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GANE Empowered Wellness
with Kim Jorgensen Gane

Welcome to GANE Empowered Wellness: GANE Possible. Through blogging, I've built much of my upcoming book. My first GANE Possible publication is described as prescriptive nonfiction. Beating the Statistics: A Mother's Quest to Reclaim Fertility, Halt Autism & Help Her Child Grow From Behavior Failure to Behavior Success, is soon to be released.

My "Gramps" lived to be 100 years old.  At his table, Vegetables were friends, portions were smaller, abundance was celebrated and family and laughter were plentiful. For these reasons and because of his appreciation for life and the people in it, my grandfather observed the world in three centuries. His spirit touched everyone he met, me especially. I always felt safe, cherished and nourished at his table, and his legacy has helped me keep my family well. 

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National Suicide Prevention Week: Single Moms, You Are Not Alone

9/10/2014

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Today, September 10, 2014, the World Health Organization and the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) co-sponsors World Suicide Prevention Day. To commemorate this day, the MSW@USC invites you to participate in the 100 Voices for Suicide Prevention campaign. Around the world, suicide is a major public health problem and is the leading cause of death for young people. Worldwide, nearly one million people succumb to suicide each year, a number that exceeds deaths from war and homicide combined. This year marks the 12th anniversary of World Suicide Prevention Day with the theme “One World Connected.” In honor of National Suicide Prevention Week, we hope you’ll participate in as many of these #suicideprevention events as you can. 

Last year, I participated in the National Suicide Prevention Blog Carnival with the written version of my post, What If I'd Said, "Just Drive?" This year, I stepped on a stage with my fellow cast members in NW Indiana to read that same piece before a living, breathing audience for Listen to Your Mother 2014. Many of the five years of Listen to Your Mother videos deal with topics of depression, including single parenting, postpartum and suicide, with common themes of survival and hope threaded throughout, because, let's face it, as wonderful as it often is, motherhood can be hard. It can also be tears-streaming-down-your-face hilarious, as evidenced by Liesl Testwuide of Hairpin Turns Ahead and Robyn Jackson Welling of Hollow Tree Ventures reading two of my favorites. I watch them whenever I need a laugh. Many days I've sought the laughter these delightful women inspire, especially after our collective laughter stopped recently when Robin Williams lost his battle with depression, and took his own life. Don't let that happen to you. Seek and celebrate the laughter, reach out, and if you're a survivor like me, I hope you'll get involved. 

For this special day of awareness and action, and for single moms everywhere, here's my video:


I find solace in my children. I find solace in getting involved in, advocating, and celebrating my local community. I find solace in reaching out and not being alone. There are many ways you can participate in what's left of today, this week, and the rest of this month. I love the #TheSemiColonProject, because it's geared to writers. This post by Denise Drespling explaining what the semi-colon means. And Denise has some great strategies for mental health wellness in her video on today's post. Follow along and Tweet your semi-colon, real or Sharpied. 

Here's mine:

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Image credit: TheSemiColonProject.com

National Suicide Prevention Week Schedule of Events:

Sunday, September 7, 7pm PT/10pm ET: MSW@USC’s community manager @GabyAcosta101 will serve as a special guest on the Suicide Prevention Social Media Twitter Chat #SPSM. Join her for a conversation about how we can leverage new media and virtual campaigns to raise awareness around Suicide Prevention. 

Monday, September 8: Today is the 100 Voices for Suicide Prevention Kick-off! Over 45 leading voices in the suicide prevention field have contributed guest posts, podcast interviews, PSA’s, and resources to help raise awareness in honor of Suicide Prevention and Awareness Month. We ask that you share this project to help promote the work that our collaborators are doing to prevent suicide in their communities. 

Tuesday, September 9: Check out the “You Matter” project. This early-intervention campaign aims to to facilitate human connections in order to promote positive mental health. According to the IASP, connectedness is crucial to individuals who may be vulnerable to suicide. Studies have shown that social isolation can increase the risk of suicide and, conversely, that having strong human bonds can be protective against it. Reaching out to those who have become disconnected from others and offering them support and friendship may be a life-saving act.

