Entries Tagged 'Personal News' ↓

By: Suzanne Maiden

It’s nearly the New Year and I traditionally like to tidy up lose ends.  I am naturally organized, except for lately, things (papers, study materials, academic books etc.) seem to stack up like snowfall during a winter storm.  I like a structured environment to perform at my optimum; I’m not neurotic but I focus better.  So in that effort - well to get it together for the New Year, I’m going through my emails… 

I’m sorting through my 1234 emails.  I found some feedback from listeners.  Any feedback I receive I am grateful.  Even negative feedback lets me know that someone is out there in podcast land and listening.  It stokes my motivation to keep pushing through the pain-in-the-booty factor to produce shows.  Thanks to each and everyone of you who contribute to any of the three shows I do:  1)  http://www.InsytWorks.com, 2) http://TheDivaCast.com, and of course 3) http://www.DearZanny.com.  Below are some comments from listeners:     

Hi Robin and Susan,

I just listened to your InsytWorks podcast on the subject of Elliot Spitzer and prostitution. You and Susan are remarkably talented. Please don’t misinterpret this, but if Loren Michaels (the produce of Saturday Night Live) got wind of you two, you’d be able to buy your own airliner! Again, I am not being condescending in any sense, I think you guys are incredibly articulate and passionate about your subject matter and I can also appreciate the seriousness of the topic. I happen to love satire, however, and I found quite a bit of humor in your exchange. Susan is remarkably bright and witty. I enjoyed it very much and again, I hope you don’t take offense to my comments. I also hope that Susan is fairing well with her cancer. All the best, Tom

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Hi Suzanne!  I discovered your show a few months ago and am totally caught up on all of your episodes now.  Thanks to you and your husband for putting it out.  I am a counselor on a long maternity leave (I had two babies close together, so I am taking 2 years off to enjoy babyhood).  I come from a very cognitive-behavioral background, so your show is stretching my mind.  I really enjoyed your topical discussions of grief and self-mutilation.  My suggestion is this:  I would love to hear more topical discussions from a depth perspective (ex - domestic violence explained from a depth psych perspective).  Thanks for all you both do.  Oh - I am also a huge fan of the Diva Cast (even though I am only 28).  It is very encouraging to hear ladies in a life stage ahead of me with so much zest for life and career.  It reminds me that there is life again after babies.  
Much appreciation for what you do - Katherine from McKinney, TX

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Note from Mama Whyte!: I Love all of your podcasts!  I listen to them religiously!
You are such an amazing girl, and a true diva
~ Chrissy

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Dear Suzanne & Robin,First I want to say I’ve become such a fan of your podcasts.  I listen to TheDivaCast, Insyt Works, and now Dear Zanny!  Of course I also listen to Carrie’s Words to Mouth.  I am listening to an old Insyt podcast on Being Loving.  Suzanne, I was so surprised to hear that someone would ever think you are being superficial or that you may need to win them over.  I’ve always been drawn to the authenticity and wisdom of what you share.  It was so helpful to me today to hear you say that when you are being loving and someone can still have a strong or visceral reaction directed at you.  I can completely identify with that.  Anyway, all that to say what you said today really resonated with me.  Thank you!Oh, also I will be going on the Manic Mommies Cruise (feeling like a bit of a podcast stalker now - please do not misinterpret -I have a very long commute and you all keep me entertained!)  Kindest regards, Angela

By:  Suzanne Maiden

I swore I would NEVER do THAT to my body - hahahahahahha.  The Universe has such a wonderfully wicked and playful sense of humor.  Because now, after a rare, nasty, mean-spirited cancer that left me with a 13″ scar from my right spine over my right hip into my right groin… I want one.  I want a tattoo. 

Me, a tattoo?  My family does not do tattoos.  My mother had me destined to become a debutante!  But, instead of donning silver slippers, I selected steel-toed combat boots.  Because much to my parents horror, I did not become a debutante, I enlisted in the US Air Force.  And even as an Active Duty military person I never considered a tattoo.  Odd how life reconfigures us and our story.

Now, when I look at my disfigured, scarred body, I think, “I need something to ritualize this experience…”  I conclude the ancient Greek Ouroboros (the serpent consuming it’s own tail) would be the perfect metaphor for me.  Why?  Because the Ouroboros represents the cyclical nature of life and death over and over.  Several months prior to my initial cancer diagnoses, I dreamed of serpents.  They obsessively slithered into my nightly dream life.  I hated them.  But, what I later learned, is the serpent is a powerful symbol of healing. 

Christianity has given the snake a bad rap.  Many indigenous cultures still regard the serpent as the creature who comes from below to bring primordial knowledge.  Even Christianity must give credit to the serpent.  Because, without the snake Adam and Eve would have remained in the Garden of Eden.  Without the serpent - they would have never become conscious.  The serpent brings consciousness to us, to our lives, to our inner conflicts.  If you’re unfamiliar with the Ouroboros, just look at my website header on the right is a shadow of the Ourboros. 

