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A place to share .... stories of heroes and heroines, inspiration, healing.... WHOLE FOODSNancy's List participated in the NICKELS FOR NONPROFITS program at WHOLE FOODS IN MILL VALLEY for the last quarter of 2009.
.  We raised $1,338.15! That is 26,763 nickels! 26,763 times a person brought in her or his own bag! This was the highest amount ever raised for one group through Nickels for Nonprofits ... WAY TO GO! Very very cool. Thank you WHOLE FOODS. We love you.
DELIA'S BOOK: GUIDANCE FOR CANCER HEALING
By Catherine Held, Ph.D.  Catherine Anne Held, Ph.D. is an energy healer, psychologist and teacher who specializes in working with people with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses. In 1992, a spontaneous healing song led her to train with Native American healers and explore different forms of healing. Founder of Ancestors' Way, Dr. Held makes her home in northern California.
Delia's Book offers hope, wisdom and practical strategies for people facing cancer and their loved ones. Delia Pratt, MD (1947-2006) was a gifted family practice physician who took time to listen deeply to her patients, and trained a whole generation of Sonoma County physicians through the Community Hospital/Sutter residency program. She was a keen diagnostician and researcher who blended her Cherokee background with western medical science. When her only child Jonathan was six, Delia was diagnosed with a rare uterine sarcoma (cancer) and given less than two years to live. She lived for twelve more years, undergoing a dozen operations and major procedures, many of them experimental. Delia researched, used and taught many healing modalities such as Chi Gung, guided imagery, and Emotional Freedom Technique. Near death many times during those twelve years, Delia astounded her physicians with her indomitable spirit and self-healing capacities. Delia was a fiercely protective and loving mother, and lived to see Jonathan graduate from high school and enter nearby Sonoma State University. Delia helped hundreds of people in the U.S. and abroad throughout her illness with help, information, and support using the internet. Delia attributed Catherine’s healing sessions as a primary contributor to her amazing longevity and ability to withstand the ups and downs of medical treatments. Catherine speaks: “I met Delia at the beginning of her illness in a simplicity class at the church we both attended at the time. Throughout the years, we were partners in healing as we became good friends, and co-leaders of a women’s spiritual group, experimenting with different forms of prayer and healing. We shared a deep passion for learning, creativity, spirituality, social justice, and healing. Delia encouraged my first tentative steps as a healer, and provided medical expertise to my first cases. She supported me through my own difficult times of divorce, traumatic death and illness. Together we experimented with many of the different types of healing that I continue to use. We talked about publishing together and starting a healing center together. Delia—both her memory and her presence—is an active partner in Ancestors’ Way.”
I asked Delia at the end of her life what had been most important in the many years of our healing work together.
Delia speaks: “You helped me so much!
Catherine, you always treated me like a whole person, no matter what was going on with me medically.
That gave me hope. Without that hope, I would have died years ago.”
“Now, at the end, I especially appreciate the visualizations.
I see my ancestors clearly as they are ready to greet me. I am not afraid to die,
because you have helped me be comfortable in other realms.
When I feel your hands move over my body, I see the hands of the ancient healers coming through you.”
Order Delia's Book through Author House
CANCER HELP PROGRAMCOMMONWEAL IN BOLINAS  by Susan BraunThe Commonweal Cancer Help Program is an intensive residential health program for cancer patients and their family members or close friends. It began in 1985, and we are holding the 149th program as I write this. The CHP offers many things --- instruction in yoga and meditation, training in personal imagery, artistic expression, and lectures on informed choices among conventional and complementary therapies, pain and suffering, and death and dying. One thing we attempt to evoke in these week-long programs is the inherent wisdom in each of us. Wisdom has many definitions. It encompasses discernment and judgment; transcendent knowledge; spiritual knowledge; mental skill, agility, and subtlety; discretion; mental dexterity; knowledge of the best ends and means. It includes the knowledge needed to live a good life, the trait of utilizing knowledge and experience with common sense and insight. It is intelligence and intention in action. Wisdom may impart the ability to discern or judge what is true, right, or lasting. We recognize that a wise person can identify the core of a problem, has self knowledge, is sincere and direct with others, can identify wisdom in others and seeks their advice, and acts consistently with personal beliefs. And thus, in the journey with cancer, wisdom can be used both pragmatically and existentially, to do such things as seek an accurate diagnosis; understand the meaning of that diagnosis in our own lives; share information, feelings, and plans with others as is meaningful and right for each of us individually; search for those who will understand how we relate to cancer as individuals and who can provide helpful guidance; and learn how to live with cancer in a way that reflects our beliefs about life and living, and about death and dying. In our program and in our gatherings of alumni, we have been asking participants to tell us what wisdom they would share with someone newly diagnosed, from their experience with cancer,. Here are a few of their wonderful words of wisdom. Life and priorities can become extremely clear after a cancer diagnosis.
