Guest Article – micheleplumbstowell.org

216 Thank you, COVID-19, on this Winter Solstice

In this the darkest day in the northern hemisphere we can express our gratitude that spring will come. “Thank you, for the Light!”

Guest Article
By Kwami Nyamidie

As we celebrate the winter solstice, we thank you, COVID-19, for giving us an opportunity to experience our inter-connectedness, even if it meant we had to walk through the valley of frustration, sorrow, and death.

History will remember 2020 as one of the years in human history when a virulent pandemic brought the world again to its knees.

COVID-19 Long term effects

Some 1.69 million infected patients around the globe have succumbed to COVID-19. Like a devastating hurricane, the relentless SARS-CoV-2 virus has left in its aftermath several millions of people whose lives have been turned upside down, suffering with mysterious long-term effects.

Gregory Poland, M.D., head of Mayo Clinic’s Vaccine Research Group in Rochester, Minnesota, describes these as “the significant cellular level damage this virus can cause.” There’s lasting injury to heart muscles, long term harm to the air sacs in the lungs, and impairment to the brain leading sometimes to seizures, strokes, and temporary paralysis.

Gregory Poland Gregory Poland, M.D., head of Mayo Clinic’s Vaccine Research Group in Rochester, Minnesota, describes the long term effects of the wicked virus.

COVID-19 Economic, Social, and Political Impact

This minuscule virus’s economic, social, and political toll has equally been devastating. Lockdowns have affected travel of all kind. As it peaked in different counties in the United States, religious gatherings, businesses, schools, and non-essential government agencies were closed. Some businesses have been permanently swept away.

Unemployment has rendered some families homeless. Some can’t feed their families. Some political leaders have lost power because of their inadequate handling of the pandemic that blindsided them. Grandparents couldn’t play with their grandchildren. Thousands couldn’t visit their loved ones isolated in clinics or hospitals in intensive care units. There was no time for relatives and friends to grieve the dead in this year like no other.

Cars Line Up For Hours, Waiting For Food Distribution At Pittsburgh International Airport

Breath of Death or Breath of Life

How is it possible that such a virus originating from Wuhan, China, can infect so many people from almost all countries in just a year? Yes, some remote Pacific Island states including Kiribati, Tuvalu, and the Cook Islands have succeeded, so far, in shielding their territories from the virus’s scourge.

The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention web site explains how the virus spreads: “When people with COVID-19 cough, sneeze, sing, talk, or breathe they produce respiratory droplets. These droplets can range in size from larger droplets (some of which are visible) to smaller droplets. Small droplets can also form particles when they dry very quickly in the airstream.”

Spreading on the wings of breath, SARS-CoV-2 turned what brings life into the carrier of death. And in its capacity to spread like wild fire, has given us a clearer understanding of our inter-connectedness.

For thousands of years, wise men and women have revealed to us that we human beings are interrelated at our very core. But this remains a difficult concept for us to grasp. How can you be connected to 7.8 billion people all over the world?

Aloha Spirit

The Hawaiian word “Aloha” expresses a range of feelings that include: “love, affection, gratitude, kindness, pity, compassion, grief, the modern common salutation at meeting.” It can also mean “goodbye.” Aloha has no exact translation in the English language. A deeper meaning of the word emerges from the two words “alo” which means “sharing”, or sometimes “coming together” and “ha”, which means “breath, life energy.” Aloha Spirit symbolizes the understanding that the nearly eight billion people alive today share the same breath. That is the basis for our love for one another.

An attempt at explaining The Meaning of Aloha . Celebration of our unity during the Winter Solstice

In 2016, HuffPost published an article on Buddhism. It explained that “When Buddha gained enlightenment, it was the realization that inter-connectedness is the true nature of all beings. We are not only connected to other people, but to the air through our breathing and to the universe through light.” The air we breathe is a primary channel of our connection.

If it took about one year for the virus to be carried to millions infected through the medium of human breath, it’s easy to see that the air we breathe in an average lifespan of 75 or so years can circulate several times through may be 99% of the entire human race.

But “breath” is not just air. It’s energy. It’s prana, the force that animates us.

COVID-19 helps us realize that we’re connected at the energetic level through breath to all human beings and that what we transmit can affect others. Mother Nature has designed an experiment to prove to us that we are connected through breath. The corollary of this insight is that if we send out positive energy through our breath, it will go to the entire world for good.

Winter Solstice: “Thank you, for the Light!”

