Dear Friends,
As I write this on March 26, it is the 30th anniversary of our first Cancer as a Turning Point, From Surviving to Thriving™ conference, held in Monterey, California on March 26 and 27, 1994. There were 280 people there, mostly women, and it was such a magical, empowering event, that we continued offering the conference. It became a national event, serving more than 25,000 people in 37 conferences over the years.
It has been a rich and satisfying career for me for 30 years, and it is now time to let it go. We served our purpose, introducing people who were touched by cancer to the buffet of strategies they could use to ease their journeys. We contributed to a larger awakening in society, the shift to including mind, emotions, and spirit in the healing equation. This is now a more accepted part of medicine and it will continue to expand.
I think people initially attended the conference because they wanted information, but the benefits they received also came from connecting with others and knowing they weren’t alone. In a post-pandemic world, it’s more challenging to meet that need. Even though many people are not comfortable in large groups, it is starting to happen in smaller groups. There are cancer retreats and Healing Circles available at: https://cancerchoices.org/community/
We are in the process of dissolving Healing Journeys. When a non-profit closes, by law we are required to give any remaining assets to another non-profit. We have chosen CancerChoices, a division of Commonweal (www.cancerchoices.org/), because their work most aligns with Healing Journeys’ mission and vision. In addition to the cancer retreat Commonweal offers, CancerChoices continues to create and provide valuable resources on integrative healing for anyone touched by cancer.
If you want to know more about the life of Healing Journeys or my personal cancer journey, it is all in my published memoir, Coloring Outside the Lines, Surviving and Thriving with Cancer for 30+ Years, available anywhere books are sold.
We will be keeping our website (www.healingjourneys.org) alive for at least a year as I continue to write my blog, which is about my personal journey with cancer. You can sign up on our website (see P.S. below my signature for how; it’s a separate email list) to receive notices when I post in my blog. We also own www.healingjourneys.com, a website address which we will no longer use and can be sold. If you know of anyone interested in acquiring it, ask them to contact me.
Healing Journeys existed for 30 years because of the support of so many of you. It required a village to produce the conference, and many people stepped up to help. A huge thank you to all of you who contributed funding, volunteered your time, attended events, and encouraged me with your comments and your love. A special thank you to the dedicated Healing Journeys Board of Directors. My heart is full with the memories and connections that are still part of my life. Thank you is not adequate to express my huge gratitude for the many blessings I have received.
Our mission has been to support healing, activate hope, and promote thriving. I wish you continued healing, hope, and thriving. Thank you for being such a nourishing part of my life.
As always, I welcome your comments; to reply please click here.
Love,
Jan Adrian, MSW
Founder and Executive Director
Healing Journeys
www.healingjourneys.org
P.S. To subscribe to Jan’ Blog, go to the bottom right side of any page on www.healingjourneys.org and enter your email address under “Subscribe to Jan’s Blog.”
Thank you, Jan, for your many years devoted to helping people navigate their own “healing journeys.” I went to one of the gatherings around a decade ago, and it was an inspiratonal and memorable day.
To your health!
Thank you, thank you, thank you, Jan and Healing Journeys board and presenters! What a profound impact you have made in my life.
Blessings <3
Jan — You have been an inspiration, a beacon of hope and an angel to so many people. Thank you for sharing all that you are with the world and for bringing Healing Journeys to so many people. You will be missed. Godspeed – Olga
What a wonderful gift you have been to thousands of Cx patients over these 30 yr., including me. I cannot adequately thank you for the benefits I recv’d from attending 2 or 3 of your conferences early on in my own Cx journey, the first of them just a mo. after diagnosis. That one caught me in free fall and helped stabilize me. I would never have recv’d that support of mind, body and spirit from any other source of knew of at that time. You have made such a difference in the world, Jan. If there’s such a thing as karma, you have accumulated a mountain of it.
With deepest gratitude and my blessings as you continue your own journey.
Ah Jan, thank you for all you have done in this world. I loved reading your book… it was a real page turner! You surprised me with some of your “wild side” and I laughed so much.
We are coming to the end of the road for my husband. Seventeen years is enough to fight and suffer and rise again. He is not choosing hospice quite yet but I think he’s getting ready.
Your conferences have helped him and myself for years. He also loved your book (and he’s not a reader!!)
bless you forever. I am a part of Commonweal so I certainly approve where your nonprofit is heading.
Love never dies.
Jan, thank you for your many years helping people heal. May you now enjoy your special time.
Dear Jan,
You are so right, “thank you is not enough.”
I’m grateful for hearing about Healing Journeys and attending two conferences after my first breast cancer diagnosis over ten years ago. Now, with a recent metastatic diagnosis, I use the tools and seek out my support groups more than ever. The people, sisters really, who I met years ago are with me still and I owe it, in part, to Healing Journeys for bringing so much healing love and support into my life.
My healing is happening and now I have no tumor left to be found! My lab work results are beautiful!
