Tag: Love

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November 26 health addendum

I’m sure it won’t come as a surprise to learn that I’m particularly grateful for some very specific things this Thanksgiving season.

  1. I’m grateful for my primary care physician — Amy Nielsen at Sierra Family Medical Center — for connecting the dots that led to my cancer diagnosis a little less than a year ago.
  2. I’m grateful for the excellent care I received at Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital, in the oncology, radiation, and infusion departments.
  3. I’m grateful for every person on the apheresis and bone marrow transplant teams at UC Davis Medical Center.
  4. I’m grateful for Dr. Lena Suhaila, my naturopathic integrative oncologist, and for her guidance in addressing the more subtle and holistic aspects of healing. 
  5. I’m grateful for every single doctor, specialist, nurse, lab technician, pharmacist, or other medical professional I encountered throughout my journey.
  6. I’m grateful for the hundreds of people from around the world, and from every area (and era) of my life, who prayed, sent encouraging letters and emails, or otherwise supported my process.
  7. I’m grateful for the teachings and practices of my spiritual path that provided the tools I needed to maintain a positive and optimistic attitude.
  8. I’m grateful for the music of Ananda which has been an important part of my healing process.
  9. I’m grateful for the financial assistance from many organizations and individuals that allowed me to focus on healing without stressing about the expense.
  10. Last but not least, I’m grateful for Ramesha, for my Dad, and for my friend, Suzanne. They’ve been my rocks throughout this experience and, in my Dad’s case, throughout my life. 

I also want to take this opportunity to let everyone know that I’m doing extremely well physically. It’s true that I still have to be careful to avoid viral infections (as my immune system comes fully back online), but my energy is so good that the only other “danger” I have to guard against is slipping back into “normal” mode too quickly. 

Why? Because my usual tendency has always been to neglect the subtle and holistic self-care elements that can lead to deeper levels of healing. And I feel one of the major lessons of this whole experience has been to wake me up to the absolute importance of true self-care. So, I’m working on it!

I love and appreciate each and every one of you, and hope you’ve enjoyed a blessed Thanksgiving, filled with an abundance of love and joy.

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The love choir

Our Ananda Village choir resumed rehearsals this week after an extended pandemic hiatus and several failed comeback attempts. We’re hoping and praying that this time choir is back for good!

Although Ramesha and I aren’t there to participate yet, we’re thrilled to know it’s happening. And even more thrilled to receive this photo of everyone sending us love.

How sweet is that?!?

We can’t wait to be singing with our beloved choir family once again.

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Accepting and embracing it all

This was the message I received on my Momentum Dash the other day. Not surprisingly, it made me think about, not just the current challenges I’m facing, but how best to approach living in general and life itself.

I believe it’s basic human nature to want to deny and reject experiences that we find painful, difficult, or uncomfortable; I’ve done it myself time and time again throughout my lifetime. But it’s contractive, which is not a good strategy for actually rising above those experiences.

In order to accept and wholeheartedly embrace what in front of us — no matter how painful or difficult or uncomfortable — we have to raise our energy, draw on inner strength, listen to intuition, and be open and receptive to all kinds of help.

And that’s expansive, which is our best, most excellent strategy for creating a life experience filled with love, joy, peace, and abundance.

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Choose well

Thanks to The Wise You for the meme

I find this fascinating. All extremely common words, but it would never in a million years have occurred to me to compare the number of letters in each one.

But I’m grateful that it occurred to someone (thank you, whoever you are), because it has caused me to reflect on how important it is to choose rightly.

So along those lines: I choose love, friends, and truth; I choose to be positive; I choose to rise above and to live in joy; I choose to be happy; I choose what is right; and I choose to heal.

And so it is.

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Sending love to Gardenia

From GoFundMe account: “Photo of Gardenia pre-accident and shining bright. Hold this image of her vibrant and healed.”

Talk about duality.

Yesterday I shared a photo of a beautiful little girl blissfully embracing Divine Mother in the form of a statue of the Virgin Mary.

Today a friend shared the GoFundMe link of a little girl who suffered serious burns after catching fire while standing too close to a propane heater.

I don’t know the little girl, Gardenia, or her family, although they live in our general area.

What I do know is how overwhelming it felt getting the cancer diagnosis and navigating all the details of treatment and finances, and becoming familiar with the realities of the medical system and its lingo.

And that was with me feeling well, Ramesha having flexibility in his schedule to accompany me to virtually every appointment, and the tremendous support of our worldwide community.

I cannot begin to imagine how this family is coping, with Gardenia undergoing constant surgeries and intense medical care, while they have two other small children to care for at home, and with all the driving back and forth they’ll have to do for months and years.

Not to mention the trauma this little girl has gone, and is going, through. It breaks my heart.

I realize there are so many people suffering in the world right now, but Gardenia has been brought to my attention and I feel compelled to do what I can to help. So, I’m sharing her story.

If you feel to donate, great. If you feel to share, perfect. If you feel to pray for Gardenia and her family, wonderful.

There’s even the option of checking out their Amazon Wishlist of various foods, medicines and other forms of nourishment and comfort.

Most important of all, let’s channel Divine Mother’s love to Gardenia.

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Feeling the love of Divine Mother

Today a friend shared this photo, taken during Springtime at Ananda in Crystal Hermitage Gardens.

I found it so completely precious that I had to share it here.

But really, the picture says it all. I have nothing to add.

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Family love

I overcame my phone resistance today and was rewarded with a lovely chat with my dad and sister.

I’m not sure why I have such a hard time picking up the phone and calling people I love, but I’ve been that way pretty much forever.

Oh well. 🤷‍♀️

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My current favorite people

Jyotish and Devi have been on fire in their classes this Inner Renewal Week.

They express so much wisdom, love, and joy in their every word and action, it’s a thrill to be in the room with them.

And most wondrous of all, is being able to call such great souls our friends.

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A humbling experience

I would never have guessed that receiving this much love, this much support, this much attention would be such a humbling experience.

But it is.

In fact, I’m beginning to think this is the first big lesson — test, even — of my health journey.

The fact is that I’m not all that comfortable with lots of attention. Of course, if I say that to someone, they’re surprised, because I’m obviously quite comfortable standing up in front of lots of people and performing.

But you see, when I’m performing, it’s not about me; it’s about the music and that makes all the difference.

So, I understand that a big part of my job right now is to focus on being open and receptive to the blessings that are pouring in from all sides.

I’m concentrating on breathing it all in and accepting that God really does love me this much.

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Happy Valentine’s Day

I can hardly believe it, but today was the eighteenth Valentine’s Day I’ve shared with Ramesha.

For our first Valentine’s Day in 2004 we had dinner at a pizzeria in Ciriè, Italy (outside Torino), where my singing group was staying for a few days.

We had gotten engaged exactly one week earlier, on February 7. Ramesha was planning to ask me on Valentine’s but couldn’t wait. 😊

And here we are, almost twenty years later. What a blessing. 💗