“There were times when Heidi Bright prepared to die after being diagnosed with a terminal cancer in July 2009.
“Today Bright delivers a message of hope and healing through her book ‘Thriver Soup’ and speaking to groups. This is the third traditionally published book by the Milford author.”
Please read more at
“I have no wrath. Should someone give Me briars and thorns in battle, Then I would step on them, I would burn them completely.”
Isaiah 27:4, New American Standard Bible®
Did you ever wish your weeds would just disappear?
Even the Hebrew Bible describes the Divine as one who would step on and completely burn up weeds.
I get even better revenge on my weeds. I eat the ones I recognize.
Some weeds provide wild, natural, bitterly nutritious greens that can be added to salads or smoothies. I prefer smoothies so I can gulp them down rather than taste the bitterness.
During this past weekend I went on an edible weed walk at Turner Farm in Indian Hill, Ohio. Nancy Ogg from Shady Grove Farm in Kentucky provided expert guidance for what common weeds could be eaten.
Please do not pick weeds without knowing exactly what they are and what parts are safe to consume.
I asked if dandelion flower stems were edible. Nancy said yes, though they are quite bitter, probably because they are the most nutritious part of the plant. Smoothie filler for me.
Apparently violet blossoms are safe, because they can be added to salads for color. At the end of the class each of us took home a small jar of violet jelly. Delicious!
We found three black mustard plants growing in the compost heap. I brought them home because I love stir-fried black mustard seeds with fresh radishes, a great anti-inflammatory meal for cancer thrivers. I planted the foot-tall weeds in my compost bed.
Because weeds resist cultivation, my friend Kathleen suggested I threaten the plants periodically by waving and whirring a weed wacker over them so they’ll think they are wild and free.
In the meantime, I forage on my property, adding a little variety beyond dandelions with hairy bittercress and garlic mustard. No recognized weed will be left behind.
Thriver Soup Ingredient:
Here is the recipe I use for my mustard seed stir-fry, using black mustard seeds:
https://giniann.wordpress.com/2006/12/23/radish-curry-saute-with-onions-garlic-and-chili/
Here is the recipe for violet jelly using half the normal amount of sugar:
http://www.healthygreenkitchen.com/violet-jelly.html
Source:
Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible®,
Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973,
1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation
Used by permission.” (www.Lockman.org)
There is no coming to consciousness without pain.
Carl Jung, father of analytical psychology
Valuable messages can be hidden in physical pain. If those messages can be discovered, accepted, and examined, rather than avoided, we can gain important insights that can alter our daily lives in positive ways.
This week a woman dealing with the aftermath of cancer chose to return to a practice of approaching her chronic pain with curiosity, living the wisdom expressed by Carl Jung, father of analytical psychology. While Jung probably was referring mainly to psychological pain, cancer patients have physical pain that can be used as a tool for greater personal understanding.
The participant had listened to my guided meditation called “A Conversation with Dis-ease.” During the guided meditation, participants travel inside their bodies to the location of dis-ease in their bodies so they can ask these cells questions for guidance.
She offered the following feedback: “I re-learned that I need to stop throughout my day and go inward. Instead of focusing on avoiding the pain, I attempted to face it and examine it.”
While awareness doesn’t necessarily lead to pain relief, there are times when it can.
For another cancer patient, the chance for relief from chronic shoulder pain revealed itself while she followed the specific guidance of the visualization only one time. She realized her chronic shoulder pain came from shouldering too many responsibilities.
The pain brought her to greater consciousness. She then knew how to change her life to relieve the pain.
Thriver Soup Ingredient:
A few opportunities are approaching for a chance to listen to this guided visualization for your own healing journey. Hope to see you soon!
Saturday, April 9, noon
“Subduing the Dis-ease Dragon: The ABCs of Creating Conditions for Healing”
Victory of Light, Sharonville Convention Center
11355 Chester Rd., Cincinnati, OH 45246
Saturday, April 16, 7 p.m.
“Subduing the Dis-ease Dragon: The ABCs of Creating Conditions for Healing”
Stillpoint Center for Healing Arts
11223 Cornell Park Drive, Ste 302 (behind the brown Jewish Family Services building)
Blue Ash, Ohio 45242
Saturday, July 30, 2 p.m.
“Subduing the Dis-ease Dragon: The ABCs of Creating Conditions for Healing”
Milford Public Library
19 Water St., Milford, Ohio 45150
Thursday, Sept. 13, 7 p.m.
“Subduing the Dis-ease Dragon: The ABCs of Creating Conditions for Healing”
Northside LIIFT
Revelation Spiritual Church (Look for the BIG white sign in front yard of what looks like a house)
4251 Hamilton Ave, Cincinnati 45223
Click here to hear the introduction to “A Conversation with Dis-ease”
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Portion of a Hail Mary prayer, Western version
For the past nine months, my prayer life had succumbed to grief after losing my son.
Recently I visited with Vince and Connie Lasorso, owners of Whatever Works Wellness Center. Vince had written a special healing rosary prayer for me to use while I was in cancer treatment. The rosary is a necklace of beads used for meditative prayers. One Hail Mary prayer is said for each bead, and the beads are strung on Catholic rosaries in groups of ten. Those who pray the rosary use the beads to track where they are at in their prayer process.
Vince had expanded his rosary into a book about Mother Mary and the rosary. He talked about how persistent use of the rosary can take us into new areas of consciousness and can open us up to healing energy.
