Smells like childhood.

How lessons I learnt in childhood helped me with a cancer diagnosis.

Housekeeping: By the time you are reading this I will have just commenced my Camino Frances 22/9, heading over the Pyrenees and the Spanish Meseta.

While I am away I am opening up some of my more popular posts as I trek the 880kms and for the most part enjoy no computer and “official” writing.

Beun Camino

I loved creating books - writing and illustrating them, it absorbed me for hours.

Anaiah Matthew

writer of The Walkist reminded me of this game I had played as a child. It’s a game of fortunately and unfortunately Read Anaiah’s post, I loved it.

It was also the inspiration for this post. Anaiah talks about it being an opportunity to acknowledge the positiveness in a negative situation. Use the analogy and see how you feel after playing the game with a “negative” situation.

I often lament being the youngest of five, there’s 12 years between me and my eldest brother. At times I viewed it as a negative situation, in reality it played a big part in seeing me through head and neck cancer treatment.

Here’s how.

It was a game I played solo, being the youngest of five, I was often left with my mother, my father was working and my siblings at this age were well into school or half way through their senior education.

I have vivid memories of being at my “desk” in my childhood bedroom, creating stories and illustrating them, my mother was an artist and my father senior in the education system, so I very much had the best of both worlds from an education and character building process.

Discipline and learning, imagination and creativity.

I also loved to read.

To this day I am blessed that I can and do read a variety of genres. Fortunately being the only one at home I had the opportunity to read for hours and hours.

Unfortunately my mother was often painting or sketching and this meant I had to entertain myself. Fortunately, that meant I had access to art paper, water colours, crayon, chalk and paint brushes, which meant I participated in creating a painting or a drawing with some artistic guidance.

Unfortunately I had an explosive relationship with my father growing up, I was head strong, bullet proof and opinionated, fortunately my mother often stepped in to calm the waters and provide much needed distraction and a reasoning alternative.

Cleaning up my mum's art studio when we moved her to aged care.

So why am I delving back to my childhood?

Although I come from a family of five (seven including my parents) I was brought up alone due to the age difference between siblings. Unfortunately that meant I experienced long stretches of time on my own.

Fortunately that resulted in me becoming very self reliant for my own safety, entertainment, exploration and doing and making things by myself.

It also meant solo homework projects and solo visits to family wheat and sheep farms in country South Australia where I learnt to drive a column shift ute, trap rabbits, ride motor bikes and work in a shearing shed well before driving age.

Fortunately I had a blessed and happy childhood. My mother was home painting, teaching me the arts, teaching me about life as I stepped over nude body parts drawn in charcoal on the kitchen floor at a young age. Check that out here.

My father taught me math, English, philosophy, geography & humour. He also taught me how to change the oil in my car and general car maintenance, something I did with him for endless hours over the ‘pit’ in the shed at our family home on weekends.

My mother taught me Fred Williams, Paul Cezanne, Margot Fontaine, Piano, style and not to be afraid of colour. She also taught me soup making, nutrition, sewing and the art of being a good conversationalist.

Together they taught me how to live a happy, fulfilling life, the importance of being kind, being generous, being real and being me. To speak up if needed, to shut up when required, and the importance of listening. They taught me that it’s not always about me, a life lesson I value every single day.

They taught me how to make wise decisions, the value of money, the value of family and friends. They taught me to not fear love, not to fear illness and not to fear dying.

They taught me how to use emotional intelligence, intuition and expression. They taught me analytical skills, reasoning and logic.

Although head and neck cancer was unfortunate, fortunately I had the skills and emotional capabilities to manage whatever it threw at me. It continues to throw things at me, we all know this never really stops and if you are new to the journey, take solace in that it teaches as much as it takes away.

In my mind, there is nothing much unfortunate about that.

Want to find out how I started eating again after PEG Tube feeding for 15 months?

You can have a look here

Eat well.