I take one step at a time, take wonderful deep breaths, and send thanks to you, Jan, for guiding me to this healing path!
Love and blessings to you.
In great admiration and respect.
Thank you, Jan and Healing Journeys, for the wonderful healing you have provided to people with cancer from Humboldt and the North Coast. Thank you for the partnerships you have had with the Breast and GYN Health Project – including writing workshops, Cancer Fighting Kitchen, and more. You have given so much. Wishing you all the best during this change and beyond.
Thank you so very much for all you have done to support us on our cancer journeys! I attended two of the conferences and the experiences were inspiring; the connections added to my healing.
Jan,
Thank you so much for the many years you have devoted to Healing Journeys.
When I first met you many years ago, my husband was diagnosed with cancer. As a psychologist I have seen many cancer patients in my practice and have shared the resources from Healing Journeys.
You have given so much to the cancer survivor community.
You are appreciated!
You have enriched and eased so many lives with your work. Everything you did with Healing Journeys was infused with love and integrity. I read your book and was moved to tears by the ending when you told of your dear little cat’s death after all the joy she brought you in your short time together. Bless you and thank you, Jan. Fair winds and following seas as you sail into your next adventure, whatever it may be. Sending you oceans of love and well-being.
Dear Jan, thank you for your compassion and courage in reaching out to other cancer patients and their families with loving support over the past 30 years. Your faith-filled journey encouraged and inspired those who also walked that path. May God continue to bless you as you have blessed us. In loving gratitude, Carol
Blessings to you and thank you for your years of service and healing.
Dear Jan, thank you so much for all you have shared and done through the years. I just read your email about closing Healing Journeys, and that took me to your blog and your recent experience with the palliative care doctor – what a gift! Just thank you – I have no memory of how I first heard about Healing Journeys, but it has been part of my journey since 2011 and my own diagnosis of cancer. You continue to be an inspiration to me Jan. I am so grateful to you for being so available to people like me. Blessings on your continued journey!
Hi Jan,
Although I am sad to say goodbye to Healing Journeys, I mostly feel gratitude for all the hope and support that you and the organization instilled in me and so many others who were touched by cancer and other life-threatening diseases. You truly made a difference in my life.
I congratulate you on a job well done. I thank you for your vision, your hard work and for setting such a shining example.
Wishing you never-ending love and ten thousand blessings.
You will get hundreds of special messages, Jan! Your work turned my life around because I am a more than 30 years survivor of CLL. Thank you for saving my life,
Many hugs,
Charlotte Pitts
Jan, all the best to you as you transition to a new chapter in your life!! You have been an inspiration and a help to thousands of persons over the many years of Healing Journeys. You have connected patients and their family members to resources they so desperately needed. You have taught other health care professionals about the value of integrative therapies. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!
Jan, thank you for inspiring so many in pathways to health and healing through your experience, wisdom, and all your endeavors. With much compassion and gratitude,
Lin
You are a Rock Star! The Ripple Effect …The Gift that keeps on giving…. Buffet to feed the Soul! I am so blessed to have had a front row seat for 16 years. THANK YOU isn’t adequate. Big Love to you and all those you helped make your dream a reality.
G’morning, Jan. Time slipped away and my response to your announcement got delayed in my own push to the retirement goal line: TODAY is my final one at WomenCARE. I find it interesting that we’re both closing big, important chapters in this same time frame. I have never forgotten the energy, the warmth and connection, the richness of the first Healing Journeys’ gathering I attended in Marin (1998? ’99?). YOU brought so many many wonderful people together for education, support, acknowledgment… Your gifts to the community are many. You have been a powerful force for healing with its many and varied faces. You inspire. You listen. You respond. You lead with heart and head. I believe you were on the hiring committee when I was interviewed for my job at WomenCARE, and now we close important chapters in our lives. Only, I trust, to engage in more meaningful passions and pursuits. I put you on the invitation list to my retirement party, never expecting that you would come. I just wanted you to know that I consider you an important part of my WomenCARE history. Gratitude always. LaVerne
I attended the conference in Sacramento about 14 years ago and the community there really helped me in my own healing. The power of gathering and learning and sharing was invaluable. Thank you for everything. Enjoy what you accomplished.
Bravo Jan for an incredible organization, full of heart and inspiration for so many. You are loved and appreciated and I thank you for inviting me to be a presenter throughout the early years. You deserve a gold star!!! Big blessings to you ~
Dear Jan, Sending deep gratitude for all that you have done for so many. Attending your conferences was so positively impactful and influential in my healing. I’m thrilled to see of your bequest to Cancer Choices of Commonweal. Attending the Cancer Help Program at Commonweal in Bolinas in 2008 began my strong affiliation and involvement there, and I am currently a host (facilitator) and trainer with the online program, Healing Circles Global, hosting circles for people living with cancer. It’s an extraordinary and powerful program, of which Cancer Choices is an important and enormous support resource. Thank you Thank you from us all around the world for your thoughtful generosity. Love to you Jan, Kathleen