Happy Food Day to everyone! Because we all EAT!

Here is one idea of what you can do on Food Day... [unordered_list style="star"]

• Pick apples for awesomesauce applesauce.
• Donate your time at a soup kitchen. (If you live in the Hudson Valley, Queen's Galley won the 2012 Local Hero Award!)
• Post information about farms to real time farms.
• Make a stew from the farmers market that you can freeze and enjoy later.
• Send a thank you prayer to all of the farmers who work so hard to feed us.
• Invite all of your friends over for potluck.
• Design your chicken coop.

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Okay, more than one idea - it is just so EXCITING!! Check out the Food Day site for TONS of ideas, events, and opportunities to share.

Two weeks with John of God - supercalifragilistic expialidocious-ness

This falls squarely into the Miracle category - because I spent the whole time meditating and talking to Source/Essence/God/Cosmic Consciousness - whatever you want to call her and however you want to visualize him - that works for me. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious seems as good a word as any for mind-blowing, amazing, incredible, life-changing, awe-inspiring, peaceful, exciting, loverly, happy-making, faith-inducing, awesomesauce two weeks that I had in Brazil with John of God.

I am still grokking all of the good things that are filtering down as I stand here in absolute Faith that all is well (something that I had received glimpses of prior to going and that I am currently swimming in). As I shared with a friend of mine, I am surfing on a wave of Joy!

"You know Corinna, that joy never has to end. You could ride that wave FOREVER!"

So that is my plan. I am going to work on riding this wave forever. Set my intention to be filled with love and light and love. Did I mention love? Here are some pictures from my time down there. I would have a video from John of God doing surgeries, but I was in the current room, bathed in bliss (and you can find those very easily on YouTube).

We arrived to Brasilia, visiting a peace temple before arriving to Abadiania.

Our pousada was very heavily barricaded, one had to be buzzed in to gain access to the hammocks and the parrots in the garden.

(and yes, everyone wears white when you go in front of the Entity - it allows them to read your vibrations more easily)

The Casa is blue and white, peaceful, relaxing, beautiful, full of light and love and love. (Did I mention love?). It is bumping Wednesday through Friday, when the Entity is present. Otherwise it is mostly quiet ... mostly.

Every Wednesday through Friday many people gather in the great hall to be seen by the Entity - people from all ALL over the world. I am once again so grateful that English is my first language - everything at the Casa happened in Portuguese and English.

Here is our group with Medium Joao, after two weeks of bliss.

Thank you thank you thank you!!

I am filled with peace, love, excitement, faith, hope, compassion, anticipation, learnings, and miracles - Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!!!

Hello John of God. Goodbye phone.

I have seen John of God twice at Omega in Rhinebeck. He is not coming this year, so Mohammad is coming to the mountain. When I was in Germany one of the fabulous people I met there had a video of him and was making noises about a trip to see him. I became re-invigorated and took my own plunge to make the arrangements to join a group heading down (or up, depending on what side of the equator you are on...). I have packed just white (because it was early and I didn't want to think too much), I am not bringing plugs for phones, or wireless, or computers, or the kindle... I am bringing A Course in Miracles, a notebook, my mala beads, (perhaps a small camera so I can record what happens on these pages), and me.

as well as a great deal of anticipation...

(Considering that I could barely talk for a week after I saw him last - which is a big feat for me - I can only imagine what swimming in this bliss for 10 whole days is going to do to me. Or rather, what I am going to co-create to allow to happen to me. Cheers to cleansing and clearing and healing and yippie!!)

A day for Sabbath

I have been trying very hard to implement a day where nothing is planned. A true day of sabbath, rest, rejuvenation, ability to play, or roll with what sings to you. As Eckart Tolle says - if life is the dancer and we (each one of us in our uniqueness of being ourselves - ie in my Corinna-ness as Corinna) are the dance - a day of rest allows us to fully honor the spontaneity of what our hearts and bellies might want to tell us to do. I tell you, we have been able to pull off two true Sabbath Sundays in the last 5 weeks. TWO out of five is not very good odds. It could be that I do not have a community that functions around such a day. If I were an orthodox jew this would be part of my culture and there would be support and honoring of such a day (I love Anne-Marie Slaughter's take on this). But as it is, because we wake up so early the weekend is often the only time to plan outings with new friends - so what are you left with, not seeing someone for three weeks because your Sunday is supposed to be sacrosanct? Hence the 2 out of 5.

But darn it, I am committed to this idea and want to make it a habit. One true day of naps and walks and wanderings and belly buttons listenings.

Aufedersein Bad Salzhausen

IMG_4589

The platelet count and Dr. Herzog agreed,  6 cycles of the modified BEACOPP were all that my bone marrow was going to stomach (I hope platelets have stomachs, that would make me very happy). As such, I flew home, had another PET scan (which showed just one spot which we will radiate), met with all sorts of MDs, had my infected port removed, blah blah data data.

It is nice to be home, it is nice to be able to cook what I want when I want to, it is nice to sleep in my own bed, scratch my own kitty, kiss my husband's nose.

I will miss the sauna, the amazing peeps I met from all over the world, the kindness of the nurses and the MDs, and the relaxed attitude the clinic held towards certain things (like eating salad while severely neutropenic). Aufedersein Bad Salzhausen.

I spent 92 days in Germany (two days thankfully were not counted by the German government - otherwise I would have overstayed my visa and Germany may have gotten annoyed).

I am working on our new life in New York - get the house built, planning what kind of animals (chickens and ducks AND goats?) and planting and growing goodies again...I miss having a garden.

