When I was really nervous and panicking about my ‘lump’ and the biopsy to determine it’s malignancy or not, I decided to follow something I read in the multimillion best-selling book ‘The Secret’ by Rhonda Byrne.  A lady, who had been diagnosed with breast cancer decided to laugh.  And laugh a lot.  She watched comedy after comedy and laughed and believed the laughter and light heartedness would ease her discomfort and fear.  In the end, it cured her.

 

Rather unbelievable.  But apparently true.  Another miracle, where love conquers fear.

 

I decided to do the same.  I cooked and laughed as therapy.  And for some reason, Netflix thought I would enjoy a series called ‘Grace and Frankie’.

 

Netflix was right; through the American Jewish obvious humour, there was (and still is) something that makes me laugh out loud to myself, alone and in the kitchen with no shame.  Today, I realised why and what it is that makes me laugh.

 

Frankie and Grace are both sides of my personality, reacting to a situation they never saw coming.  Thrust together by the turn of events that found their husbands falling in love 20 years in to their respective 40 year marriages.

 

At first, they battle and fight through their personality clashes:  Grace and her somewhat endearing snobbish behaviour clinging desperately onto the professionalism of her youth, reflecting her life as a business owner and upper class status; her vulnerability, naivety shrouded and masked by her pearls, perfect hair and clothes but clear from her obsession with her image and controlling dietary requests.  Frankie and her ‘hippie’ chanting, magic herbs and potions, healthy, wholesome eating, rituals and routines, vlogging as therapy and her creative life as an artist leading you to believe she is a little ‘coo coo’ but she is wise, grounded and in touch with her authentic self.

 

It doesn’t take the two highly different women long to discover that they work well together, they support each other in different ways; the voice of reason and practicality, the quiet of compassion and calm and the sense of fun and joy in the small things.  They make a good team.

 

As I realise the parallels and similarities of their personalities to my ‘split personality’, I recognise that two parts of me that make me my whole.  And I should stop fighting myself internally and just like Grace and Frankie, make myself my best friend.