If I am to mark my flesh, it must represent something spiritually significant.  The serpent is a spiritual icon for me.  A friend of mine suggested perhaps having the serpent slither around the entire 13″ scar… what a lovely and apropos image  for me.  This is analogous to out modern day medical symbol for healing - the caduceus which portrays double inter-twinned snakes around the staff.

I still dream of snakes.  Sometimes I’m in the center with serpents in a circle surrounding me.  Each one, individually approaches me and has secret wisdom to impart - but alas, I do not speak serpent language.  The patient, primordial, cold- blooded creatures continue coming to me.  Sometimes they dance with me.  I know something big is approaching me when they begin to appear in my dream world again.  I had a long respite from dream serpents.  Then, weeks before I was diagnosed with more cancer, they slithered into my night psyche again.  This time, the white snake was prominent.  The white snake is the hero of a well known Russian Fairy tale.  The white snake brings wisdom to the king of the land.  I should be so fortunate.

So, once again, I am reminded to never say “never.”  Or, the Universe creates an experience to challenge me.  Here I sit contemplating not if, I should get a tattoo, but how I want it to look.  For me, it is a personal symbol.  I do not do it for anyone else’s eyes but my own. 

What do you think of tattoos?  Would you ever get one?  Call me: 678-884-0524.      

DearZanny, Manic Mommies and Words-To-Mouth will set sail to the Bahamas Nov 7-10 on Carnival’s Imagination.  Manic Mommies successful Internet talk show is hosting this excursion for mommies to escape and rejuvenate.  Manic Mommies podcast is hosted by two Massachusetts working moms ~ Kristin and Erin.  Manic Mommies are real, relevant, and really funny.  Manic Mommies validate and affirm every mom’s day-to-day challenges.  Their huge fan base of loyal listeners will have a rip-roaring fun time.  This ‘Manic Mommies’ getaway is sold out! 

Zanny (that would be me) will present on ‘Intimacy, Sex, and Communications in Your Relationship’ on one day, facilitate a dream workshop the following (bring me your dreams!) with a final ‘Ask Zanny ANYTHING’ open mic Q&A on Sunday evening.  While Carrie  creator of Words-To-Mouth podcast, “Where readers meet authors beyond the printed page…” will host a discussion about various authors and their books.  And, as usual - Carrie will do free book give aways!  Both Carrie and Zanny also co-create TheDivaCast.

This Manic Mommies Getaway on Carnival Cruise is sponsored by: Sara Lee, Saturn, Land’s End, and Quinny. 

By: Suzanne Maiden

Hey Everybody:

I would so appreciate your suggestions.  I am putting together a media kit for potential sponsors - and I need your help.  If you have a particular DearZanny show that you think is good, or even a part of a show - will you please let me know which show and where specifically?  Or, if there is a show you think really stinks, I’m open to hearing that too. 

The DearZanny show has not been officially launched yet, and inspite of no promotional work, I am grateful to see some nice statistics and a steadily growing audience.  I know you’re out there! : )  The ‘Verbal Abuse’ epdisode had over 4,300 hits - impressive for a new podcast.  I really appreciate your efforts, feedback, interactions and support.

Please leave me a vm @ 678-884-0524, or comment on the box below, or just email me: Zanny@DearZanny.com     

By: Suzanne Maiden

None of us know when will die.  Most of us don’t know how we will die.  When someone has a catastrophic disease, this awareness is acutely activated.  I am living on borrowed time.  I am a two-time cancer survivor.  For whatever reason, my body grows deadly tumors.  So far, my oncologist has successfully cut them out; he has been able to do this because the tumors were not attached to any significant needed-to-live organs.  Continue reading →

by: Suzanne Maiden

My body is no longer beautiful.  I am disfigured.  Cancer surgery to remove a fist-sized tumor that attached itself to my lower spine, hip, and back of my stomach muscle - left my body rearranged.  What a humbling, deflating reality.  My right hip is significantly bigger than my left because the surgeon stuffed “live” tissue into the gaping hole the tumor left.  Who knew you just can’t take a big tumor out without replacing it with something else?  The doctor took my right stomach muscle and wrapped if over the hip area.  And, because I don’t have that muscle anymore, the right side of my stomach sticks out more than the left.  

When I wear dresses or skirts, the right hem is always higher than the left side.  I look like I’m constantly standing with my left knee bent and right hip jutting out.  I’m cockeyed.  For someone who loves clothes this really stinks.  Of course, I could pay to have everything altered.  It’s a cruel twist to be robbed of something you’ve kept up and taken care of.  But the oxymoron is it must be exactly what I needed.  Continue reading →

I watched him get out of a new pick-up truck.  He wore a black Harley-Davidson t-shirt and blue jeans with scuffed brown leather boots with rounded toes.  His slicked-backed silver hair matched the several ounces of sterling jewelry that adorned his beefy frame.  His face, from what I could see of it, under the gray sunglasses, looked younger than his hair suggested.  He walked towards me, unsmiling.  I was fighting to lift a filled cooler of ice and beer into the back of my Jeep Wrangler.  I purchased cold drinks for my brother and his fiance who were in the middle of do-it-yourself-move into their new home.  The thermometer read 90 and the humidity made my curly hair exponentially expand.  It was a typical Georgia summer day.  Warm sweat trickled down my spine.  Maybe my all white athletic shorts and fitted t-shirt wasn’t the best choice - I felt like a wilted flower.  He walked closer.  

