I started Healing Journeys 21 years ago because I couldn’t find the resources I needed as a cancer patient. Although there is now more information than there used to be about what we can do to influence our health, it’s still often hard to find for the newly diagnosed patient.

I appreciate receiving the kind of feedback I received from Kathleen Grauman in response to what I wrote here last month. She said:

“Thanks, Jan, for an excellent article. Patients have to find information and support from organizations like Healing Journeys because so little of it is in mainstream medicine. At best, doctors say of non-drug treatments, ‘it can’t hurt.’ Oh, and ‘beware of supplements’ and ‘non-proven’ techniques. How much evidence does it take! I am in my 14th year of remission and always grateful to Healing Journeys (attended in Seattle in 2003). Blessings.”

Thank you, Kathleen, for taking the time to comment. For the 21 years that Healing Journeys has been alive, you-all have been the wind beneath my wings. I wouldn’t have kept it going without hearing from you how you valued our programs. Your encouragement, both emotionally and financially, have kept me going.

I will always be grateful to Toni Minvielle who died in 2000 and donated her IRA to Healing Journeys. I never met Toni. She attended our free conference in Oakland in 1998; it meant so much to her that she wanted to make sure it continued. That level of belief in our work was super motivation for me to keep doing it. If nothing else, I had to do it to honor Toni’s belief in Healing Journeys.

The notes and donations we are currently receiving in response to our postal newsletter are very much appreciated. I want you to know what a difference you make when you write and when you make donations, no matter how big or small. It’s your donations that are going to make the first-ever Denver conference possible. We’re all in this together and I need your help.

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Sandra Warne is another person whose support I am currently grateful for. In the News section of this month’s newsletter you will see a notice of an art show she is presenting, giving 50% of the proceeds to Healing Journeys. What is most meaningful to me about this is that she is doing it because the conference she attended was a valuable experience for her, and she wants more people to have that experience. Sandra is paying it forward and she is making a difference.

I wish I could include a personal thank you to each person who has contributed in any way. If you are one of those contributors, please accept this thank you and know that you are making a difference in the lives of those coming after you, learning how they too can move from surviving to thriving.

I also want to honor those who have not survived. Death is not a failure; it will happen to all of us. Even if we do everything “right,” this body will reach a stopping point. If there is any failure, it is not fully living while we have the chance. I try to keep in mind Dr. Jeremy Geffen’s quote, The Essence of Healing is found in Focused Action and Intention . . . Wrapped in the Arms of Surrender. It’s the focused action and intention that we can control, that empowers and enlivens us, and that we will practice in the upcoming Radical Remission workshop.

As always, I welcome your comments; to reply please click here.

In the Spirit of Healing,

Jan Adrian, MSW
Founder and Executive Director