Nurturing Ritual

Bear with the details for a moment:
My two good and long-time friends from elementary school are W.C. and E. Their moms are J. and L. respectively. Mine is C. Just as W.C., E., and I are all friends, so are all our mothers.

A few weeks ago we learned that J. had been diagnosed with breast cancer. This morning she underwent surgery and had a mastectomy. W.C. sent a lovely email out prior to the surgery asking the following:

"Hello all! I am writing to you to invite you to participate in a healing ritual I am doing  for my mom. As you probably know, my mom is going in for a mastectomy on August 10. Breasts are a symbol of nurturing, and since my mom has made nurturing others a lifelong focus both in her personal and professional life, I propose a ritual with nurturing my mom as the focus!
The ritual goes like this:
Cake (the really good substancey part of the ritual)
Think of something you loooove to do as a way to nurture yourself in body, mind, or spirit. This can be as elaborate, lengthy and expensive or as simple, succinct and money-free as you prefer, so long as it is an activity/treat that makes you feel warm and fuzzy and it connects you with your God/ the Universe/ yourself.

Do this activity for yourself on August 10 (or near to then, but actual day is preferred).  Once you have reached that place of peace and strength, think of how nurtured you feel in that moment, think of my mom, and say (out loud or in your head):  'All this good for J., too.'"

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Dear J.

Today we (W.C.,  E.,  L.,  C., and me) all met at ReBar to have lunch. There was a chair for you in spirit! We were most definitely thinking of you. We talked of breast cancer and W.C. told us about the book you had both read.

We decided we have not done this nearly enough- lunch with us three girls and our moms! So once you are well again we vowed we MUST do this again with all of us.

The ritual is described below, but look at the lovely soup that arrived (above)! So thoughtfully and appropriately decorated with a with a pink heart!

Here was our ritual:
CAKE! Well 4 of them, which we justified because we all shared... The NURTURING! 5 best friends having lunch together at a healthy and delicious restaurant. Laughter. Warm thoughts to you.

And finally,
ALL THIS GOOD FOR J., TOO.

Get well, see you at our lunch soon!