My father often said “I don’t understand why kids your age have to ‘find’ themselves” when I was younger and toured the US in a VW bus with my best friend, stopping at Rainbow Gatherings and the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies along the way. It took me more than twenty years to finally understand why, myself. And thus starts the beginning of my latest project, a new book that chronicles how I overcame a gynecological disorder (called adenomyosis – related to endometriosis) in which I was told my only hope was a hysterectomy. A year after my diagnosis, I reversed the symptoms, completely avoiding the hysterectomy, and doing so only via natural means. One of the biggest hurdles I had to overcome to start my healing process was chronic stress, which I didn’t even think I had. Peeling back the layers of what may actually be at the root of my chronic stress took me on the clichéd (but real) journey of self-discovery, in which I found myself all over again (or maybe for the first time, fully).
Among the greatest things that I learned was that I was always destined to be a writer. I mean, I knew that, a long time ago, but over the course of a couple of decades while pursuing a career path that wasn’t meant for me, as well as the inception of motherhood, my fate, my destiny, my childhood dream was forgotten. And you know what the Rolling Stones say in one of my all-time favorite songs (Ruby Tuesday):
“Lose your dreams and you will lose your mind.”
Well I am reclaiming my dreams in 1) the form of a creative non-fiction book — the kind of writing I always dreamed of doing — a departure from my nutrition research and scientific writing, its a personal account of how I overcame the disease by facing my stressors head on, and some of the surprising discoveries I found out about myself and my past along the way; and 2) poetry. Today I submitted four poems that I wrote recently to a poetry magazine, for the first time in my life. I’ve been writing poetry since the 5th grade. I am now almost 45. Its about time to believe in my ability to write and take the next step toward accomplishing my dreams!