Wednesday, September 10: Today is World Suicide Prevention Day! Follow the International Association of Suicide Prevention on Facebook for updates on their WSPD events.

Thursday, September 11, 6pm PT/9pm ET: @MSWatUSC will be moderating the #MacroSW tweet chat to discuss ways we can synchronize suicide prevention efforts between individuals and organizations around the country. RSVP for this event here.

Friday, September 12: Join us for a #NSPW Follow Friday! Tweet and mention individuals and organizations who you want to recognize as leaders in #suicideprevention and awareness advocacy work.

Spread the Word On Social Media:

For Collaborators:

Sample Tweet: I’m joining @MSWatUSC & 45+ experts for the 100 Voices for Suicide Prevention campaign. Read my post here: http://bit.ly/100Voices #NSPW

Sample Facebook Post: I’m joining over 45 experts in the field and USC School of Social Work for the 100 Voices for Suicide Prevention campaign. Check out my submission here: http://bit.ly/100Voices #NSPW


For Advocates:

Sample Tweet: @MSWatUSC joins together w/ 45+ experts for the 100 Voices for #SuicidePrevention campaign. Read Now: http://bit.ly/100Voices #NSPW
            
Sample Facebook Post: “USC School of Social Work has built a collaboration with over 45 leading voices in the suicide prevention field who have contributed guest posts, podcast interviews, PSA’s, and resources. Share the 100 Voices Campaign to raise awareness for this critical issue: http://bit.ly/100Voices #NSPW

Keep the suicide prevention and awareness conversation going on social media using the following hashtags: #suicideprevention #NSPW #stayalive #youarenotalone #itgetsbetter #saynotosuicide #stopsuicide #unsuicide #twloha #loveislouder

Thank you for raising awareness with us!  

If you or a friend are considering suicide please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. It is free and confidential.
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Why "Healthy Lifestyle" Isn't Always Enough: Solving the Puzzle--VARIETY!

2/17/2014

9 Comments

 
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Does your family battled colds, flu, bronchitis, sinus infections, or other persistent maladies each season, despite what you’ve always thought was a healthier than average diet?

It’s no wonder we have the health problems we do in this country, when we are chronically misinformed about what it means to have a “healthy” diet, when we assault our immune systems with “whole grains,” such as wheat, wheat and more wheat, day in and day out. 

Did you grow up with the stack of “Wonderful” Bread on the table at dinner every evening, after you had a “Wonderful” Bread sandwich (likely made with processed bologna) in the lunch your mom lovingly packed for you, and likely after “Wonderful” Bread toast for breakfast?  That’s what I call “Stacking” (TM).  And even though we’ve perhaps graduated from “Wonderful” Bread-type products, many of us eat our “Wheatie-fuls” or a bagel for breakfast, think we’re doing something better than the local Burger Barn and get a “sub” for lunch, grab a soda and a crunchy Dorito-ey-licious snack mid-afternoon to battle the slump, and then go home to enjoy pasta with bread for dinner. 

I mean, YUM!  But WOW! 

Eating that way twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, nearly 365 days a year is extremely stressful (and/or over-stimulating) to the immune system, and can result in frequent bouts with allergies and seasonal illness—for my son, it was chronic croup that developed into mild asthma.  For me, over twelve years ago now, it was chronic sinus infections, yearly respiratory illness including bronchitis and progressive asthma, which resulted in a couple “Z-Pack” prescriptions per year, followed by dreaded yeast infections. 

For my husband, scarier, more progressive health issues persisted, exacerbated by the incredible job stress he was under.  As a former firefighter, likely with a compromised respiratory system because of it, the stakes were much higher.  He had two episodes of A-Fib (Atrial Fibrillation, which puts sufferers at a dramatically increased risk of stroke), and he battled walking pneumonia, often two to three bouts per season.  For him, the season seemed to start earlier and last longer year after year.    