As a very wise woman told me - "If you stop planning you are surrendering." - not an option. So, planning I am.

A beautiful dear friend of mine (you can read her blog!) shared with me this quote from Gilda Radner - it is the perfect pause at the end of this particular chapter.

I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next. Delicious Ambiguity.

Thank you for being with me on this story of mine. Delicious Ambiguity indeed.

Weisbaden, Hildegard von Bingen, und Kloster Eberbach

This was not with trains, this was with a rented car and a SatNav (thank you British shorthand for a new word for a Tom-Tom). We went to Weisbaden, "the Nice of Germany" according to our guidebook, the Hildegard of Bingen's abbey, and a beautiful Gothic monastery - Eberbach.

Weisbaden feels like Nice to me because the buildings were very fin de siecle, with the balconies and whatnot.

Well, except for the Rathaus of course. (City Hall)

Hildegard's original abbey was lost in the 30 years war (or the 100 years war, one of those). So her current abbey was built about 100 years ago in the Romanesque style.

They also make their own wine from the vineyards around, which cracks me up.

On the way back to Bad Salzhausen we found the monastery - Kloster Eberbach - where they filmed the Name of the Rose...(which reminds me I need to watch it again.) They also make their own wine.

The scene from the Name of the Rose was filmed in the former dormitory for the monks - apparently the largest single Gothic room in Germany.

I think my favorite building from the complex is the Orangerie (and the sun came out just in honor of the picture).

Halumping around Hesse (und medical update from Deutschland)

Those of you who read my book know the word boring is anathema to me. Instead I will simply say I have found myself more and more drawn to exploring outside of my glorious village of Bad Salzhausen. This region of Germany is known as Hesse and it is served by a perfect train system (which leaves at 4 minutes past the hour and at the big stations all of the clocks move in PERFECT synchronicity, one could dance to it).

My first trip was to Bad Nauheim - where Elvis Presley was posted...

From what I understand, he refused to stay in the barracks and instead took over the top two floors of the Grand Hotel.

(It is good to be the king.)

There is a beautiful garden and spa...

Bad Nauheim also has springs, an extensive thermal bath complex, and a MUCH bigger inhalatorium than Bad Salzhausen ...

Nearby to Bad Nauheim is Friedberg, which has a beautiful cathedral and a castle with a very distinctive 13th century tower...

Though I had flown into its airport, I had not yet walked the streets. So on another day my knitting, the kindle, and my water bottle visited Frankfurt! (which felt a bit like London in that one could tell that there were many building opportunities after the war).

I like the ceiling of the train station...

I also like the heating system aesthetic for Baroque houses. Goethe's house was rebuilt after the war with all of the original interiors (that had been taken out and saved from the bombing)...

I got turned around walking back to the station, but I am 95% sure that this is the opera house...

Next trip was to Marburg, the original capital of Hesse (from the 12th century again). It is now home to a big university, a huge mass of pedestrian streets...

the original castle...

a very impressive Gothic cathedral, and a huge number of beautifully preserved buildings...

It is nice to bop about on the train. I am going to continue to do so as time and energy permits.

On the medical front, I have finished my 5th cycle of the modified BEACOPP. My platelets seem to slower and slower to rise again, which the md thinks is because my bone marrow is tired and perhaps I may not be able to do as many cycles as he originally thought. I expect it will become clear in time.

In the meantime, I am receiving local hyperthermia and infusions daily, walking, breathing, knitting, reading, eating, swimming (on Sundays), and generally reveling in this beautiful life.

How can one not when surrounded by buildings with fishscales?

A walk around the Bad Salzhausen sculpture park (und update)

So yesterday I started cycle 3 of hopefully 8 cycles (8 cycles of what, you ask? read all about it here!) - a full body hyperthermia where I SWEAT like a big sweating sweaty sweat person (according to the nurse I was "schwimmen en de table", love it!).

Today I walked my husband up to the top of the hill to catch the train back to the station to catch a plane so he could take a bus to take a train to take a taxi to get in the car to drive home (whew, and yes it was a LOT easier to get home from DTW).

Before I started my infusion for day 2 of chemo I walked around the park and took pictures of the sculptures...and I want to share because they are beautiful!

I also want to share a bit of where the money is going for all of you who have SO generously given. Here is a small breakdown of costs (200€ for the daily local hyperthermia, 2600€ for the once a fortnight full body hyperthermia, 1800€ for the chemotherapy I purchase every two weeks, 16.50€ for beautiful food every day at the clinic, 45€ a day for the infusions I receive, etc etc)...So far the Universe has sent along about $11,200 - THANK YOU SO MUCH!

It is really nice to pay for something and feel as though there are all of these angels surrounding me and paying with me. It feels as though I am part of a big beautiful world - which I AM!

In addition to supporting the German economy, what am I doing here, you may ask? Well - I am studying A Course in Miracles - which is blowing my mind in how it looks at the ego and God and all of that good stuff.

I am continuing to work with Real Time Farms (albiet in an abbreviated fashion).

I am making new friends and learning a small bit of German. Genau!

Thank you Detroit News Herald!

Check out this great article from Amy Bell - this amazing world of technology means that I was able to talk to her in Germany last week via my computer. Thank you Amy! ANN ARBOR: Former resident featured on "The Doctors" for her 'mind over approach' to Hodgkins Lymphoma

Today about to head in for my day 8 of infusion goodness from the "red couch" waiting area - one of the residents at the clinic told me that his sister lives in Ann Arbor, saw this article, and asked him about it!

Life is AMAZING!