Choices (in respect to treatment) are best made according to what one can live with peacefully. Put on your own oxygen mask before attempting to help others,. Relationships are more important than things or achievements. Embrace others' prayers for you, even if you do not follow their religion. Healing energy has no boundaries except those we bring to ourselves. It is good to have a doctor who you believe truly wants you to live. You would go to two or three dealerships to buy a car and compare several computers before you buy --- take the time to interview several doctors and get second opinions. There are some things you can only do once, like radiation or surgery. If you feel something is out of balance with your body, keep pursuing it until you are in balance. Don't let doctors tell you anything is wrong and let it go. It's important to take control of treatment the second time around. The first time can occur so suddenly, you may not have time to think about options. Trust your intuition. It's okay to say no to a course of treatment. Listen to others but make your own decisions. Listen to your inner self. If it doesn't feel right, sleep on it. Find as many advocates as you can, especially find a medical advocate with whom you can discuss your doctor's findings and recommendations. Have fun even during treatment. Go out with family and friends and do what you enjoy. Only the most secure of friends can hang out with someone going through cancer treatment ... and those are really the only friends you want around as you go through treatment. In general, people dislike words such as cancer, mastectomy, chemotherapy, radiation, death ... they might ask you if you want to talk, but often they don't listen or want to hear. Keep it simple. Live by faith.
Life is not about stuff. It's never too late to have a happy childhood.
Given the choice between mercy and righteousness, always choose mercy. Love never dies. Trust your gut. Upset happens when your gut says no and your mouth says yes. Cancer is a word, not a sentence. No human being has any sure knowledge of how long another human being will live. Simple pleasures are precious and priceless. Your intuition seldom leads you in the wrong direction. Trust your own inner wisdom. The healer is within. We are not meant to go it alone. Nothing is more important than love. THOUGHTSBy Michael Lerner, President of Commonweal ..."As I write, we have just completed our 149th Cancer Help Program. Many participants now come because they have read David Servan-Schreiber's beautiful book, Anti-Cancer .... His second book, To Heal, became an international best-seller as well. "The life-shifting changes David made -- leaving a successful career in neuroscience at Pittsburgh to return to Paris and write his book -- fit well with Larry LeShan's observation that his patients who did well with cancer were those who "found their own song." LeShan's observation of the importance for healing of finding your own song parallels Joseph Campbell's counsel to "follow your bliss." Campbell in turn cites the importance of Carl Jung's celebration of individuation as the great task of the second half of life. Jung's individuation process closely resembles Roberto Assagioli's psycho-synthesis process in which divergent sub-personalities -- the "community of selves" that each of us carries within us -- are reconciled in the service of soul purpose. Parker Palmer's quest for an "undivided life" and a "hidden wholeness" is the same journey toward deep healing. "Yet, psychological truths are by their nature fluid and elusive. "The Tao that can be spoken is not the real Tao." Allowing any psychological truth to become dogma requires the emergence of an opposing psychological truth. In this case, the opposing truth goes something like this: Beware the tyranny of the belief that you can only do well with cancer if you transform your life and find your unique song. In fact, I have met many people who have far outlived their prognoses with no visible transformation of their lives at all. "Wonderful people show up for the Cancer Help Program. They face the rigors of a cancer diagnosis, treatment and life with cancer. Their diagnosis often confronts them with the most fundamental questions of life purpose -- of what matters now. What matters now often appears in the guise of transformed perceptions of the relative importance of what Parker Palmer calls "soul and role." And this in turn leads to painful re-appraisals of both love and work. These CHP participants, in search of deep healing, have read the cancer literature. They often come to the conclusion that unless they transform their lives and discover some transcendent life purpose, they cannot do well with this difficult disease. And they often despair when no transformative vision is given to them. "The belief in a transformational imperative is a "higher" version of another myth about cancer -- that the best way to do well is to "keep a positive attitude." We do a good job of debunking the "positive attitude" myth. We point out how brittle it is to try to be relentlessly positive in the face of a life-threatening illness. It is much healthier to allow yourself the full range of human emotional responses. But it is more difficult to explain why the value of transformative experience in healing should never become a dogmatic imperative. And yet I understand how people reach that conclusion, based on what so many have written and said. "It is unquestionably true that some people -- like David -- benefit enormously from taking transformative steps in their quest for healing. But others do equally well without transformational change. Is there a common element in deep healing? I suppose my answer, if pressed, would be: If you are seeking deep healing, listen to the wisdom of your heart. Notice that I said the wisdom of your heart, not simply your heart. The great wisdom traditions counsel that both heart and mind, alone, can deceive us. Love, especially eros, without wisdom can be blind. Wisdom without compassion can be cold. It is only love informed by wisdom, or wisdom imbued with love, that guides us aright. Each of us has a wise heart. The challenge is to discover the wisdom of our heart, to listen to it, and to live by it." by Debra Jarvis, It's Not About the HairI am the general oncology outpatient chaplain at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA). I see