Sad Vibrations...

Yesterday Daniela was steeped in a sorrowful mood. Despite holding a procession of steaming tea mugs throughout the day, her hands were cold. Her feet were cold, and she shivered...a parfait in alternating layers of silk, cotton, and fleece. The fever-less trembling was unsettling. Sometime during the night, the tremors subsided and she awoke in a more balanced state of equilibrium.

While checking her email, later in the morning, she stood transfixed...gazing at the screen of her laptop. This particular email landed in her inbox at 9:39 am today...mourning the passing of a recent friend (Z''L) yesterday, a survivor who had been re-diagnosed. Daniela's demeanor oscillated between stillness and sobbing for the rest of the morning.

Later in the day, Daniela ventured again into Georgetown, another bloodletting, and a few hours waiting for the results. Her white blood cell demographics were a healthy 11.7, so the quaking and quivering were unrelated to sepsis.

Daniela's recent initiation into this community of shared experience...a localized nexus of breast cancer survivors has introduced her to both particular souls and particular stories, as well as tethered her to a cooperative sentiment. She thrives as part of this group. Today, she also mourns as part of this group. And, like innumerable matrices and associations whose constituent elements and emotions are closely linked and identified with the experience of survivorship, the departure of a member...ripples with great intensity through their social fabric, and even rips through more tangible forms.