How do we do that? When we fill our minds with positive thoughts, they imprint our breaths for the good of us all. As you flood your awareness with words of love, and peace, and gratitude, your breath, instead of spreading a virus, sends out a sound, which is a vibration. The vibration turns into energy that circulates the world.

This Winter Solstice Day, and throughout this holiday season, is an appropriate time to test this for ourselves. In this the darkest day in the northern hemisphere we can express our gratitude that spring will come. “Thank you, for the Light!” Just us we shall come out of the darkness of the winter solstice, so we shall rise out of the Shadow from the Valley of Death, in whatever way this appears darkness appears to us.

A magical mantra for nurturing a blissful life | JayaShri Maathaa Thank you, COVID-19, on this Winter Solstice

Let these words spring out from our lips as we wake up in the morning. Let them stimulate our minds throughout the day. As we take our turns in queues, as we wait for our smartphones or computers to restart, or update or download, as we get ready for the traffic light to change let us remember to express gratitude for the light that never fails. “Thank you, for the Light!”

Gratitude for the Silver Linings

Let us be grateful for all the silver linings that COVID-19 (caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus) brought us even as we are kicking and screaming.

184 Thanksgiving Reflections

We cringe at the way that colonists later celebrated the deaths of almost a thousand indigenous people through additional thanksgiving feasts, wince to hear from the mouths of African Americans how their families were stolen from their homes and dragged to this country in chains, writhe to see the way many humans in our country are still striving to obtain rights and obtain the ability to just be heard.

By Nyasha Stowell

As we gather, or in this case don’t gather, for Thanksgiving around a table this year, I wonder what does it mean to us? Is it just the beginning of another holiday season? The passage of time marked by the winding down of another year? A celebration of colonization? Perhaps a bit of all those things.

A teaspoon of being thankful to be here, when there are more than 250,000 Americans whose lives have been ended by a virus allowed to run rampant. A pinch of appreciation for another year on this planet and the lessons we’ve learned. Just a smidge of that awkward feeling, celebrating some “historical event” very clearly written from a fully European perspective.

Thanksgiving curriculum back in the 90’s was an over simplified affair. Creating some black pilgrim hats with shiny buckles out of construction paper, the idea of “Indians” in feather headbands and deer skin clothes, this strange mythology of white people saved by indigenous allies who didn’t want to see them starve, it all smacks now as propaganda taught to children. Fake news. Since the 90’s, I’ve learned a lot more about that first Thanksgiving. It’s not really the wholesome illustrated book depiction I grew up with.

A painting of Thanksgiving in Plymouth by Jennie Augusta with White settlers sitting around a table, a woman bending to attend to her baby in a crib while Native Americans look on in the background. — Thanksgiving in Plymouth By Jennie Augusta Brownscombe National Museum of Women in the Arts

Now, what does that really mean? Should we shut down Thanksgiving? Banish a holiday that continues to celebrate some mythology connected to European exceptionalism, while ignoring the inconvenient truths of the time period? Remove the only thing left standing in the way of Christmas music’s slow takeover of the entire year? I don’t think that’s necessarily the answer, although I seriously hope that schools now have curriculum that presents a far less fictional view of that moment in history.

Can we salvage something of Thanksgiving from the mishmash of European idealism and actually focus our attention elsewhere? Should we even do so? Would that step only serve to further silence the innate issues that come along with the holiday’s premise?

Not questions I think anyone really wants to answer, or at least any reasonably guilty European descendant. It’s a question that requires actually looking to the real story of Thanksgiving and wallowing just a little in our own discomfort. And of course, since no one alive today was there, and the “new world” seems to have an unfortunate knack for silencing indigenous voices, there really isn’t a clear view of the real story in any case.

The general consensus, if you look to a string of European writers (irony? I think not) who come up on Google when you search out the true story of Thanksgiving, is that the Plymouth Colony was having a three day celebratory feast and that when the indigenous Wampanoag tribe heard them making a ruckus by shooting off guns they arrived either in concern that there was some kind of conflict (the tribe having recently made an alliance with the settlers) or perhaps just to stare at these Europeans and their recklessly wasteful actions (You know, people only too aware of their limited resources, shooting guns into the air. Does it get more American than that?) and then stayed on to enjoy the party. In any case, not really the warm and fuzzy story taught to me as a child.

