ItalianoThe cockatoo and the moon
Part 1 - early March 2007
As part of our overall "bag of tricks" to get our son back to health, especially in the early days when he was weakened by surgeries and associated issues, we took him to a counsellor/energy healer a few times, and she introduced him to the concept of visualisation. She drew pictures with him and they talked about the tumour getting smaller and leaving his brain. They drew a circle, about the tumour's size, and a little "flow chart" of what was going to happen to it. The idea was that we would draw the same picture every night, but each time the circle would be slightly smaller, until it was tiny. Once the tumour was tiny, it would come out of his head, fall into the ground and travel deep into the earth where it's hot, then melt and turn into a cockatoo, which would emerge out of the earth and fly away. Originally, she had asked him what his favourite animal was, and he had said "horse", but he couldn't visualise that, so she suggested a cockatoo, to which he agreed. She asked what it should be named, and he said "Horse".
Hence the cockatoo mascot was born.
We haven't always consistently practised the visualisation, and the details change from time to time. The counsellor said he could also change animals if he wanted, but he really likes his cockatoo. At one point it was to emerge out of the earth via a volcanic eruption, which both helped to make sense of "how does it get out of there?" and made use of one of the boys' favourite subjects at the time (volcanoes). The last time we saw her, the visualisation was that the tumour, once it had shrunk enough, would be loaded onto a rocket and sent to the moon - we were to look at the full moon and see if we could spot it there. He himself decided that it shouldn't end that way, and he changed it to include a cockatoo. This time, "Horse", another cockatoo, would travel with the shrunken tumour in the rocket to the moon, where the tumour would change into Horse's brother and they would return to Earth together. Even when we've been inconsistent with our visualisations, our mascot has been ever-present. We have several cockatoo reminders around the house, including a little soft finger puppet (named Horse, of course) that he often takes to bed, or on outings.
Recently our son has taken to drawing and colouring, something that was just too difficult and frustrating for him this time last year, and one of the signs to us that he's doing better all the time. Several weeks ago, he woke up late at night, while I was still up, and asked for a piece of paper. He took his paper and some pencils, sat himself down and, without any prompting, started to draw circular shapes of different sizes. He explained to me that he was drawing his tumour getting smaller and smaller. He then drew the moon, and talked about Horse the cockatoo taking the tumour there on a rocket. The other night we were looking at the almost-full moon, and I asked if we should look for Horse's rocket yet. He decided that it wouldn't happen at this full moon, but the next one.
So our visualisation has changed again. Now we're watching the moon waning, and picturing the tumour becoming smaller as the moon wanes, until the new moon, when the tumour will be tiny enough to fall out and be put on the rocket. Then we'll be looking out for that full moon again, which just happens to fall on the anniversary of the CT scan that diagnosed his tumour, and two days before his next MRI.
So if you're interested in helping with our visualisation, you can be part of what we're doing as our positive thoughts focus this month. If you would like to focus on something to help remind you of the moon's cycle, feel free to come back to this page every now and then.
If you'd simply like to continue as usual with your very much appreciated prayers and positive thoughts, then that's absolutely perfect too. Thankyou.
Part 2 - late March 2007
If anybody has been following our little moon visualisation, things have changed a couple of times. Yesterday our son informed me that the rocket had broken down, and that Horse was repairing it, but that the tumour was still inside it and hadn't gone back to his head. Today, he said that the rocket had already been to the moon, that the tumour was now a cockatoo, and that both cockatoos had returned to Earth. A couple of springs had come loose in the rocket, and the two cockatoos were repairing it. Oh, and their mother is back on Earth with them too now...
Part 3 - September 2007
Waiting for clarification on his latest story...