I was going through cancer treatment. It was toward the end of my treatment
but you know I spent a lot of time on the internet, so that is how I ran across it and
you know I looked at it and of course the first thing I was like, I've been
doodling forever. But I liked, you know, how she put the things together and
I saw you know, the word "Zentangle," so then I just did my internet search and just
grabbed everything that said Zentangle and absorbed it and you know, bought
a bunch of books. I just, when I see something, I kinda go all in.
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I do other artwok too but I needed something that was you know, pretty easy, that didn't take a lot
of thought, especially because I had gone through chemo and I had chemo
brain and it is a real thing. You can't really remember things and you can't, you
can't formulate you know if I have to think about what I'm gonna do, I lose it.
So Zentangle was easy for me to stay with my art stuff, which helped with the
depression that comes along with the pain that comes with the chemo and then
I went through surgery and radiation as well but I didn't find Zentangle until
between surgery and radiation and I wish I would have found it at the beginning
of chemo, at the very beginning. Not that I could have really done a lot but I
could have done a little each day, you know, maybe just one tangle would be
all I can get through but it would have given me something because at the
beginning of chemo, there's no light at the end of that tunnel. You know it's
only four months and I kept trying to tell myself, but you can't see the end of it
when you're in it all. What I want to do with this is, I want to go back to the
cancer center
and I want to, I wanna go to the infusion center and you know, you sit in your chair,
they're comfortable chairs but you're you're in your cube most people had
someone what them, like I did, my wife was amazing
through the whole thing, but some people didn't and like I said if I would of had
it then I would have done it while getting infused but I would have had
something to do when I got home because all you do is sit on the couch. You can't do
anything
It took everything out of me to get up off the couch and get a glass of water.
I mean seriously I couldn't breathe. So I want to go back and I want to share it
with the patients you know volunteer. They have an art therapy program so I
wanna sit with them, you know, show them, and if they can't do it you know maybe,
they want to watch me. I'm not that great, but it's something do, especially if they
don't have anybody with them and same for radiation you know when you're
waiting for radiation they, my hospital, had puzzles all over and everybody did
the puzzles and not everybody likes puzzles but everybody did the puzzles.
'Cause you're trying to take your mind off of it and focus on something else because
radiation is very painful.
Yeah, but, I mean, being here with all the people I've
met and everybody else's story. I mean I would say 95% of the people I talk to
have been affected by cancer and you know that was crazy, that was crazy, but all the,
all the love that comes out of Maria and Rick is amazing. You know, they're
so open
and caring and and the whole family is in the business so you know that they're,
they're just fantastic people and you just want to bring them in close and
take them home with you. You know, so it's really just being here has opened me up
more to it and the feeling part of it. You know, Because learning in books
you're like oh this is a nice art form, and you have to focus, and all this but when
you're here and you hear other people's stories and you listen to the passionate
way they talk about it you know it just opens you up and it's just been amazing.
I'm so glad I came.
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