PictureSon enjoying "Salad in Hand" lettuce wrap.
Something my family discovered because we’re gluten free?  There's no difference if we’re assaulting our immune systems by “Stacking” with rice, rice and more rice.  Eating little in the way of fresh vegetables, not getting enough protein, and consuming tons of empty calories full of sugar and chemicals is a sure way to invite colds and flu to visit and revisit for the winter and to stay awhile.  Ahem.  If I fed myself as well as I feed my son, stopped skipping meals, got more sleep, reduced my portions, and got up from my computer for an hour each day, I’d manage to shrink my size.  Hmmm…it sounds so easy….

Weight alone, however, much to the befuddlement of the Dr. Ozes of the world, isn’t always a reliable indicator of wellness.  So for the purposes of this article, allow me to define wellness as getting through cold and flu season with no episodes of cold or flu, and NO antibiotics.  It is POSSIBLE, even if you aren’t considered ideal weight, and it’s something I’ve managed to avoid for over twelve years.  It's something my grandfather did for 100.  This is an idea I love, and one (knock on wood) we’ve managed to achieve thus far this season, my husband included.  This past winter was his second without walking pneumonia and without antibiotics. My son is ten-years-old and has been on antibiotics only once in his entire life.  That was during our first season in San Diego, when his body was likely adjusting to new and different regional pathogens.  Our family was under an incredible amount of stress with all the adjustments, which didn't help any of us, because stress has a chemical impact on our bodies.

I have discovered and incorporated some important dietary adjustments with my son, however resistant my husband remained to the same changes for himself (when I wasn’t watching).   So what do we do, what have we changed in order to achieve our definition of wellness?

Perhaps you’ve already gotten help that’s lead you to put your child on a gluten free diet, but it hasn’t exactly provided the magic solution you’d hoped for.  It's important to note that many of the gluten free swaps available are simply processed garbage of another sort.  They may not contain gluten, but they contain a variety of starches that offer very little in the way of good things (fiber, protein, essential nutrients) to put in the body, and they're often higher in sugar, fat, sodium, and empty calories to make up for what they lack in taste and texture. 

PictureLettuce wrap or "Salad in Hand"
Whether or not your family needs to be gluten free, Clean Eating (as clean as you can manage and afford at least), whole foods and VARIETY are important components typically missing in the Standard American Diet (SAD) or in the Standard Gluten Free Diet (SGFD).  Equally detrimental, we tend to rely heavily on sodas, artificially flavored and artificially sweetened waters, diet drinks, sports drinks (c’mon, unless you REALLY are an athlete, actively participating in an intense sport that is at that moment producing sweat, it's not warranted, and coconut water is a far better source of electrolytes and hydration), cool-aides, and even fruit juices, etc., which not only contain loads of sugar (fructose is still sugar and needs to be balanced with fiber and a protein source at a minimum—and definitely kept to a minimum—water, folks!  Good old WATER!), but also artificial sweeteners, artificial flavors, food dyes, preservatives and high fructose corn syrup.  These are all empty calories that sap the body's energy stores, stress the liver and kidneys (the body's detoxifying organs, which the skin is also a big one--so put only good things on and in), and wreak havoc on a tiny body especially, and even more so, an unborn one.  

If these are things that typically land in your grocery cart, there's so much more to solving the puzzle than simply going gluten free, or than simply looking for the pseudo “whole grains” on processed and packaged foods.  If the nutrients are first stripped from the ingredients, and then must be artificially added back in or "fortified," that’s not real food, and it shouldn’t comprise the majority of anyone’s diet.  

We chose in early infancy not to rely on drugs with our son, and we successfully support behavior issues and improve his function in school with diet and by limiting sugar and avoiding many chemicals that pose as *food*.  We put lots of good things IN, and avoid all the bad we can.  That’s not to say we don’t buy cereal or kid snacks or indulge in pizza, hot dogs (OM Selects—no nitrates or nitrites, which are very bad for the heart, Natural Choice is another option with no nitrates or nitrites), or cupcakes on occasion, but one key thing for my son's wellness is knowing that he requires a good source of animal protein with his carbs, or his body simply can’t process them in a way that allows him to be in control of his choices and his focus.  

