So, where were we? Oh, yes, we were frolicking along the path with our heroine en route to a second round of exploratory surgery (lymph node dissection) in May ’09. At this point in the journey, the terrain begins to shift as she …
(Wait a minute. The author might want to distance herself by writing in third person, but, no. First person is the truth and the way for me to fully integrate my Lump Lessons, so first person it must be.)
… the terrain begins to shift as I grow out of my little brown serious suede journal as is spelled out in that journal in a passage written after a Reiki session:
Julie Connor, the Reiki master, had hands so hot they were sweaty.
(Excuse me again. I need to veer off path for another moment as there’s a persistent wild hare pouncing about my feet. [Scroll to the bottom of The Gate Keeper to find my author’s note about wild hares.] Well, this hare insists that I tell you Julie’s story. The story that she told me in empathy and to reassure me of hope.)
Ten years ago, Julie was diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer. Her’s was an arduous journey that involved differing pathology reports and visits to three of New York’s top hospitals, and two rounds of surgery. The first surgery removed half of her thyroid in the Spring of 2001, and then the remaining half was removed in Autumn just weeks after 9/11. In Mid-Winter 2002, she drank the prescribed radioactive iodine to destroy any remaining cancer cells; and in June of the Summer of ’02, a CAT scan and MRI detected another tumor with potential lymph node invasion in her neck. A third surgery was scheduled and just three days before, a friend called to wish her well and suggested that Julie ask her son Ryan for help. Ryan was only five years old. The idea was so absurd that Julie felt she had to give it a try.
“Yes, Mommy, I can make that lump go away with my love,” Ryan replied.
Julie & Ryan
The little boy then bowed his head and put a hand on either side of Julie’s neck, closed his eyes for several seconds, then opened his eyes and said, “I have to do it again one more time today and two more times tomorrow.” So, Ryan did touch his mother’s neck twice on Wednesday, twice on Thursday, and on Friday, when Julie showed up for the appointed surgery, the lump was gone.
Julie has been practicing Reiki and studying energy healing systems ever since. In her words: “This sparked a huge interest in what it would be like to touch another human being with the intention to heal.”
Ryan also studies Reiki and is a Level II practitioner, as well as a bright, creative, and typically energetic teenager with an active academic and social life.
(With a twitch of its tail, a satisfied hare has bounded off back into the forest. Now I shall continue on my path with the journal passage in May 2009 that portended an attitude shift.)
Julie Connor, the Reiki master, had hands so hot they were sweaty. Because I had a hunch that Julie is a psychic sort, I asked her before I lay down on the massage table to inform me of any visions or impressions that she received while touching me. My experience with Reiki is that it’s from wordless realms – beyond the intellect – and so practitioners try to keep their minds out of the way of their intuitive or spiritual guidance. My wordsmith self wants to attach stories and ideas to the experience, and I tend to have visions when I lay on hands, so I asked and I was rewarded.
She said, “Salt baths every other day.” Julie is not the first intuitive to recommend salt baths. Renate Moore repeatedly bade me to take Epsom salt baths as a detox and energy balancing agent. My problem with salt baths is that I rarely if never give myself time to soak in a bath. I take showers with a mission to get clean and get on with it.
Then Julie said that she saw an open window with curtains blowing in the breeze, and the beach. I yearned and so anxiously quipped that I hoped the vision was of a pending vacation rather than pending hospital stays; but also took note that it was another reference to salt water and relaxation.
Lastly she said, “You must do art for pleasure and just for yourself;” and I started to cry.
I don’t know how to do art or anything purely for pleasure. Everything I do is goal oriented with motivation for self improvement or healing, so that I might serve; and, for that reason, everything feels like pressure, so, frequently, I don’t do it.
I think I recently went on strike. I stopped writing in this journal because a few people told me that I “should write about the breast cancer experience.” The word “should” made me not want to write at all. But I love to write. 
Maybe I can write through the feelings of pressure until I return to my authentic heart. And maybe I can write in color?! I can take baby steps toward pleasure, buy a big journal without lines so that I can doodle and scribble and feel free to muck about.
(to be cont.) L.
ps: Reviewing this lump lesson prompted me to turn off the computer, dust off the box of Epsom salts I bought a year and a half ago, and take a bath. Next time, I’m gonna get messy before the salt bath. If that’s your pleasure, I hope you’ll do the same.
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