We have in this country an enduring paradox between what we enjoy hearing and reality that really strives to paint every aspect of life. Part of the reason behind this is the simple silencing of those we’d rather not hear. We cringe at the way that colonists later celebrated the deaths of almost a thousand indigenous people through additional thanksgiving feasts, wince to hear from the mouths of African Americans how their families were stolen from their homes and dragged to this country in chains, writhe to see the way many humans in our country are still striving to obtain rights and obtain the ability to just be heard. (Or even some of us just so against the fact of a pandemic in this country, that we’re willing to risk other’s lives and make the issue of wearing masks a literal hill to die on.)

The basest and most simplified versions of history are the ones that are easiest to cling to since they’re the ones that paint our ancestors best. That paint us best. But just because something feels good, makes us feel less guilt, less pain, less worry, doesn’t make it right.

So when you sit down to Thanksgiving this year (please, for the love of everyone in your life, for your grandmother, for your nieces and nephews, for the poor little old lady down the street, within your own household and without a single guest more, unless they are attending through the miracle that is technology), reflection is necessary.

I don’t know what the answer is. I am not even sure what it is we ought to be reflecting on. But maybe if we just think about something more than the gravy and turkey on the table in front of us, we’ll do something good for our world.

126. You Are Never Alone

The year before last year, my past beloved partner, Xamuel, died while biking to me for a date at the Buddhist monastery where I used to live. He was struck by a truck about two minutes away from me. He was 34; full of life, love, wisdom, and dreams. I was so in love with him

Indrayani Ananda

Everything is constantly shifting and changing. We are just under the illusion that things stay the same. Like a river, the self is simply a flow of causes and conditions. When you try to hold onto it, it will slip through your fingers like water.

The entire cosmos is like this. Going, flowing, moving… never static. To the cosmos and the fundamental nature of existence, we are just particles among other particles mixing with each other, all together in one Spiritual Dharma body.

We never really leave each other because we are inherently eternally connected in our natures. The illusion is that we are separate individuals. So, when I have a thought of someone I’ve lost and love dearly, I close my bodily eyes, and open my spiritual eyes. My spiritual eyes move through the heart, my body, and outward….and reveal that my grandmother, my beloved Xamuel, and all others are within “me”… they are me.. we are each other. I know this may seem strange or difficult to experience, but underneath the layers we impose upon existence with our own minds lies this beautiful truth: you are not alone.

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The Buddhas, Boddhisattvas, and all other enlightened beings are everywhere, in every mote of dust… in every atom.. in every multiverse contained within everything you see, hear, touch, smell, taste… there as protectors for guidance.. all participating in sublime pervasive Nirvana! Call to them as your own fundamental enlightened nature to help you enter the flow of The enlightened mind.. Amituofo .. Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva Mahasattva..

My grandmother to whom I was very close raised me, fed me, and loved me very much. She passed away unexpectedly last year from health issues. I continue to think of her most days and dream of her frequently. I often cry for her in my dreams. The loss of her really shook my Native family because she was our anchor, our greatest elder. She was the voice of our family with all her strength, integrity, and fierceness.

My mother continues to grieve the loss of her mother, my grandmother See’ei. When my grandmother passed away, I was in California while she was in Washington. I found out over phone that she died and couldn’t stop crying. On her behalf, I recited Buddhist sutras, mantras, and various other prayers for her journey ahead…

The day he died, we had planned to meet for falafel, fruit, veggies, and tea. I had prepared a special meal for us to have at my organic produce farm at the monastery. He was a mesoamerican farmer/gardener/seed keeper and I was so excited to show my farm to him. He never showed up that day.

I was so confused and sad. It did not make sense. Three days later, I found out from a friend who worked on the farm with me that his friend passed away and that he might not make it to the farm that day. I felt sorry for his loss.

We continued to talk about the farm, but something inside me wanted to ask him for his friend’s name. He told me his friend’s name was Xamuel. At the moment I realized that he was talking about my Xamuel, my whole reality fell apart. I had never experienced such pain before.

I grieved his loss so deeply for months. The hardest time was the first couple months. I felt like I was leaving my body because I did not want to stay on this planet anymore. In order to process my grief and help Xamuel on his journey, I recited sutras, mantras, prayers, and songs to the Buddhas, Boddhisatvas, protectors, my guru Master Hsuan Hua, and the higher nature.

Death in Buddhism and Karmic Destiny — You are never alone. There is no death. “No doubt you are crying because you don’t know where I am going, but if you knew you wouldn’t need to cry.” The Nirvana of Buddha. City of 10,000 Buddhas.