I badly needed this conversation. During cancer treatment, I had no energy for prayer. Then for years I poured intense prayer energy into my son Brennan, yet still lost him to a heroin overdose. Deeply discouraged, my prayer life had withered. Vince could tell—so he reminded me that for years people had been pouring their prayers into me, and here I am healthy with my third published book, Thriver Soup, to share what I learned about healing during cancer.
Synchronistically, my friend Gay had given me my first rosary as a Christmas gift this past year. It is beautiful—the prayer beads are made with lavender-colored amethyst. Amethyst is believed to be sacred to the Buddha, so Tibetans make prayer beads from the purple quartz. The crystal has long been associated with healing.
Okay, time to return to prayer.
The next day, for the first time, I prayed the healing rosary Vince had developed for me years earlier, using the gift from Gay. Before I even finished, a call came in from a cancer patient wanting to know where I would next be presenting my talk about the ABCs of healing.
Mother Mary was already extending her healing blessings through me to a cancer patient. I only had to be available and faithful.
Thriver Soup Ingredient:
The word “bead” comes from the old English noun “bede,” which means “prayer.” Prayer beads are used in most religious traditions. Buddhists, Hindus, and Sikhs use 108 beads; Eastern Orthodox Christians use prayer ropes with 100 knots; Muslims use 99 or 33 beads; Baha’is use either 95 or 24; Catholics use 59. Each number has significance, yet the main point is to meditatively pray using the garland of beads. For example, if you want to say ten Hail Marys, use ten beads. By moving your fingers from one bead to the next with each prayer you repeat, you don’t have to keep track of how many you’ve said; you can simply focus on saying the prayer from your heart. If you don’t have prayer beads and want something quick, tie knots in a piece of string to use for meditatively praying.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosary
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amethyst
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prayer_beads
… (Krishna) drove that best of chariots to a point between the two armies, in front of Bhishma, Drona, and all the rulers of the earth, and then said: “See, Partha (Arjuna), this gathering of all the Kurus!”
The Bhagavad Gita, 1:24-25
The Hindu god Krishna drove the best of chariots into battle. The chariot can be a metaphor for one’s body. If one’s chariot, or body, is not in the best condition, it can seriously hamper every aspect of one’s life.
I had let my chariot lose some of its fitness recently. My exercise life had succumbed to the excuses of grief after losing my son and the move into my new home. Later I listened to my guided visualization CD, “A Conversation with Dis-ease,” and received the message that it was time to let go of regularly walking for exercise due to a lifetime of issues with my toe joints.
Yes, they were excuses. My psychotherapist called me on it, then encouraged me, once again, to exercise regularly—preferably 150 minutes per week. I was only doing about 60. Time to ramp it up.
After I got home, I felt nudged to get my exercise for the day by walking to a nearby grocery store to pick up more onions. While in the store, I took a look at the clearance shelves in the back. I was shocked to find my all-time favorite chocolate-hazelnut truffles there at one third the usual price—expensive chocolates I had only ever seen in two other distant stores in town.
Was that nudge from my son to make sure I had these special Italian chocolates for celebrating Valentine’s Day? I’d like to think so.
I took home two bags of the sweet treats.
What a wonderful gift for following through and doing my part to get my chariot back in shape. Just in time to enjoy some luscious truffles for Valentine’s Day.
Thriver Soup Ingredient:
Exercise is important for numerous reasons. A common recommendation is 30 minutes of exercise five times each week. Some people use pedometers or download exercise apps on their phones. Some tips for getting started include parking at the far ends of parking lots, taking stairs if and when you can, or simply tensing and loosing muscles while lying in bed if that is what you can do.
What is your favorite form of exercise?
What is your favorite kind of chocolate?
Those who act kindly in this world will have kindness.
Qur’an 39.10
I was in need of much kindness.
I was a single mother whose firstborn had recently passed away and whose only other child was spending Christmas with his father.
Dread filled my heart when I thought about the upcoming holiday. Christmas 2014 had seemed horrible enough. My 19-year-old had purchased a one-way ticket to hell years earlier–turning to substance abuse, most likely in part because of my end-stage cancer diagnosis in 2009–and he was dragging us along. We spent three long hours in a drug rehab facility. A thick blanket of pain hung heavily around each person as we ate, played bingo, and strained to make small talk. Anger, hurt, sorrow, fear, and powerlessness pervaded my being.
My son ended up doing what most heroin addicts do—he overdosed in June. Then a friend of his overdosed before Thanksgiving, bringing another cascade of grief.
What to do for Christmas this year? I wanted to avoid sobbing into a cup of tea all day. Lovely friends invited me to join them, and I am grateful, but it still would have been a horrible holiday. I knew I needed to get completely away from the memories for awhile.
Then I had a conversation with one of my sisters-in-law, followed by an invitation to Seattle for the holidays.
It was perfect. I left a week before Christmas and stayed well into the new year to avoid emotional triggers. They piled my lap with more gifts than I have received in decades. My sister-in-law cooked amazing meals and showed me the treasures she had been collecting for a museum she plans to open in Astoria, Oregon, in June. I also disappeared into my deceased parents’ past, scanning hundreds of old family slides and transcribing German letters.
My brother and his family acted with great kindness, and I am so grateful. I actually had a really nice Christmas.
Thriver Soup Ingredient:
If you know someone who has suffered a great loss, your kindness is deeply appreciated.