My friends, it feels so good to be back. It has been far too long since my last post, but then it has been as long as it needed to be for me to be inspired to live out loud again. I apologize for the abrupt departure with no explanation, but life happened, and I was not in a place where I felt like I could serve others in the way that I’d like to, until I cared for myself fully.
2016 was a year of trials. In February I found a lump on my left breast and while I was preparing myself emotionally with a trip to a spa with my sister ahead of the lumpectomy to biopsy it, my husband called to tell me that water was flooding from a pipe that burst in our son’s room on the second floor through the ceiling into the kitchen, family room and bathroom on the first floor. It was overwhelming as four rooms were ripped to their studs in order to be dried out and rebuilt … all while I was recuperating from surgery. Thank God, the lump was benign.
Then in June, I found another larger lump on my right breast. At first I felt like I was being over cautious, and it was probably fatty tissue as before, but this one felt different and I started the process again. This time my outcome was much different and I was diagnosed with Stage 1 Lobular Carcinoma. Fortunately it was very treatable and after another surgery and several months of radiation, I can gratefully say I am cancer free.
Some people are very good at sharing their experiences with the world and teaching as they are learning, but this was not a comfortable path for me. I tried and even posted my last post in August during radiation and the reconstruction of our home, but I could not keep it up.
For the first time in my adulthood, I needed to stop everything and go inward and heal. And after two years of letting go, of going inward, of letting others move on without me, of listening to my intuition, and of allowing my friends and family to help, I finally feel pulled to teach again. I know from past experiences that we all grow from our challenges, and that a large part of this healing is about feeling our feelings and filling the spaces of fear with love and faith, and I am so blessed to share this wisdom with you as I return to teach rebuilding your resilience and regaining your brilliance.
Today as a first step I share with you this beautiful quote from Joan Borysenko.
The message that underlies healing is simple yet radical: We are already whole.... Underneath our fears and worries, unaffected by the many layers of our conditioning and actions, is a peaceful core. The work of healing is peeling away the barriers of fear that keep us unaware of our true nature of love, peace, and rich interconnection with the web of life. Healing is the rediscovery of who we are and who we have always been.
I feel blessed and honored to return to this sacred space of sharing and begin again on this journey of rediscovery by your side.