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In this issue:
Dear Friends,On October 15, 2009 the Sacramento Valley Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) celebrated its 12th annual Outstanding Women Leaders (OWL) Awards Banquet. I was nominated for a Luminary Award (an individual/organization lighting the way for others). When I was told that I had been nominated, I was asked to provide two letters of recommendation. I asked two people who had attended our conferences—one as a caregiver and one as a survivor. Even though I didn't receive the Award, it was encouraging for me to again hear (in their letters) how powerful our conference has been. I want to share excerpts from both of them: From Shirleen: "Jan Adrian is one of the most inspiring women I know or have met in my lifetime. I am honored to recommend her as she has inspired my life more than she knows. A few years back when my mother was dying of cancer I took her to one of Jan's seminars.When I hear how much this conference has meant to people, my passion is renewed to continue offering it. I'm already in the midst of planning three conferences for 2010, plus some very exciting workshops. I love doing this, and the reality is that I can't continue without financial support. I've just let my assistant go because of lack of funding. I saw a card this week that said, "Sometimes your only available transportation is a leap of faith." That's exactly where I am again with Healing Journeys. After 15 years, sometimes I can lose track of why I'm doing this so I appreciate this award nomination coming along just when I needed to be reminded. And I will appreciate your support now—in words of encouragement, and in donations to Healing Journeys.
Note: Gail Coufal lives in Oakland, CA with her husband and two cats where she is busy reading, writing and exploring a life changed after cancer and treatment. 
by Gail Coufal The best thing about my life has always been reading. I can read when I am not well, I can read in bed, in the bathtub, even while I'm walking. I can read while the TV is on and in any moving vehicle. I can delve into someone else's universe in a big, fat book when I am in denial about issues in my own life. It is the Great Escape I have chosen my whole life. ... Full Story.
Note: Lauren Carley performs with her ensembles Polyhymnia and Schola, and tours her original cabaret interpreting the music of Kurt Weill. Ms. Carley teaches choral music for San Francisco State and UC Berkeley, maintains a private voice studio, leads on-going sight-singing classes, conducts local community choruses, and leads the Joy of Singing in Sacred Spaces vocal workshop each summer in Calvi del' Umbria, Italy.
In addition to leading on-going retreats, performances and workshops in singing for healing, sacred services, and community engagement, she is deeply grateful for the opportunity to write with Autumn Stephens and her merry band of writers. by Lauren Carley Living still, quietly, lest pain return, a self-induced slowness, bordering on entropy. Not moving too fast, lest an inadvertent bump trigger the distant galloping horses, bringing them closer than I can bear. Listening to my breath, I hear children's voices playing along the squeaky white beach of my great inland sea. Red hypodermics and bits of hair can be found in the water. Hard to call it medicine. . . . Full Poem.
by Debra Jarvis Reviewed by Fran Haynes 
Debra Jarvis, the proclaimed "irreverent Reverend," is an ordained minister who has worked as a hospice spiritual counselor, and currently serves as a general oncology chaplain for the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance.
Within a five-day period Debra's mother and Debra were both diagnosed with breast cancer. Using her unique style of truth telling with humor, Debra invites us to follow her along the path of her healing journey. Each chapter begins with an amusing and gut wrenching reprint of her blog from April to December, which makes the reader feel a part of her honored support circle. In the introduction Debra states that while she learned much about cancer from being a patient, only a small part of the cancer experience is about medicine. "Most of it is about feelings and faith, losing and finding your identity, and discovering strength and flexibility you never knew you had." She goes on to say that she realized that the most valuable things in life are not things, but relationships. "It's about laughing in the face of uncertainty and having the courage to ask for more chocolate and less broccoli." This warm, wise and funny book tells an amazing story of mingled accounts of a health professional dealing with other people's life threatening conditions at the same time she is facing her own. Debra's lens of perception views the interwoven world of medical technology and procedure, human vulnerability and strength, and the spiritual issues that converge in the experience of living through illness and life. Additional information:
Register by October 31 to receive an early-registration discount. 
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UPCOMING EVENTS
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