Experiencing a depth of feeling

I am writ­ing a book about trans­for­ma­tion through a par­en­t’s death from can­cer and I’m liv­ing through the recent knowl­edge of a friend who may die from can­cer at 63 years of age. I am shak­en by hear­ing of this diag­no­sis just as the woman in my sto­ry was shak­en when she learned of her mum’s ill­ness. I am tak­ing my feel­ings of this event and trans­lat­ing them on the page of my book in a way I could­n’t have before. I am liv­ing some of the emo­tions she went through. It’s scary and fright­en­ing. There is the hope for com­plete (or par­tial) recov­ery and there is the unknown. Real life’s moments add to our work as cre­ative indi­vid­u­als in ways that are unan­tic­i­pat­ed and chal­leng­ing. JNC