continue the process, as they believed it would be of great help to others.
Thus, I made a commitment to continue writing for one year.
At the end of that time I had a collection of sixty poems. I had initially thought each
poem stood alone, but when I saw them placed into chronological order, I was struck by
two outcomes. The first was that the poems fell into natural chapters of healing:
'A Time for Shock, A Time for Pain, A Time for Reaching...' etcetera. Secondly,
I found that I had finally been able to document the actual experience of suffering and
healing.
As a physical therapist and healer, this second outcome was of immeasurable importance to
me. I had spent twenty-plus years working with the recovery of patients following
catastrophic illness. In that time, I had been repeatedly confronted by the fact, that
although there is a language for the disease and healing PROCESS, there is none for the
disease and healing EXPERIENCE. For example: I can say 'I have broken my hip which is
mending,' or 'I have cancer, and I am receiving chemotherapy,' but it is almost
impossible to communicate the actual long-term, multi-dimensional experience of either.
Our society has social norms for communication. The standard reply to the question,
'How are you?' is 'Fine.' It is socially acceptable to say, 'Not so bad,' or even, 'Not
so good,' but dissonance is immediately created if we reply, 'Terrible.' This type of
response makes others very uncomfortable and they are quick to rush in with platitudes
like 'Oh, don't feel like that! Look on the good side,' or 'Oh, you mustn't give up.' Yet
the truth is, how can you feel anything other than terrible when you are in the throes of
a great tragedy, loss or illness? Even then, the word 'terrible' does not actually describe
the experience.
Again and again, the patients I have treated confided to me that they believed no one
wanted to know how they really felt. I do not believe this to be true. I think most people
do want to understand and to be empathetic, but there is no language available to those who
are suffering, or to those who are listening, to communicate the experience.
The overwhelming responses I have received from readers, indicates
that A Time for Healing provides the rudiments of a language to communicate this
experience of suffering and healing.
-Valerie Hodge-Williams, 1998
© 1997 Resource Integrations, Inc.
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