I had never cried so much. Fortunately, I had the support of some friends during this time as well. I would not have made it though without their support. The City of Ten Thousand Buddhas carried me through my grief. The whole community could feel my pain. They held me with their wisdom and compassion. I knew it was my spiritual job to accept guidance during that time and to try to be as patient as possible with my heart and mind.

For both my grandmother and Xamuel, I engaged in the standard 49 day after death devotional practice of Indigenous and Asian traditions. My Native ancestors like Buddhists engaged in selfless acts for the dead for weeks, months, or years after their bodily transition.

I followed in these traditions with daily vegan food offerings, giving gifts to others, donating to organizations, and as much mindful practices as possible. And, during these practices, I would shed fears and sadness that came from my mind. I transformed those thoughts into compassion, peace, and insight.

During the times I grieved the loss of these dearly beloved people, I reminded myself that everything is a test. And with this most challenging test of death can come insight and peace. Though it takes time, perseverance, self-compassion, and mindfulness, there is a true light at the end of the tunnel.

Every time I feel sadness from the loss of loved ones, I always know and feel that they are actually with me in Spirit. Don’t get me wrong, crying is great and heals, but rumination and spiraling can unnecessarily weigh one down. So, we can cry and move on to face the other mysteries and tests of our experiences.

Both my grandmother and Xamuel came to me in dreams. Xamuel expressed regret in one dream and in another he said his goodbye with love while his spiritual body floated into the universe to wherever he needed to go next.

My grandmother recently appeared in my dream. I was very sad to leave her as I usually am. She then hugged me and I felt her consciousness merge with mine into one Mind. As I transitioned into this physical body, I could still feel her in my heart and mind. Difficult to explain with words, but I know that I always carry her with me in my core nature.

Karmic Destiny. We meet people for our lessons, for a short time. Then they leave us when it is their time. This is beyond control. Everyone transitions. And, there is never perfect certainty when this will happen for ANYONE. The unexpected happens all the time when spiritual eyes are closed.

The experiences we have when we lose someone are experiences for growth. If we embrace physical death and accept it as part of life, then the insights of who we REALLY are are revealed. With gentleness, love, patience, and trust, we can all see into the unimaginable Ultimate reality…. interconnected, interpenetrating… free from suffering. All now, all together, all perfect. Mahaprajnaparamita! Rejoice in the perfection of Wisdom!

124. Into the Dark

There is no comfort in darkness. No safety in the unknown. Only the paralyzing fear and the desperate thumping of the heart.

Nyasha Stowell

Darkness. When it’s dark, when it’s night, death feels closer. Not some fun anthropomorphic vision of death like in Terry Pratchett books. The kind that lurks in the darkness itself, in a way.

When I lay down and shut my eyes, thoughts race. I allow myself a glimpse at the edge of that cliff. Teetering above the void. What would it be, to shut my eyes and step off that edge? What is waiting out there?

From the security of cliff’s edge, I cannot see. I cannot get a taste of it. I cannot even get my mind around it. The idea of giving up this world, stopping breath, and the flow of blood sends adrenaline through me. Tells my heart to beat faster, stronger. Tells my lungs, take on all the air you can. My body seeks to further distance itself from the precarious edge we are all tripping along.

The body is delicate. The body knows this, but seeks to distract itself with day to day dramas. But in the darkness, it’s not so easy to forget. So when darkness comes, the soul can more easily ponder the edge. The tiniest fraction of space and time. The gossamer nothingness that stands between here and now and that deep dark unknown.

The body is unwilling to spend too much time at the edge. The body fears it’s fragility, for it has an end, outlined and proven again and again in shootouts, car collisions, and cancer. The body ends, in decay or flame. But from it something escapes.

I think the body must resent the soul, for the soul is free from this temporary existance. Allowed to explore places the body can only dream about. So when late at night, the mind touches the only thing it can. The very edge of this cliff. And even the edge causes the body fear.

There is no comfort in darkness. No safety in the unknown. Only the paralyzing fear and the desperate thumping of the heart.

03 Patient’s Attitude and Healing Outcomes

We often focus on the big bad cancer but forget that an individual is not just their cancer diagnosis, but they are so much more than that. I often make it a point to ask individuals if they feel like they can live outside of their diagnosis and continue to be themselves.

