I am a breast cancer survivor that is doing very well. It has been a long journey that began right after Valentine’s Day 2017. As we all do, I was meandering down the path that is my life until that day and then it felt as if I was shoved off my happy path. It was as though I tripped and rolled down a steep embankment hitting trees, rocks, probably some poison ivy and landed disoriented on a hard packed path leading to a place I certainly had never experienced before. My life was redirected in just a few hours with exams, biopsys and my first chemo appointment.

Having been advised of what was coming, I handed my daughter the sissors to cut my long beautiful hair off so as not to suffer the indignity of watching it all fall out during chemo. Next I went shopping for a wig, and started on my new path to beat the cancer.

The gift of the whole process is that one just puts one foot in front of the other to get through the day at hand, never having the time or energy to process what was happening. But when chemo ended and my emotions started to come back, the grief of all that I'd lost began to show up. It was unbearable some days and I knew I needed to find help to deal with it.

I found some wonderful therapists, but the one thing that finally broke through my dark emotions was an art class. I began going to Gilda's Clubto an art class called "Breathe and Paint" taught by a wonderful artist-empath-healer by the name of Mary Zillman. She taught how to let ones emotions float to the surface and paint with those. The theme being to just let it all flow. My true healing began.