I hope you are well! It has been a while since I’ve shared an update, and as we near my 38th birthday (on August 2nd!) — along with the two-year anniversary of the completion of my treatment for cancer and the beginning of a long recovery journey — I wanted to reach out with a few kind words and good tidings of what’s to come.
NEW! You can now view this post as a fun video with extra images and bonus content that includes breaking news!
I hope your springtimes are progressing in vivid color, and that your summer is shaping up to be a great one. I just wanted to share with my loved ones out there a couple of pieces of good news.
First: My MRI scan a couple of weeks ago yielded another negative result, showing no evidence of disease and further documenting my complete remission! I welcome and celebrate the clean bill of health!
2022 has been an amazing, humbling, sweet year — one of physical rehabilitation, family connection, spiritual expansion, celebration of life, and working to create a rich, new definition of “normal” after last year’s remarkable struggles and powerful lessons. It was also a year replete with its own challenges and surprises — but are these not essential aspects of the privilege of being alive?
What can we do but smile and give thanks for it all?
After a couple of really challenging years — a dance with cancer that included major surgery, brutal chemotherapy, and months of uncertainty with irregular scans ever-trending in the right direction but stopping just short of the longed-for resolution of “complete remission” — it finally happened.
I went in this November for another CT scan… and at long last...
It was NEGATIVE!
…If you caught my last post, you saw that I just celebrated my 37th birthday (while on an overnight train in northern Finland, no less)! Over the next few weeks, as I settle back into life at home, I’ll be integrating my experience and sharing stories and media from the road (to augment the brief photo chronicles I’ve already shared on Instagram and Facebook).
For now, though — as I pivot somewhat abruptly to Back-to-School Mode — I wanted to take the opportunity to share a video of a very special occasion that took place earlier this summer.
I hope you are well! It has been a while since I’ve shared an update, and as we near my 38th birthday (on August 2nd!) — along with the two-year anniversary of the completion of my treatment for cancer and the beginning of a long recovery journey — I wanted to reach out with a few kind words and good tidings of what’s to come.
NEW! You can now view this post as a fun video with extra images and bonus content that includes breaking news!
I hope your springtimes are progressing in vivid color, and that your summer is shaping up to be a great one. I just wanted to share with my loved ones out there a couple of pieces of good news.
First: My MRI scan a couple of weeks ago yielded another negative result, showing no evidence of disease and further documenting my complete remission! I welcome and celebrate the clean bill of health!
2022 has been an amazing, humbling, sweet year — one of physical rehabilitation, family connection, spiritual expansion, celebration of life, and working to create a rich, new definition of “normal” after last year’s remarkable struggles and powerful lessons. It was also a year replete with its own challenges and surprises — but are these not essential aspects of the privilege of being alive?
What can we do but smile and give thanks for it all?
My buddy Dana — the same wonderful human who started my healing fundraiser when I was struggling through chemo — is organizing a life-changing service trip to Oaxaca, Mexico, with a group of her high school Spanish students. And they need your help!
In June, Dana and a couple of chaperones (hopefully including myself!) will lead a delegation of future leaders to spend ten days volunteering with Oaxaca Streetchildren, a grassroots nonprofit that educates, feeds and cares for over 650 children, most of whom live in extreme poverty in this struggling area of Mexico.
After a couple of really challenging years — a dance with cancer that included major surgery, brutal chemotherapy, and months of uncertainty with irregular scans ever-trending in the right direction but stopping just short of the longed-for resolution of “complete remission” — it finally happened.
I went in this November for another CT scan… and at long last...
It was NEGATIVE!
…If you caught my last post, you saw that I just celebrated my 37th birthday (while on an overnight train in northern Finland, no less)! Over the next few weeks, as I settle back into life at home, I’ll be integrating my experience and sharing stories and media from the road (to augment the brief photo chronicles I’ve already shared on Instagram and Facebook).
For now, though — as I pivot somewhat abruptly to Back-to-School Mode — I wanted to take the opportunity to share a video of a very special occasion that took place earlier this summer.
This time last year, I was in the chemo chair. Today, I celebrate my 37th birthday in Scandinavia with Satya! Here’s a little update from the road…
Hello, Beloveds,
I write with good tidings as I celebrate my 37th birthday!
This week, my reflections center around a shift in my attitude toward this scan. Over the last month or so, I’ve caught myself worrying at times, hustling to do more to achieve the desired result, and asking the world out there to help me will this long-desired remission.
Lately, though, I find myself softening, accepting, and trusting more. I’ve been opening up to the idea that I am more likely to attract my desired outcome if I’m already in a place of joy, health, and good feelings — so I’ve been working to cultivate those in my daily life and believing that the rest will fall into place in universal flow.
In the remainder of this post, I’ll reflect more deeply on this evolution, and I’ll unpack the concept of “insh’Allah,” which has become one of my favorites in the global lexicon. I’ll also honor the non-linearity of life and healing, and celebrate the entire road that has led to this golden moment.
In this dispatch, I share some reflections on finishing strong, and what that has meant to me in this chapter of healing since my last scan (along with some hints of what I hope will come next). I also share some thoughts on an evolving (semi-Ukraine-conflict-inspired) metaphor of my healing body as a battle-ravaged city on the mend, as well as some worldly indigenous perspectives and deeper thoughts on cancer.
