The sky's the limit.
The Cielem’el Survival and Growth Journal evolved out of two web logs I have maintained over time.
Begun in 2009 when I was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 32, The Cielem’el Cancer Journal documented my trials, tribulations, and spiritual growth during breast cancer treatment, with information on the diagnoses, surgeries, chemotherapy treatments, radiation, and hormone therapy treatments, as well as all the personal and professional life stuff that still goes on throughout living a life with cancer. As a breast cancer survivor, I endeavor to inspire other young women like myself to fully engage and manage their cancer and treatments, and know that there are many women out there who are experiencing a similarly challenging emotional journey. Life doesn’t stop because you have cancer, it just gets more challenging.
About a year after finishing radiation, while still posting to The Cielem’el Cancer Journal, I started posting The Cielem’el Personal & Spiritual Growth Blog, which focused more clearly on areas of personal growth, self-development, and spiritual growth. My life journey and growth as a person neither began nor ended with cancer, and the Personal Growth blog was more of a continual journal of life experiences and learnings along my ongoing life journey beyond cancer. The journey honestly began when I was a newborn, shuffled and abused in multiple foster homes before being adopted by absolutely wonderful parents, and my life journey, consciously and continuously seeking personal growth, self development, and spiritual growth continues to evolve.
Over time it became clear that these two subjects cannot be divorced and maintained separately, because it is everything together that makes my web log what it is, meaning, an online journal of life experiences, survival, and growth from the perspective of someone who has survived multiple severe life trials and nurtured a conscious approach to personal and spiritual growth and self development. Hence, The Cielem’el Survival & Growth Journal. :)
The snow finally melted enough that I could get the RV out to the road, and I spent most of yesterday packing and loading the RV and prepping the house to be gone for a few months. I won’t be back in California again until May. I will be in South Dakota for most of April, for your First Communion […]
Continue reading »Today Stanley played with the cats while I cleared more snow of the roof and satellite dish and did some work. Stanley was playing chase with Mizzou and Seoul, but he never caught them. He’s so little he can go under the table chasing after the cats, but when they jump up high in the cat tree he gets left […]
Continue reading »Mom (a.k.a. Grams) told me two weeks ago that my nephew Cameron had sent something to me in the mail, but Stanley just arrived today. I believe Flat Stanley had something of an adventure just getting to me! Before coming out to my place, Stanley spent several extra days in Georgetown, which is the closest town to my home, being […]
Continue reading »Chakra Balancing For the first time in a very long time, I did the Deepak Chopra Chakra Balancing meditation. It felt pretty awesome; I feel bright and energized. It’s a good meditation. I don’t know why I’ve been so hesitant to use it again. It’s been years. I guess while I was working I never felt like I had enough […]
Continue reading »It’s amusing in a way that, after months on the road in my RV, I finally get back and spend less than a week in my house in El Dorado National Forest before leaving on a simple overnight trip that has now been more than a week in length. My house got snowed in, and I can’t get back with […]
Continue reading »Last night I gave myself a dose of my during-treatment forced keep-up-the-energy dance-through-the-pain don’t-bring-other-people-down experience. I haven’t pushed my feet so hard in a long, long time. I’m seriously paying for it today (and probably all week) and I wasted several Nucynta on trying to numb the brain to pain after a couple tandas, but that’s not the point. I […]
Continue reading »Whining About Dancing So it’s the first night of the Capital Swing Convention tonight, and I’m planning to go (after a nap and some serious grooming, man, do I ever let myself go to hell after a little surgery and a few days in the RV!). I’m glad to be going, and also upset, in a way. The last time […]
Continue reading »I was feeling guilty for dropping off Facebook for a couple very busy months at work, but it seems like a lot of people have be puttering down on Facebook. I’ve been generally chastising myself for losing momentum lately, but I think I’m getting things back on track now that I’m home. But I have a distraction. The thing is, […]
Continue reading »Today’s Rune: Isa. Standstill. Withdrawal. Ice. “The winter of the spiritual life is upon you. You may find yourself entangled in a situation to whose implications you are, in effect, blind. You may feel powerless to do anything except submit, surrender, even sacrifice some long-cherished desire. Be patient, for this is the period of gestation that precedes a rebirth. Positive […]
Continue reading »Spontaneous Combustion A couple weeks ago one of my best friends (arguably my Best friend) texted me that he’s going to be in Sac, then, like, Albuquerque, NM, Phoenix, AZ, and Las Vegas, NV on this business trip. Ah, the joys of traveling six days a week for work. (Not!) So anyway, last week I was thinking, heck, if one […]
Continue reading »The Funk I woke up at 5AM as usual but had a conference call at 5:30AM and then just a really busy day scheduled and I am sooooo burned out from the release and working ridiculously long hours every day for the past, what, seventeen days straight?!? I just felt sick, I couldn’t think, my hands burn like hell on […]
Continue reading »Man, I never had this problem on Blogger. I can’t find my actual e-mail for all the blog comment approval requests flooding my inbox, and 90% of them are spam. Who has time to read through a hundred comments every day to find the eight or so that deserve a response or posting approval? When I started the Personal & […]
Continue reading »Wow. That was a moment of grace if I ever had one. If you’ve been on the blog this month, you know I’ve been thinking about music recently, and how it can affect our emotions. Music has always been a part of my life. My mom sang to me when I was small. I started piano lessons at five, singing […]
Continue reading »When I talk with someone and share some story from my life, trying to be empathetic and supportive, that in and of itself is rewarding to me. Writing or telling my stories makes me relive the experience, so when it’s a good story (like, pretty much every story that involves my parents, for example) I feel good in the telling […]
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