The new site will be specifically for writings that may appear weekly or more frequently perhaps. Topics will be varied, but will include categories of faith, beliefs, culture, politics, etc. and anything that irks or inspires.

So feel free to head over there sometime. The addresses are:

www.camharris.wordpress.com or
www.cammarshallharris.com

or you can just click on the link in the blogroll in the right hand side column.

See you there.

I don’t know if it is everyone’s experience, but the connection that one can feel to another human being in charge of their treatment can be quite profound. How do you thank a doctor for stopping you from dying so soon? How do you convey gratitude to a person who puts in 20 years of study, work and research to get patients like me enjoying more of life?

I have only really known Dr Brad for less than a year, but he has obviously become an integral part of my world and it is highly likely that he will continue to be for the rest of my journey. I can honestly say that he has the compassion and personable nature to match his brilliant medical skills. We could not ask for anything more, though with him, we get it.

Other than that, these last few weeks have been spent coming to terms with a new chapter of living, and hopefully living without too much treatment. In this, decisions have had to be made regarding how to spend my time and how much my body can physically cope with. I was getting ready to fire up the silver business a bit more, but after doing an order last week, I don’t think I could take on too much physically, not just now.

So at the moment, I have decided to continue with the silver business as is and continue developing the educational website. I am also going back to Uni part-time doing a Grad Cert in Film and Video. The focus is on documentary production and I am pretty excited by the course outlines. It just seems the perfect time to do some learning – something to get the mind ticking over while the body takes its time to catch up.

I have also started another website that is dedicated just to writings about various topics. I decided a while back that I didn’t want to have a crossover with The Walk Beside as it mainly deals with a personal experience. These other writings will focus more on opinions and questions that are good to get down on paper, or pixels. I am still constructing it at the moment, but should be up next week.

For the record, my hair is growing back. Yes, everywhere where it is supposed to.

Tonight I decided to look up a particular song by Pink. Each time I hear this song on the radio I shudder and get chills up my spine. The passionate resonance of her voice, the message and the harmonies just grip me every time. Songs like this make me feel like I am having a spiritual experience. I admit that I get the same feeling with Van Halen’s Jump, Stevie Ray Vaughan’s rendition of Little Wing, Vangelis’ Chariots of Fire and a few Meatloaf songs, but when a song can bring about a physical response in me, I think it is doing its job nicely.

In my late teens I used to detach the speakers on my stereo to give me surround sound, turn the lights off and crank up tunes like ‘Lenny’ or ‘Little Wing’ by Stevie Ray. I would just let them repeat over and over. They are both instrumentals, so it wasn’t the words that moved me, but the melancholy mood of the music would soothe me beyond what I can describe. A passionate voice can do the same for me. Love it.

Whenever my melancholic mood swings into action, it is often accompanied by me putting on some appropriate soul-stirring music, or playing some soft tunes on the piano or guitar in the dark. Often I imagine that I am in a movie, walking down a city street wearing a big winter coat while it is pouring with rain, the music playing like a soundtrack.

Please tell me it is not just me who does this.

Post script
On this subject, and after getting back on Youtube, I couldn’t go past putting up Ben Harper and The Blind Boys of Alabama. My suggestion, put your speakers either side of your head, and turn off the lights.

It was in stark contrast to this time last year, when we received the news of my diagnosis just 3 days before. At that stage of diagnosis, it seemed that the worst-case scenario was underway as the specialist at the time told us that things did not look good. Our last anniversary, therefore, was quietly understood to be our last anniversary. It wasn’t until a week or so later that tests showed a more workable prognosis. It was a crap week.

This anniversary went a lot better. The recent good results have painted a better picture for the future and we were able to consider the year ahead as being more positive that the year that was. Other events of the weekend included getting stuck in an elevator with Miss Universe 2004 Jennifer Hawkins (Okay, not ‘stuck’, but it does sound better than ‘catching’ an elevator with Jennifer Hawkins. Whatever the case, it would be fair to say that we both felt the earth move, as you do in elevators). Friends took us out for a tour of the city in a limousine, we were able to catch up with family and we did our fair share of eating out at some very cool cafes, so it all made for a great time away. It was good to do something different to break the memory of this time last year.

There is no way I could have got through this year so easily without Elizabeth. I feel it is her that has had the difficult year and I have had the easier role out of the two of us. As can be imagined, there have been some very tough times, but through it she has not flinched. It has not just been the case of just being well looked after, but more about how one can put every aspect of their life into making another feel completely loved and comforted. Elizabeth has made this into an artform.

More to write on this later.

Libs and I are out of town for a while. Back sometime next week.