Maybe once a week or less, my son used to choose Chex cereal, for instance.  I'd mix that with Perky’s Crunch Flax with Chia to reduce the sugar grams he was getting per serving, and the chia boosts the protein grams.  And no, I didn’t love the GMOs, but sometimes we must pick our battles, it wasn't something he ate daily because VARIETY is our focus, and we balance those carbs with protein, always, especially at breakfast.  We've since compared labels and both reduced sugar grams and chosen a corn cereal that's a member of the Non GMO Project in Enviro-Kidz Amazon Flakes. My son gets a local, farm fresh egg (including duck eggs when they’re available) and some varied source of meat with a SMALL bowl of cereal or with his small serving of gluten-free pancakes (with added milled flax) or waffles with a little pure maple syrup (no HFCS fake stuff of the appealing “Aunt” variety) for breakfast every morning.  He still gets to be a kid, but we’ve always fed him more like an adult and his palate is sophisticated and varied because of it. These are the most important ways I keep my particular kid well, and may be helpful to keep in mind with your kids, too. Ours is a kid who eats a veggie-filled omelet on occasion, breakfast tacos, fish that isn’t breaded, craves salad, eats sautéed spinach, beans, and a variety of vegetables …but not broccoli, and not mushrooms, he hates those, and says, “My taste will never change on mushrooms, Mom.  They’re disgusting!”

PictureIncredible local greens! Coming soon!
There are two more important factors for our family, which I will discuss in my coming book. My son has taken supplements all his life, and in fact since before he was born.  As well, physical activity improves his brain/body connection and self-discipline—for us, Taekwondo has been extremely beneficial.  Once it was safe for him to do so, my husband began working out four days a week.  I was doing a good job walking on a regular basis last fall, and hoped to get back at it as soon as winter released it’s frigid hold on our region (I really need to do it anyway, but motivating myself to exercise alone has always been a huge struggle for me, something I have plans to get your help with in the near future), but I haven't yet managed to make it a priority. I love and miss yoga, and hope to come up with a way to incorporate yoga classes into my life again.

A great deal of my energy goes to grocery shopping, to sourcing and preparing food.  I go to a great deal of thought and effort to incorporate VARIETY into our diet, in particular where carbs are concerned, but we also consciously rotate the meats we eat.  If I get lazy, my son and husband tend to get mild to not-so-mild illnesses. We work hard to eat whole food blends and we vary our intake of brown rice, certified gluten-free oats, organic corn, quinoa, teff, millet, buckwheat, etc. (buckwheat is gluten free and is not related to wheat.  If you're not gluten-free, you can work-in organic sources of 100% whole wheat, spelt, and kamut).  We rotate meatless meals, as well as several meals a week that don’t contain any grains, including experimenting with things like coconut flour and almond meal, and we vary the brands of the products we typically buy.  This practice keeps us all much healthier, and my son hasn’t had an episode of croup in ages.  The last time he did, I knew exactly why.

Does it take thoughtfulness, work and planning?  It does.  Was it difficult to get my husband to participate in these ideas? It was for him personally, but never for our son.  He was always more than willing to do whatever worked best to help our son succeed in school, remain unmedicated, stay well, and he's always supported my experimenting.  There’s nothing like being defibrillated six times, however, to make a man sit up and take notice on his own behalf. I hope that will never be necessary for the ones you love, and I hope I’ve given you something to think about to help keep your family well during cold, flu, and allergy season.

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Be on the lookout for my first GANE Possible Publication, Beating the Statistics: A Mother's Quest to Reclaim Fertility, Halt Autism & Help Her Child Grow from Behavior Failure to Behavior Success. I hope to release it by late fall, 2014.

