Oneness

[Ninanna]

I recently had a wonderful lady name Jean contact me on facebook through one of the kidney groups I'm in, asking if she could write a poem about my transplant.  I think she did a beautiful job and I wanted to share it with you all.  All credit goes to her.

Oneness
The universe is opening
Last doors
To find first light
The first drop of unity before the first
Fork in humanity
Before man parted from woman
Before self saw other and other
Saw skin color
The destruction of my marrow
Holds me hostage
Holds me with ransom of my life
I am a captive wait
An eager pleaser
I aim to incorporate and evolve
I aim to rearrange my identity
Carry me to new lands
Made possible by irradiated intention
I shall arrive and have a new name
A new plan
And my new person will be more accepting
When my hair grows back I shall be maybe
Dawn or an aeon flux
And people will say so soon after
What was the day before the oneness
What was it like to feel separated from another
Shall we soon forget the fork
And find instead the love of all
That would breed life
Breathe life
I want to dive into the primordial beginning
I sacrifice my self to find out
Can we forget our differences
Can we start a new life
Immune to rejection
Being with without
Lies medications or hesitations
Can we be me
Rebuilt forgiving
Rebirthed and living

[kitkatz]

That is beautiful.

[Ninanna]

She is really talented and a nephrologist to boot. Here is another she has written. 


Day 103 of my sensorial image challenge:

One of the most beautiful women I know grew up with kidney failure and told me many times her fistula was a source of embarrassment. A man at a nail salon pulled up her sleeve and shook his head like she was a drug user.

Recently she had a party for her twin babies (made possible by her kidney transplant) and for fear her invited guest would look at her arm in horror and fear she sent out a photo of it.

The photo is of her lumpy bumpy fistula after 15 yrs of life saving dialysis. She's grasping a pomegranate. She says she grew up eating them as they grew in her grandma's backyard.

It's amazing that this photo is so artistic to me. The pattern, the life line in her arm so we could main line into her, the red pomegranate bursting with possibilities.

She was afraid of misunderstanding. I hope the world sees instead the strength and beauty. Survivorship. It's a club you belong to.

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Concept

Grasp this idea
Pressed against a peacock pattern
Against confusion and ignorance
I'm going to wear a tank top
Because it's hot
So be aware
I have battle scars
Be prepared
To stare and mumble only
"What's up with the pomegranate?"
Because I won't answer ridicule over much else
I won't entertain doubt of self
I have a fist full of tense juicy seeds of red ripe possibilities
I have memories and a future
Because of the torturous life line I kept open
So machines could access me
And my blood flowed out and around me
Like pomegranate juice
I've been cleaned three times a week for years
It's my arm
My body
My life retained
Regained
And I shall not hide
Make no more trials to explain
It is my badge of survivorship
And one may say
Without fear of subtracting from me
"Your arm, it is as lovely and strong as the tree limb
That pomegranate came from."
That I would gladly hear

[Ninanna]

Day 107 of my sensorial image challenge:

Recently I met a kidney donor who just finished being a part of a 21 kidney donation chain.

Chains work to pass a non matched kidney to a match and on and on till the loop is closed.

In the end donors donate to someone they don't know to return the organ back to who they know.

Extraordinary in itself but then Courtney told me about two things that made me stop. She said she got to meet many of the pairings and also that she met who her kidney went to. Imagine seeing pairs and pairs of donor recipients. These donations must be completed timely usually within 24-48 hrs. Because that's so many operation with one kidney removed and one placed whole ORs will be booked in multiple hospitals. That must feel like a wave of humanity.

She said her meeting with her specific recipient was like instant love. There is no word for that kind of gratitude nor side path taken. A gift given as a side step to what was thought the goal must seem like a huge confirmation that giving to another will loop around to those you love.

This is a photo of her scars and in one open palm all the things she carried into surgery with her: a lucky elephant charm, a pink guardian angel quartz, a worry bead necklace and in the confident grasp of the left hand is a green ribbon her mom gave her when she woke up. Donors go in open palm and come out grasping forever something about being alive few know.

Thank you Courtney. May you ride a high for a lifetime. You will be many things but this no one can take from you. You are a live organ donor in a humanity chain.
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Loop around

I had my questions
My fears
My worries
Along the winding way
I got my beads to rub
Gathered my charm and guardian angel
Like a white elephant party the kidneys
Passed around and each opening was exciting
Each pass to a better recipient
I was unconscious while paths were laid
Awoke to find a green ribbon race
A confirmation of my contribution this lifetime
So moved I think
"Why sleep?"
What's the point
Except to preach the possibilities of giving
May we walk with palms open
May we speak with conviction
My scars are my decision
Why not share
Why not split our provisions
And make like one voice
One living
Made easier by a chain of giving
And now my world is
A kidney shaped heart
And now my legacy is that I took part
Showed up
Got cut
Healed someone else
Count me best on your side
Grasping on the left not the loss of flesh but the gain of my
Absolute best