A BAND OF MOTHERS

May 9th is Mother’s Day. Being raised as an Army Brat gave me insights into the inner sanction of female friendship that others may never have experienced, until now. With my father constantly off defending our country on foreign soil with his Band of Brothers, the wives who were left behind protected each other and became a Band Of Mothers. Age, rank, education and personal gain was secondary to mutual support. Even if you were childless, you became a part of that special group. Although my mother passed on more than 12 years ago, I find that I am not alone. Now, as a grown woman wading through the sea of Internet information, I am meeting a new Band of Mothers who have taken me under their wing to help me spread my story about surviving recurrent cancer.

We have all read articles or books on the positive aspects of the Internet’s social networking with its capability to spread information using viral networking. I want to tell you about another aspect of the Internet—It’s ability to connect with strangers in far-away-places allowing friendships to grow despite the limitations of daily life, time and distance. In an age of Internet overload, these friendships are priceless and may be a key to success on many levels. Differences between the groups are secondary to their main purpose, mutual support.
Large Internet groups reach wide ranges and numbers of readers. Groups with blog sites such as the spiritually minded Jason’s Network http://jasonsnetwork.com/PsychicHealing/,combined with writer specific sites like Scribblerati http://liakeyes.ning.com/main/index/addContent?xg_source=msg_wel_network and WRITER’S DIGEST COMMUNITY http://writersdigest.ning.com/profile/KathleenOKeefeKanavos http://writersdigest.ning.com/ allows writers to post their work with like-minded readers.

Articles shared with e-magazines such as Colette Baron Reid’s Intuitive Now http://www.colettebaronreid.com/intuitivenow , CapeWomenOnlineMagazine http://www.capewomenonline.com/, and ConnectionsForWomen http://c4women.ning.com are instrumental in circulating content on a grander scale.
However, single friends are as important as large groups because they reach individual hearts that set viral networking in motion on a different scale—re-tweeting on Twitter and sharing websites distributes information exponentially.
Radio host Hailey Wiseman http://www.haileywiseman.com/blessings-for-your-soul spread my story over the airwaves, while fellow author Pamela Ferris-Olson blogged and wrote articles about me and invited me to join her “Tribe” of women who promote each other’s work http://www.livingintheheartland.com/.
I have not experienced emotional support of this magnitude since I was a little girl, surrounded by my Band of Mothers, as we celebrated Mother’s Day in our backyards. The feeling is the same. It was impossible to be afraid or to feel alone when surrounded by so much support.

However, my latest internet friend, Catherine Anne Clark, has gone beyond my wildest dreams by promoting my story as a Woman of Action in A Celebration Of Women.

http://www.acelebrationofwomen.ca/?p=6512

If you are a woman reading this article Happy Mother’s Day and welcome to the Internet’s Band of Mothers by joining me on FaceBook, http://www.facebook.com/people/Kathleen-Okeefe-Kanavos/1345885644 LinkedIn- http://www.linkedin.com/myprofile?trk=hb_tab_pro and Twitter @ http://twitter.com/PsychicHealing and my website @www.survivingcancerlande.com