Yours in Wellness Always,
--Kim Jorgensen Gane, (c) 2014, all rights reserved



UPDATE 07/17/14 -- Happy birthday to ME:  Holy Gluten Free Gravy!! I hope you'll check out my new find, Kelly @KitchenKop (do follow her on Twitter), who is from Grand Rapids, MICHIGAN(!), and her amazing weekly Blog Hop, Real Food Wednesdays! I just joined up, and hope to do a lot more of it in the future! What a powerful network of liberals and conservatives alike=truth seekers in FOOD!


*GANEPossible.com is an anecdotal website and in no way intends to diagnose, treat, prevent or otherwise influence the medical decisions of its readers. I am not a doctor, I do not recommend going off prescribed medications without the advice and approval of a qualified practitioner, and I do not recommend changing your diet or your exercise routine without first consulting your doctor. These are merely my life experiences, and what has and hasn't worked for me and my family. You must be your own best medical advocate and that of your children, and seek to find the practitioner with whom you have the best rapport and in whose advice and care you can entrust your health and medical decisions.
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Flash! Friday: #Flashversary Top 10 and Becoming...a WRITER

12/10/2013

6 Comments

 
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Via Flash! Friday Fiction|Micro fiction contest: Dragon of Halong Bay (Vietnam). Photo by LoggaWiggler.
AUTHOR UPDATE 12/15/13:  I'm so grateful to have received permission from the authors to include my two favorite stories from the wonderful #Flashversary competition that took place recently over at Flash! Friday.  Yvonne Rupert's story, which received a well-deserved Honorable Mention, "Clara's Dragon," suits the empowering message we hope to inspire with the January 2014 Launch of GANEPossible.com, to a T!  Von's story is about a little girl battling nightmares and cancer who chooses a dragon statue in the hospital gift shop, after her "Gramps" told her about them.  Little Clara's dragon proves more than something interesting to look at!  

And I'm equally delighted to introduce my readers to Jacki Donnellan, the WINNER of the #Flashversary competition!!  Jacki's wonderful story of the mysteries of Loch Ness resonated deeply with me.  It brought to mind my maternal grandfather, whose Michigan nickname was "Scotty."  He was English, from the north, and very proud of his feisty Scottish grandfather (lived to be 108--died when he was kicked in the head by the horse he was shoeing--according to family lore).  Though my Gramps would have told his wee lass the boldest of tales, nudged me, and whispered to look up, he was the kind of man who would have fiercely protected the legends, too.  He was born in 1899. Died in 2000. 100 years old, which was precisely his story all along.  It is my grandfather's model for living well that inspires everything I do.  It's what I hope to share and inspire through GANE Possible.  Please enjoy Von's and Jacki's inspiring stories posted below.

No, I'm not a top 10 finalist.  But a dear online friend of mine is, Yvonne Rupert, so I couldn't let the moment pass without recognizing and expressing my gratitude for this weekly contest and what participating in it from time to time has done for me and does for so many others.  Sometimes it's the only creative writing I do all week, which has become so important to my mental health.  This is something I gift myself with when the prompt of the week inspires, as I've posted before.  And btw, Von is also one of our #JudyBlumeProject contributors!  So send her some love & luck!  We sure are!

The beautiful photo prompt that inspired the #Flashversary competition, above, chosen by Rebekah Postupak--our Dragon Lady of Flash!--inspired me, particularly because the very thing that keeps us from writing is so often referred to as our dragon--the roars or whispers that tell us we're not good enough.  It's so difficult to overcome.  But it's important to acknowledge that I've communicated with a LOT of writers over the last two years, and no matter how prolific or profound their writing, WE ALL STILL DOUBT OURSELVES!  Which is why it's so very important, win or not, to try, to learn, to take part, to WRITE.  

I cannot believe the amount of work Rebekah and the judges put into this each week.  My sincerest thanks and congratulations go out to them on how huge it's become in a short year.  It shows how powerful flash fiction is as a writing medium.  What a level playing field it is.  How appealing it is to read.  And I believe it is essential for writers to find contests like this to give ourselves the mental exercise.  To break away from projects we're working on (even if they are creative, sometimes we need a shift), and for me, to dabble creatively, while most of the writing I've been doing lately doesn't feel terribly creative.  

