{"id":159,"date":"2012-11-05T06:48:30","date_gmt":"2012-11-05T06:48:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/?p=159"},"modified":"2014-01-22T11:01:12","modified_gmt":"2014-01-22T11:01:12","slug":"getting-found","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/getting-found\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting Found"},"content":{"rendered":"

When was the last time you were lost?<\/p>\n

Elaine Mansfield found me in the tiny kitchen just off the oncology unit at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, New York. It was in the spring of 2008. Marika and I were just entering the labyrinth of cancer as Elaine and her husband, Vic, were exiting that daunting world of hospitals, doctors and drugs. Our paths intercepted again three years later at a memoir reading group offered by Jill Swenson at Swenson Book Development. Elaine recognized me right away. It took a few seconds but then I remembered the aromatic curried greens with garlic she\u2019d heated up in the microwave at the hospital. Back then, I was so lost that my brain required strong sensory input to record or remember anything.<\/p>\n

Two weeks ago, Elaine and I went on a walk. In her woods, with our dogs. She showed me the peaceful spot where Vic\u2019s ashes are buried. And soon after, we got lost.<\/p>\n

With GPS and cell phones and suburban sprawl, there isn\u2019t much opportunity to get lost these days. So I wasn\u2019t too worried.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I feel like I\u2019m not taking good care of you,\u201d says Elaine.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re giving me a gift \u2013 an adventure,\u201d I say. Anyone who reads my blog regularly, knows I can embrace a broken nose, getting a speeding ticket or replacing an old refrigerator as a gift.<\/p>\n

Elaine\u2019s dog, Willow, lead the way. I followed Elaine. It seems Elaine is always a few steps ahead of me. She has just finished writing a memoir about her remarkable time with her husband and is almost ready to find a publisher. My own manuscript is not quite in its final polished state. We talk about all the things we need to do to attract readers and interest in our work. We lose track of the time and where we are going.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have that effect on people,\u201d I tell her. \u201cThis isn\u2019t the first time I\u2019ve disoriented someone.\u201d I pull on Suki\u2019s leash to get her to stop pulling me.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy don\u2019t you let her off the leash?\u201d Elaine asks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to lose her. She\u2019ll charge after a deer or a squirrel and end up two counties away and I\u2019ll never find her again,\u201d I say.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou stay here while I go see if that\u2019s the right trail,\u201d Elaine says. This is the second time we try this. It puzzles me how, both times, Elaine finds me again, not retracing her steps but by walking clear around so as to approach me from a whole different direction.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Willow could talk we\u2019d have no problem,\u201d I say, nodding towards Elaine\u2019s gracefully bounding dog. \u201cI don\u2019t believe Willow\u2019s lost; she\u2019s just enjoying an extended romp in her woods.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0302\"<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Were we lost? We\u2019d certainly walked a few times around in circles over the fallen leaves that camouflaged our trail. But I was not lost that day in the woods; I was with my friend, Elaine. Lost is the day I found out Marika had leukemia and I couldn\u2019t imagine what lay ahead of us. Lost is not knowing \u201cWhat\u2019s Next,\u201d whether it be in the landscape that surrounds you or in your life in general. In the woods that day, we knew where we\u2019d be by evening. And we both knew we had long journeys before us as we begin to launch our memoirs and find peace in our new lives. Maybe lost is not having a \u201cNext\u201d that we can see and share, like our loved ones we say \u201cwe lost.\u201d Lost is not necessarily a bad state to be in or something to fear. One can be lost in one\u2019s work or lost in love. Lost could be a heavy sick Marika Warden’s dog, Suki, a Havanese, lost in the leaves in the forestsinking\u00a0 feeling but it was lovely there with the yellow leaves all over the forest floor, reflecting a warm golden light.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to stay on this side of the stream,\u201d Elaine says. \u201cThat\u2019s my neighbor\u2019s barn, we don\u2019t want to go there.\u201d She wasn\u2019t lost. She knew we were somewhere in her back yard. She just couldn\u2019t find the path that was so obscured by the beautiful bright blanket of fallen leaves.<\/p>\n

Almost three hours from the start of our walk, we finally find ourselves back at Elaine\u2019s cozy home and she sets out hot welcoming soup made from her garden. We find we have a lot in common. We find five tics on Suki. We are being found by more and more people who want to read our stories. And hopefully, when we are ready, our books will be found by publishers who are excited about what we have to say.<\/p>\n

Visit Elaine Mansfield\u2019s blog\u00a0 at\u00a0 www.elainemansfield.com for information and stories about love, health and healing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When was the last time you were lost? Elaine Mansfield found me in the tiny kitchen just off the oncology unit at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, New York. It was in the spring of 2008. Marika and I were just entering the labyrinth of cancer as Elaine and her husband, Vic, were exiting that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-24"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}