Jenna Bailey, ND, FABNO, Seattle Integrative Oncology, a guest writer for the Michele Plumb Stowell's blog, writes about Patient's Attitude and Cancer Outcomes. — Jenna Bailey, ND, FABNO, Seattle Integrative Oncology

at.ti.tude /ˈadəˌt(y)o͞od/ “A settled way of thinking or feeling about someone or something” or “individuality and self-confidence as manifested by behavior”

From the Oxford English and Spanish Dictionary

Beyond the doctor-patient relationship

Hello! Jenna Bailey, ND, FABNO, here as a guest blogger. I feel so honored to have been asked by Michele to contribute. Reading through her prior posts has been so enlightening. What an amazing way to get to know her past the doctor-patient relationship.

Naturopathic medicine and naturopathic oncology

You may not all be familiar with naturopathic medicine, let alone naturopathic oncology, so let me briefly explain myself. Naturopaths in Washington State are considered primary care providers, though myself and my colleagues have chosen to specialize in oncology care. Our role is supportive in helping individuals through chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation with a little bit more grace and when (and if) treatment is completed, working towards recovery and prevention. All of this lies on what I consider to be the foundations – nutrition, stress management, sleep, hydration, and exercise.

Seattle Integrative Oncology offers safe and effective
expert naturopathic cancer care integrated with conventional oncology and telemedicine

Michele’s amazing response

As you all know, Michele had what some would say is an amazing response to just three cycles of chemotherapy and during our last visit I was noting that I felt that was, in large part, due to her attitude throughout this experience. Upon mentioning that, Kwami encouraged me to be a guest blogger to speak to this point. So here I am.

Of course, this is pure observation but, in my experience, an individual who maintains a positive (though realistic) attitude tends to do better regarding quality of life. The question is how that might translate into cancer outcomes. Now this is not to say that an individual needs to be positive just to be positive. There are naturally going to be ups and downs with cancer diagnoses and it would be completely unrealistic to not
have sadness, anger and frustration mixed in with the feelings of joy and hopefulness.

To see if there was more to this than just an observation, I did a little bit of digging and as it turns out there is some evidence to support a positive attitude in the face of a cancer diagnosis. To summarize –

Laughter reduces anxiety

Laughter, after just a single event, reduced anxiety, depression, and stress. Laughter is used to communicate joy and can help to create a sense of well-being. It can normalize blood pressure, boost immune function (has been shown to improve the function of our Natural Killer Cells!) and improve circulation. Laughter also activates endorphins and pain-relieving hormones. Humor is a great way to remember that there are and will continue to be good times despite the bad times. So, for your enjoyment – “What do you call a
pile of kittens?” – “a MEOWtain”

A laughing woman in yellow polo shirt portraying a positive attitude

Laughter can normalize blood pressure and boost immune function

Bright outlook reduces likelihood of hospitalization

Research at The Ohio State University (no affiliation other than my husband is a die-hard Buckeye fan) found that cancer patients with a bright outlook were less likely to be re-hospitalized whereas individuals with psychosocial issues like anxiety, depression, or lack of social support (a biggie) were at high risk for hospital readmission and stayed longer when readmitted.

The mechanism is not fully understood, though it may have to do with our cortisol (the stress hormone) and the influence that anxiety and depression have on raising cortisol which can leave us in an immunocompromised state.

Interpersonal positive events were more predictive of lower inflammatory markers

Another interesting study of almost 1,000 adults showed that the frequency of daily positive events was associated with lower IL-6 and CRP (inflammatory markers that can help to support tumor cells and decrease the immune system’s response) Interpersonal positive events were more predictive of lower inflammatory markers. So, if it were not for COVID-19, I would say go out there and get some hugs!

Worry increases inflammatory markers

One more note is that worry has also been shown to increase these inflammatory markers.

Of course, there are things that we cannot control and many individuals are diagnosed with cancer having preexisting anxiety, but it speaks to an untapped area of focus that could potentially improve outcomes and quality of life.

An individual is more than their cancer diagnosis

I think that, especially as it is highlighted in this collection of blog posts, is where Michele has found her edge. She has continued to be herself despite this diagnosis.

However, I will say I would never want her or anyone with a cancer diagnosis to feel down on themselves for not being positive all of the time or feel like any negativity they felt had a detrimental impact on the course of their diagnosis.

I am extremely fortunate to have met Michele and be part of her care team. As is the case with most of my patients I end up learning way more from them than they learn from me.