“And now, these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love…”1 Corinthians 13:13. This inspirational bible quote provided me comfort and fortitude as I embarked on chemotherapy and immunotherapy for a rare blood cancer in March of 2019 through August of 2020. Today, on Rare Disease Day, I’m honoring with this blog, my journey and those of others. Worldwide, this day recognizes the challenges of patients along with building awareness with policy makers on the importance of action to advocate for treatments and education.
My rare disease is Waldenstrom’s Macroglubenemia (WM), a non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. I received my diagnosis on October 29, 2013 and was given a life expectancy of 5-7 years. Through God’s grace, a divine plan for my life’s purpose, my healthy lifestyle, and expert medical care combined with faith, hope and love, I’m blessed to be embracing my beautiful life in remission.
Faith gave me the power to believe that every challenge is for life lessons to be learned… for the evolution of my soul…for the revealing of my true purpose. Faith allowed me to believe in the healing power I possess; we all possess. Connecting with my mind, body and spirt allowed my healing to occur at several dimensions of wholeness, beyond just my physical well-being. For me, faith was an incredible superpower driven by my belief in God and the gifts he gave me to be resilient, to choose happy and to empower others with hope.
I define HOPE as Hold Onto Possibilities Everyday! Our minds sometimes function like a magnet, attracting negative thoughts and allowing those thoughts to spiral into countless, unresolved scenarios of gloom and doom. However, we can train our minds to envision the good possibilities and dismiss the bad. Everyday unfolds possibility! It’s all in perception… how you perceive your life as a victim or victor..allowing your past to define your today or you creating a bright tomorrow… thinking you are not worthy of the dream you want or being disciplined in action and faith to make it happen. If you are dreaming it, your soul is calling you. God, the Universe, provides signs all the time for our path and affirmations are also bestowed from loved ones. Recurring numbers, butterflies, dragonflies, random acts of kindness are all signs from above. You just need to be open and believe. Affirmations nurture hope.
Possibilities everyday reveal the many gifts we already have, if we choose to see them. Possibility provides the venue to dream. When you manifest, truly feel the achievement of your goal and what your life would be like living your dream. That’s the key to making possibility a reality. Feel your energy inside while manifesting your dream. By feeling your dream already occurring, you create the external vibrational match for God, the Universe, to put in motion the path to your intention. Always HOPE!
Do I have negative thoughts at times? Yes. However, when a negative thought crosses my mind, I dismiss it. I do not give it my attention or energy to create the worst case scenario, downward spiral. I focus on the present and envision a great outcome. Train your brain. What you think affects you on a cellular level and there is science data to prove that! Read Dr. Bruce Lipton’s Book “The Biology of Belief!” Where I place my energy and attention towards manifests. It’s the law of attraction. I choose to manifest vital health, wealth, happiness and love.
Corinthians states, “But the greatest of these gifts is love.” For me, love has grown exponentially because I learned to love myself. As I connected with my mind, body spirit, I realized that I was quite critical of myself on the inside. I did not feel worthy. I learned through the many hours of healing instruction, that when you lack self-love and worthiness, there’s a disconnect in the cosmos – for real. And, once I learned to love me, my holistic healing process really excelled! By embracing self-love and realizing my value, I was able to help other WM patients locally by improving patient protocols (since our cancer is so rare) and contributing to a national WM forum. Also, my cancer support group Faith & Gratitude welcomed me with such love and compassion. In turn, I was able to share my journey to help inspire. Such a beautiful orchestration of paths divinely crossed to share love.
Faith, hope and love – powerful gifts from God that we can unwrap and joyfully embrace everyday with an open heart!