Things have been moving extremely fast in geishaland today. It started out as a quiet invitation to a few of my friends to help another friend in need pay for hosting. Posted on the Sanctuary page you’ll find the details about the situation concerning The Butterfly Temptress, but I’d like to expand upon that, and make some announcements, give some thanks, and tell you about some future plans.

I am touched and humbled by the generosity of others. It reminds me that the spirit of giving and helping someone in need is alive and well, that when it really matters, people can and do come together for something larger than themselves. These things and ideas have always been a part of what I do here at lazy geisha; that kindness, friendship, sisterhood, compassion, and love are everywhere, so I want to first thank the many angels who have already pledged and donated to my first request for help.

No one ever likes to be in the position to need something from anyone, especially strangers. It strikes a blow to our dignity to admit that we need help, and then to accept that help when offered, but dignity and pride are sometimes all we have when we’re confronted with something that slowly destroys the body such as cancer. We want to be able to hold our head high, even as the hair falls out. We want to be able to seek out the best doctors, the best treatments, even as the health insurance industry throws up every obstacle it can think of in our way. Human life it seems often comes down to a balance sheet.

Let me tell you a bit about my friend… She’s a 30 year old woman, a mother, a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, a nurse, a victim of human papillomavirus, and now, a cancer patient. It started out as cervical cancer, but treatment so far hasn’t been able to stop it from spreading throughout her body, including to her brain. Her best chance now is a very aggressive plan of IV chemotherapy combined with radiation, and the truth is, we don’t know if she’s going to make it to 31… she’s just a baby, and she has babies. 30 years are not enough to live.

Life often comes down to making difficult choices, so when it came time to pay for hosting on her site, she just simply couldn’t afford it and she had to let it go. As a woman who writes, I cannot tell you how vital having a place, just a little space where you can leave a piece of yourself and share that with others really is. It’s so important. So when I asked people to help me in raising the money to get her site back online, the response was overwhelming, and I felt that by sharing this with others, we might also be able to raise a sick woman’s spirits and let her know that she’s not alone, and that people really do care. It’s worked, thank you.

Because my initial appeal to help The Butterfly Temptress get her site back up and running received such a response from the few people I told about the problem, I feel that I can, must, and want to do more, but I don’t want to outright ask people to help (tho you can if you want to!) – so I’m announcing that next Friday, September 7th, I’m going to hold The Butterfly Sisterhood Auction here on lazy geisha with all proceeds going directly to her to help pay for not only hosting, but to help defer some of the costs of cancer treatment, because like so many other Americans, she too does not have health insurance simply because she’s too sick to work.

If you read here in geishaland you likely already know that I review many of the latest sex toys available, and quite frankly, I’ve got a lot of brand new toys sitting in boxes that have never been used simply because they’re duplicates. All of them will be offered up for auction, including some great items from LELO, OhMiBod, California Exotics and Phallix. Whispers Media has also donated some great CDs to the cause (thankyou,thankyou!), and I’m collecting some other items such as a leather whip and a pair of thigh high leather boots, some artwork, iTunes gift cards and anything else we can find to put on the block! I’m really excited about this and I think we can make a real difference in one person’s life.

This is important to me, and I sincerely appreciate the many angels who opened their wings and their hearts today to help. One of my girlfriends is letting me use her PayPal account for the auction and for donations, but I’m still trying to figure out how to get it all set up for this, so thanks for your patience. I hope we have it all figured out by next Friday!

Any ideas, suggestions, comments, or if you’d like to donate items to the auction, or if you’d like to help directly or if you’d like to be a corporate sponsor in exchange for promotion, please speak up and comment or email me. I’m open to all possibilities because I’ve never done anything like this before in my life!

I’ve been banging the gong about HPV and women’s health for a while now, and these are the reasons why; so that none of us ever have to go thru what my beautiful Butterfly is going thru.

Thanks so much to those who have already given so much, and we’ll see you at the auction!

Aishiteru wa!

Update - We’ve raised the money to pay for hosting! Thank you so much!