I received a MFA in Acting and Directing for the theatre at the prestigious Trinity Repertory Theatre in Providence, RI, and started teaching immediately upon graduation at Rhode Island College, Providence College, Brown University and area children’s theatres. I mainly taught classes for beginning actors and non-theatre majors, and saw first hand how simple communication tools, breathing exercises, and basic stretching techniques empowered my students, and helped put them in charge of their lives.

 

 No one was more surprised than me. An avid yoga practitioner, out-doors enthusiast, hiker, swimmer, teacher, therapist and vegetarian- didn’t other people get cancer? As most of us have learned, it doesn’t matter. Life is not fair. She picks no favorites.

Not only was I sick, but I had no health insurance. I felt completely abandoned by the community I had been trying to serve. All of my teaching jobs and consulting work was on a freelance basis- meaning no benefits. I was angry, and disheartened.

I did a four month round of chemotherapy and one month of radiation. I complimented the Western treatment with daily yoga and meditation, light walks, weekly massage, reiki and acupuncture. I continued to teach part time, laughed as much as possible, ate well, and made sure to ask myself the deep questions daily.

Am I going to die? Why did this happen to me? Why does my family have to be put through this? Could I have done something differently?

I did my best to find answers. I read books, talked to therapists, healers, other patients, the guy at the gas station, holy men and women. I watched inspirational stories. I listened.

Finally, those questions started to change.

What is the message here? How can I help myself get better? What do I know how to do?

I knew how to breathe. I knew how to move. I knew how to find my story, and make some meaning out of this unpredicted turn of my path.

I learned how to ask for help. My friends in the theatre did benefit performances. I took my anger and frustration to the phone and into public offices, and learned how to make a nonsensical health care system work for me by asking question after question until I received answers.

Six months later, I was in complete remission. I was very lucky: I never had to take pain medication, never lost my appetite, did not lose my hair, nor my sense of humor, and was able to get out of bed every day. My enormous medical bills got paid. I give equal credit to my doctors, my friends and family, my own perseverance, and my yoga. I had faith in the love that was around me, and faith in my own body’s ability to heal by breathing and listening.

Everything went back to normal, I went back to teaching full time and working in the theatre community in Providence, but it was no longer enough. The cancer was a part of my story; it changed me forever. I knew I was not only an artist, but a healer. I felt a pull to come to the West, and start a practice, here, in the city of Angels, where all types of angels are called to live, work, and create a birthplace for stories to change and inspire the world.