Here was my post in the competition, which had to be 350 words exactly:

Becoming

The dragon becomes the crags in rock, the bow that cuts through still waters, the eagle that soars, the dolphin as it dives, the murderer, the protector, the villain, the hero.

What the dragon can never become is real.

It’s blood will never run, it’s heart will never beat. Conquer it, and it morphs to dust before you. Lest you momentarily forget your vigilance, and it returns for yet another go. To badger, to impale with doubt, to grasp you in its talons and drop you from the clouds to land with a thud and a roll in a cloud of grit that coats your teeth.

The weapon that will momentarily do the deed is ever-changing. What once worked, becomes Excalibur in Uthar’s hands. Fire becomes ice, rich becomes poor, complete becomes a dream that cannot be attained. Only the ruthless survive. The tireless, the bottomless, the feet that continue to climb despite the bloodiest blisters, the hands that feel for the next hold, the next crevice, the next root. The heart that beats with the thump of belief, with rhythm of tides, or flutter of wings.

The weary will try to hide, behind employ or enfant. But the stories will need to be told, the words will sway and swim, creating chaos of mind and of making. They will one day erupt in torrent or tale, in flash or in song, reaching for the page in a shower of sparks against the black of sleepless eve.

When first did you meet your dragon? In a closet of fear? In a classroom of shame? On a field of loss? Or perhaps in a home of desertion? Who’s voice does it own?

Yours must be louder. Yours must ring truer. It is your voice, and yours alone that must own the stories that bellow to be told. For only the life you give your words can silence those of the dragon. Only your imaginings, your make believe or your truth can stop his coal hot breath from stirring the doubt at your nape.

Only your words set free can become Arthur.

350 @KimGANEPossible (Whew!)

To Dream of Legend
by Jacki Donnellan

No matter what happens, they never look up.

The water draws them downwards, without our help. It mesmerises them, with the flipping and flicking of a tail here, a rising head there.

And if ever the water should break and thrash, they may glimpse what they swear is reptilian skin, gleaming and rolling beneath the foam.

And they chatter of the rising and surfacing of what must have been the Monster, picturing her surging up from the deep for a brief, playful gasp of pure Scottish air, and then submerging, to swim once more along the murky loch bed.

They do not look up. They don’t pause, for a moment, to replay in their minds that strange, swift javelin of wind, moments before. They fail even to imagine an invisibly fast, joyful dive, straight from the clouds.

We play our part, of course. It is in our interests, too, to keep their attention focussed on the loch. We gather them around it and sell them our tartan landscape, woven of underwater caves and elongated prehistoric necks. And we take them out onto Loch Ness itself, where they clutch binoculars, and shortbread, and a growing hope, staring down into the opaque black water as if persistent eyes might penetrate what light does not.

Back on land, we’ll add soda to their Scotch. Water onto fire. Beside roaring flames, we’ll bid them relax, and think themselves brave- to contemplate an animal that has swum against the tide of evolution!

But we will not feed them the courage to dream of legend.

We will not carve her pearled, glistening scales on the wet, smooth skin in their minds, nor paint the glint of talons and the arc of wings onto clumsy flippers.

And we leave, uncorrected, the convenience of “Monster.”

We will look up, always, when her soaring presence circles and scorches the skies. And we will forever distract the crowds with weak, watery myths, whenever she desires to plunge and swirl her fiery form through the cool, onyx waters of Loch Ness.

She is more magnificent than this world could ever bear.

Jacki Donnellan is from England. She currently lives in the Netherlands with her husband and two children, where she has begun to fill in all the little spaces in her life with fiction and poetry. You can find her on Twitter @Donnellanjacki
Clara’s Dragon
by Von Rupert

Clara’s mother found her in the gift shop. “Sweetie, you know better! Dr. Lou says you’re not strong enough to leave the floor.”

