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. :)
Everyone we meet in our lives is there for a reason. Maybe it’s just to get you to move over so the muddy gutter water doesn’t splash up on you, or maybe they are in your life to help you learn a lesson. I feel very strongly about that second point, because Artie’s death tore apart my life; I became the […]
Continue reading »I have had two unbelievable experiences of spiritual oneness specifically related to my professional ballroom dancing. Actually, now that I think about it, the realizations of what I could be to my students, as well as what I could create with a group of people (the audience), are surely and specifically why those four or five years of my life […]
Continue reading »Went under the knife again today. Exactly two years after the first surgery, isn’t that kind of morbidly ironic? For some reason, once I was in the room getting prepped with the IV and everything, I didn’t want my parents in there with me, I just wanted to be quietly alone. The nurse brought them in for just a minute […]
Continue reading »I talk with many, many people about dealing with grief, for countless different and unique reasons, but the commonality is loss followed by grieving. I feel like something of an expert on grieving, I’ve done everything both to experience and feel it as deeply as possible and to let go without losing everything. It’s not a balancing act, it’s a […]
Continue reading »What annoys you? Waiting in line? Slow service in a restaurant? Getting a half-caf non-fat instead of a decaf non-whip at Starbies? Car problems? Traffic. No one likes traffic. Unhelpful store clerks, or just overly helpful store clerks that won’t leave you alone? Kids crying or worse yet screaming in the seat directly behind you on the airplane?!? I didn’t […]
Continue reading »Uuuuuggggggghhhhhhhhhhh. I feel awful. This new medicine is making me sick to my stomach and lightheaded. I just threw up. But I haven’t been on it long enough to know if it’s going to help with the neuropathy. I have to try to stick it out at least a few weeks. I’m already out of crackers, the only thing that […]
Continue reading »GOOD NEWS!!! There’s hope again, thanks to a new neurologist, a completely clear diagnosis, and neuropathy drugs that haven’t been tried yet. Today was over-the-top great beyond my conception in terms of renewing hope that some day I might be able to touch things and stand up without burning pain. The diagnosis was so clean and complete that I’m a […]
Continue reading »OMG, I can’t even begin to tell you how lucky I am. Night before last, there seemed to be a slightly stinky smell on the side of the house where the septic tank is. Yesterday I cleaned everything I could, and even completely drained and rinsed and dried out the entire aquarium. The top section of the aquarium, where the […]
Continue reading »My poor mom has a tendency of phrasing things to often walk me into saying that even though I’ve been through all this stuff, I’m making it ok and I’m happy. I always feel bad when it comes up because I can tell her I know I have a good life and it’s much better than lots of other people […]
Continue reading »We have all lost someone or something we loved dearly. I honestly don’t think you would be engaged with Celem’el and reading this right now if you had always had a perfectly happy perfectly easy perfectly perfect life. If you’ve never been knocked down, you don’t know that it can be hard to get up and you have no point […]
Continue reading »I haven’t been writing because I haven’t wanted to post anything about work to my blog. I worked an INSANE number of hours in October, November, December, and January, and today when I had my review with Kilgore I found out that we’re all in agreement that MBBC needs a director, but that I’m not the right person for the […]
Continue reading »I’ve already lived my allotted nine lives and somehow I keep surviving . . . I didn’t figure out why I kept surviving until October of 2010. The story of my nine lives really is its own story, and it’s much like Baby Cherrie Gets a Home – Where My Life Began in that much of this is fundamental to […]
Continue reading »I’ve become quite terrible about keeping up my blog, and yet on a daily basis there really isn’t anything interesting to write about. I work all the time, I spent most of November and December at my parents house and worked every weekend, and the neuropathy is a constant reminder that my body is still really messed up. And then, […]
Continue reading »As a newborn, I was shuffled through seven foster homes in six weeks because, it seemed, no one wanted me. I cried constantly. I trembled and shook. And whenever someone touched me I flinched and reacted like I had been shocked. Now stop. Think about it for a minute. What do you think that kind of experience right out of […]
Continue reading »Now that makes sense, this tenor started as a baritone. His lower register has some depth and richness, but his upper register lacks the brightness of a natural tenor, so he just sounds shrill and forced to me. I love music, but after 10 bars I was ready to escape. Ouch, my ears. And the pulse of the excessive volume […]
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