Continue reading →

 

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I’ve been MIA the last two months - I had a cancer recurrence, surgery, then off to a healing retreat in Eagle Nest, NM for a week.  I just returned several days ago and have been catching up with my clients.  Thanks for hanging in there with me.  I recieved multiple emails and voice mails - which really inspire me to keep going!  I prefer voice mails because it makes the show more interesting, but emails are great too.Listen and leave me a voice mail!

*Talk To Me!  Call me: 678-884-0524, or Listen by cell phone: 1-801-823-1125 

Email me:  Zanny@DearZanny.com.  Do you need relationship advice?  Call Zanny. Let’s talk!  Help make this show more interesting by leaving a voice mail.  

*Disclaimer:  Dear Zanny is for entertainment purposes only.  Any advice suggestions are never intented to substitute proffessional help.  For legal reasons, I will not answer e-mails directly but will use them on a future show so listen and subscribe to have DZ automagically delivered to you.

This recent episode of surgery to remove a possible cancer recurrence makes me examine my life and where my time and energy goes.  I have my own bucket list of things I want to accomplish before I kick it.  Although I had cancer 8 years ago, the enthusiasm for “living every day as if it’s your last” well, doesn’t last - at least for me.  I did well for a while and completed several things.  I finished graduate school, my writings were published several times, and I delved deeper into my spirituality. 

Now it’s time to create a new list.  I want to learn to play classical piano, and maybe even guitar - I have a gift for music, and haven’t taken all that seriously, but I’m ready.  I want to fly again.  I learned how to fly in the high dessert of CA and reached solo status.  I quit when money ran out, and later my brother was killed in a plane crash… but living close to a community airport and seeing and hearing the small planes, either Cessna’s, or a Piper Cub, and especially open cockpit bi-planes with their big radial engines makes my heart race.  I don’t desire to learn aerobatics like before, now I just want to buzz the neighbors… : )

Thanks for sharing this journey with me.  I’d enjoy hearing what’s on your bucket list!  Please email me, or call:  678-884-0524.  Namste~

So many listeners have offered up lovely words of encouragement .  Your messages are routed to my personal email and when I read them, my heart skips a little at your tender expressions of support.  My upcoming surgery and possible cancer recurrence bring paradoxical feelings.  That is, part of me wants to go inward and carry my private thoughts.  Yet this other part of me must write.  The only way I can overcome my tendency for privacy is to imagine that I’m writing to a trusted friend.  Otherwise my vulnerable, critical self will hit the delete button. 

As a Jungian Therapist, I recognize that my need to write validates C.G. Jung’s “witness” theory.  We need another/s to witness our journey…  that’s why therapy is so healing.  Even if it’s just one person, holding the sacred space and bearing witness to our suffering without judgement promotes healing at the very depth of our psyche.  Right now I must write.  It’s as if some enormous internal energy needs a voice.  So fasten your seat-belts because I am about to disclose my most personal and intimate feelings of being a cancer patient… Continue reading →

Muhammad Ali was with me during a challenging time in my life.  He hung out in my hospital room after I had cancer surgery.  Nope, I was not hallucinating from the drugs.  He visited me daily and told me jokes.  My multiple layers of 150 staples and sutchers holding my 13″ incision together made laughing painful.  But, between the morphine and Muhammad I did.  Muhammad’s grace and charisma transcend his Parkinsonian symptoms.   Muhammad and I were the only two patients on the floor.  When I was finally forced to get out of bed and walk down the hall, I prayed my bare bottom was not in full bloom!  He never mentioned it… 

Muhammad’s visits encouraged and inspired me.  His strength gave me strength.  Between his trembling hands and shuffled gate I felt such compassion for his physical state.  But, the oxymoron to his diminishing physical health was his eyes.  Oh, his eyes were dark, intimidating pools of power.  Muhammad’s eyes held such intelligence and strength that I felt very, very vulnerable on many levels.  His eyes seared right into mine without hesitation or apology.  He missed nothing.  This man could quickly size up his opponent and act without fear.  Yet, there he stood, next to my bed telling me jokes.  I wish I could remember them.  His delightful humor made me forget my sense of feeling emotional naked.  We easily laughed with each other.  Continue reading →

I’m engaged in some self-care and taking a mental health break.  Robin and I flew to Aruba this week for some R&R.  We’re staying at the luxurious  Occidental Grand Aruba.  The warm weather is a welcome respite to the cold rain we left behind.  The balmy breeze continuously whispers in my ears while the Caribbean waters beckon me daily.  I love the primal beauty of the tropics - the iguanas, palm trees, and grandfather ocean.  I just checked my emails and noticed some new comments.  I thank you, my listeners, for taking your time and energy to respond.  How great that you feel so impassioned about a topic to reply!  Continue reading →

I will be arriving in Ontario, Ca. on Friday. If you would like to get together, please email me at zanny@dearzanny.com

I am going! I hope to see you there.