“Gramps told me about the dragons. I needed to see them.”

The dragons watched from a shelf. The tiny amethyst one spoke first. “I want her.”

The tallest dragon, carved in jade, shook his head. “You’re too young, and she’s far too gone.”

“Don’t say that. I see much life in her eyes.”

The black onyx dragon replied last. “The child will choose. We shall comply.”

Clara studied the figurines. She wished she could hold each of them, but her fingers trembled, and the dragons were too precious. “I want the purple one.”

“Are you sure? Its face is frightening. You’ll have bad dreams.”

Clara’s hands fisted. She had nightmares every night, but her family didn’t like to hear about them. Skeleton wolves ravaged her dreams. Their razor teeth ripped skin from her bald head and tore the veins from her arms. “I want the purple one!”

Her mother grumbled, but bought it for her.

#

After everyone had left, Clara snuggled in the blankets holding her dragon. It purred with warm static. “You’re magic, aren’t you? I’ve smelled toasted marshmallows since I met you downstairs. Will you help me? I can’t fight them alone anymore.”

The dragon glittered to life and filled the room. Clara was not afraid. Dragon wings caressed her scalp, a lullaby encircled her, and she fell asleep. For the first time in years, the wolves were gone.

The next morning, Clara’s family surrounded her bed. The doctor explained, “She’s sleeping so deeply, I wanted you here. It might mean something. “

Clara’s dragon cradled her to sleep every night. In one final dream, the skeleton wolves returned. Their bones fell to the ground like rotted limbs. Clara crushed them beneath her feet.

One month later, Dr. Lou spoke to the family. “Take Clara home for the weekend.” When Clara’s mother began to cry, he hugged her. “Sometimes it happens like that. The immune system suddenly grows stronger. She’s definitely turned the corner.”

Von Rupert is a wife, mom, writer, and podcast producer. She's a writing mentor at Writer's Village University and a member of Write1Sub1.  She blogs at yvonnerupert.blogspot.com.  You can also find her on Twitter @VonRupert.

I am blown away by the power in these beautiful stories, and deeply grateful to Jacki and to Von for allowing me to share them here (and to Rebekah for brokering the deal!).  I hope they, and the stories of so many others, inspire you as they have me, to battle your writing (or any other) dragon if you have one.  I can tell you from experience, it opens up worlds of possibilities and potential.  And I'm only getting started!  Stay tuned....!

If our stories or the photograph prompt above inspired you to recall a memory, to write a story or essay, I invite you to share it in the comments below.  GO!

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What do you hope to GANE in 2014?

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LAUNCHING January 2014!!
Copyright (C) 2013, Kim Jorgensen Gane, All Rights Reserved

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    Kim Jorgensen Gane

    Author|Award-Winning Essayist|Freelance CommercialWriter|
    Empowered Wellness Advocate, Facilitator, Speaker

    Kim is a freelance writer, living and working on Michigan’s sunset coast with her husband, youngest son, a standard poodle and a gecko. She’s been every-mom, raising two generations of kids over twenty-seven years. Kim writes on a variety of topics including parenting  through midlife crisis, infertility, health and wellness, personal empowerment, politics, and about anything else that interests her, including flash fiction and her novel in progress, Bluebirds.  Oh, and this is happening!

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*GANEPossible.com is an anecdotal website and in no way intends to diagnose, treat, prevent or otherwise influence the medical decisions of its readers. I am not a doctor, I do not recommend going off prescribed medications without the advice and approval of a qualified practitioner, and I do not recommend changing your diet or your exercise routine without first consulting your doctor. These are merely my life experiences, and what has and hasn't worked for me and my family. You must be your own best medical advocate and that of your children, and seek to find the practitioner with whom you have the best rapport and in whose advice and care you can entrust your health and medical decisions.


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I Blog with Integrity, please treat my content with integrity: Copyright © 2020, Kimberly Jorgensen Gane, This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License..