April 6, 2003
Awakened Woman's Circle is working for peace
Trouble and Beauty
by Patricia Lynn Reilly
Dear Sisters on the Journey,
I want to share a story with you in case there comes a time when you or a family member may need the insights held within it. My friend was diagnosed with cancer two years ago. She went through eleven chemo sessions (@ $7000 a session). Recently they discovered a "mass" in her spleen; their remedy: cut out the spleen. She said NO WAY. And began her own research to find a therapy that would treat the underlying imbalance that allows cancer to grow and flourish. The search led her to the work of Dr. Max Gerson (http://www.gerson.org). After trying the Gerson regimen for four months, she wanted to come under the care of a Gerson MD. Thus our recent ten day trip to Tijuana. Why Tijuana? It's against the law for physicians in many states, including California, to treat folks with cancer with nutritional therapies (a coup for MDs and pharmeceuticals who make big bucks on chemo drugs and surgery).
The ten days in Tijuana were the most healing days of our lives. A nurse immersed in the Western model, it took my friend's own experience with the system to catapult her out of Western medicine into a therapy based on a belief in the body's innate capacity to heal. Western medicine deals with symptoms. Gerson believed that aberrant cells cannot live in a healthy metabolism. His therapy strengthens the immune system and supports the body's detoxification center: the liver. His therapy deals with the terrain rather than the symptoms. As the terrain of the body is healed, the particular health challenges dissolve one by one. We watched folks, sent home to die by Western medicine, heal in a joyful environment where cure is expected. The Gerson doctors love their work because folks heal!!!
It takes fierceness to pursue the Gerson Therapy. It is not for the faint-hearted. My friend's partner says he would choose chemo any day because he would be unwilling to give up the foods and habits of toxic 21st century living! My friend's oncologists say she will be a chronic cancer patient for whom they can only manage her condition with periodic chemo: life expectancy with periodic chemo˜5 years. She decided to choose cure and long life rather than maintenance by chemo and short life. He'd choose coffee, danish, and short life!!! At least he's honest!!! If you are interested in learning more, please find "A Season To Heal" by Beata Bishop (A Brit) and Dr. Max Gerson's biography.
Please do not believe everything you're told by "experts" and "authorities" about the state of the world and the state of your own body. Convinced that our lives are not our own, we have become alienated from our inner sense of what is true, right, and appropriate for us. We become experts at watching the way others live and we shape our lives accordingly. From talk show hosts, to Ann Landers, to our therapists and trainers, to the countless experts we consult to design our experience, everyone knows better than we do. We have spent our lifetimes trying to fit into someone else‚s idea of what is right for us: assembling our bodies according to society‚s formula of the perfect woman, forming our thoughts and opinions to suit the audience, limiting our feelings to what‚s acceptable, and formulating our behavior and actions according to the expectations of others. We have become emotionally, and yes, even physically, crippled as a result of habitually abandoning ourselves into the shapes of others. Each surrender of our feelings, our truth, our originality becomes a mini-abdication of who we are.
In circles of women we are reminded of the truth about ourselves. We reject the dominance of cultural and religious myths and theologies that exiled willful women, portraying us as powerless victims incapable of independent thought and action, of self-determining choice, and of the successful implementation of our desires in the world. We reject the passivity-based messages that required the surrender of our wills to the dictates of others. We embrace a woman-affirming perspective that reminds us of our original willfulness. We remember ancient women who valued their willfulness and who encouraged their daughters to believe their "will" was valid and achievable in the world. We remember ancient ways that taught women to refuse submission and subordination and applauded women for their assertiveness. Women who exerted, initiated, and moved in their own behalf in harmony with their own deep wisdom.
Imagine a woman who authors her own life. A woman who trusts her inner sense of what is right for her. Who refuses to twist her life out of shape to meet the expectations of others.
Imagine a woman who has relinquished the desire for intellectual safety and approval. A woman who makes a powerful statement with every word she speaks, every action she takes. Who asserts to herself the right to reorder the world.
Imagine yourself as this woman!
Healing Blessings, Patricia Lynn Reilly
<http://www.openwindowcreations.com>http://www.openwindowcreations.com
inspirational books and resources
Each month throughout 2003 Open Window Creations will feature one of its woman-affirming resources, offering it to you, our supporters and friends, at a tremendous discount. Each resource is a seed of transformation.
This month's feature is the "Home is Always Waiting" meditation tape. Home is always waiting. In tender times and turbulent times. In graceful moments and in awkward situations. In flowing times and in seasons of stagnation. In fullness and in emptiness. In fear and in courage. In trouble and in beauty. Home is always waiting. It is as near as a conscious breath, conscious contact with your woman-body, and a descent into the rich resources of your inner life.
Order the "Home is Always Waiting" meditation tape for yourself, your friends, and your women's circle between March 1 and April 4 at the following discount:
Minimum Orders:
Four tapes for $25 (includes shipping and taxes)
Eight tapes for $40 (includes shipping and taxes)
E-mail your order to openwin@mcn.org or to order@openwindowcreations.com by April 4. After you receive confirmation from OWC, send payment to OWC by personal check (POB 8615 Berkeley, CA 94707) or online via PayPal's general payment service.
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