patients who are receiving chemotherapy, getting radiation, having their blood drawn, or waiting to see their oncologists.I was in my fourth year at the SCCA when I received the upsetting news that my mother had been diagnosed with breast cancer. However, I didn’t have much time to be disturbed about it because five days later I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I couldn’t decide if her case or mine was the most disturbing, so I settled on being equally disturbed about both. Still, like having your car break down when you work at an auto repair shop, I thought if you had to have cancer, it was pretty convenient to work at a place that treats it. "But you’re the chaplain! You should be immune!” I heard this from a lot of outraged people, as if I had some special spiritual protection. So what if I’m the chaplain? I’m a Christian, the faith that’s all about the crucifixion of the guy who is considered the Son of God! I mean if the Son of God can’t get a break, why should I? I’m only the chaplain. So I chose to have my surgery and chemotherapy at the University of Washington, the medical center affiliated with SCCA. During my first appointment with my oncologist she made it clear she completely understood if I wanted to go elsewhere if I felt uncomfortable or for reasons of privacy. “Why,” I asked, “would I not want to be treated at a place that is filled with people I know and love? And why would I not want to be treated at a place where I have witnessed the finest care given in my twenty years as a hospital chaplain? And above all, why would I not want to be treated at a place where I know the location of every single restroom?” She got my point. Besides knowing the staff and the location of the restrooms, I had another advantage. I had seen people deal with cancer a thousand different ways—some inspiring and some less so. I’ve listened to patients who tried to pretend cancer is a million yucks. It’s not. It’s not even a hundred. And I’ve listened to people who are whiny and tragic. Even if your situation is tragic, it doesn’t feel good to whine—for very long. Forgive me if I sound harsh. I’m not talking about expressing your feelings, I’m talking about whining, and there is a the difference. Whining is basically about being stuck. You are stuck telling the same story in the same way in spite of everyone’s efforts to help you resolve it or reframe it or find meaning in it. Somewhere between the joking and whining, there is this precious place of absolute centeredness — peace in the eye of upheaval and chaos. It is an assertive kind of peace because it takes effort to stay grounded and centered while things swirl around you. It’s not as if you’re just sitting there blissed out, denying your pain or your fear. It means you feel your feelings, give them a voice, and then move on. I have read a new patient’s chart and thought, "Holy-Jesus-God-and-all-the-saints! What a disaster!" But then I met this patient, and she was all upbeat and grateful for this and grateful that. She said, “Here’s a funny thing that happened on my way to brain surgery . . ." I wanted to say, “Have you read your chart lately?” But I could tell she knew exactly what was going on and was being completely authentic. It was all in how she chose to be with her situation. She was her Best Real Self. That’s how I wanted to be: my Best Real Self. For some people that means being more private about it, but for me, that meant being very open about my diagnosis. So I sent out e-mail updates on my treatment progress. Friends and family wanted information, and they also wanted to know how I was with what was going on. And my therapist friends wanted to know how I was with how I was. Knowing that time is precious and e-mail can be overwhelming, I included just a few thoughts and feelings in each message. I wanted to write more about what surprised me, what helped me, and what disappointed me, but it didn’t feel right to send six page e-mails. It’s an e-mail, not an electronic book. I learned much about cancer from being a patient, and probably the most astounding thing to discover was only a small part of the cancer experience is about medicine. Most of it is about feelings and faith, and losing and finding your identity, and discovering strength and flexibility you never knew you had. It’s also about looking at life and staring death in the eye. It’s about realizing the most valuable things in life are not things at all, but relationships. It’s about laughing in the face of uncertainty and having the courage to ask for more chocolate and less broccoli. And, if you haven’t figured it out by now, it’s about realizing cancer is the best excuse for getting out of practically anything — except chemotherapy. And although many people asked me how I felt about it, what it was going to be like to lose it, and how I was going to deal with not having it. . . it’s not about the hair.
ALISON WRIGHT    Author of Learning to Breathe: One Woman's Journey of Spirit and Survival The Nancy's List Book Club had the privilege of meeting with Alison before her presentation at Book Passage. We were inspired beyond our wildest imaginations to move move move. Thank you, Alison, for the magic you bring into our lives. In the Foreword by The Dalai Lama, he says... "To make our lives meaningful takes courage. The heroes of Tibetan Buddhism, Bodhisattvas who work to develop compassion and wisdom, their hearts set on achieving enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings, have it. Many of the Tibetans that Alison Wright has befriended inside Tibet and in exile, struggling to maintain their identity and heritage, have it; and she says their dedication has inspired her. And finally, the author of this book herself,
who suffered shocking and potentially disabling injury in a road accident has displayed remarkable courage. Alison Wright's story of her recovery and her eventual pilgrimage to Mount Kailash in Tibet make clear that if you have courage powered by the resolute determination to never give up, you can achieve what others consider to be impossible." Copy and paste into your browser... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr3x_RRJdd4&feature=fvw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24SoPihLdq4&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cnRXmMn2Ag&feature=related Wonderful fun....
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