I'm Adeli Mell, and this is The Slowdown.

Traveling recently for readings and events has put me back in touch with a few of my favorite

people.

I don't know about you, but what moves me about reuniting with folks I haven't seen

for the last few years is how much we've all changed.

Somehow we just pick up where we left off and laugh and talk about poems and life and

yet something has been forever transformed within us.

We can feel it.

Two of the friends I have seen recently have survived cancer over the last three years.

The conversations turn easily and almost always to gratitude, to being so grateful that

they are healthy, that whatever surgery they needed went well, that they are alive.

But after the smiles and watery eyes that reflect how much they've been through, it's

time to talk about the nitty gritty.

The nitty gritty is how much they actually went through, how hard it was on their partner

or children, or how now their bodies still beautiful and alive and gleaming have changed.

I've never been through something like that and I hesitate to make any comparison to

whatever illness or health challenges I've had, but what I can do is listen.

What is always so remarkable is the little things that they are surprised by, the hair

texture that's changed, the new grays, the way a t-shirt fits, or what they find themselves

worrying over, or not worrying about.

I'm often grateful that they allow us not only to witness what they've been through,

but I'm grateful that they are writers and so they allow us to peek into their world

...