Tera Warner

A lump in my leg. A lump in my throat.

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Succlent self-love master,

I know you’re busy, but if you have a few moments, I’d love you to tune in for this. I’ve got a few important things I need to say and so appreciate you being here to receive them.

lake mountainsRight now I’m “home on the range” staying with my mom near the Rocky Mountains of Southern Alberta. Feels so good to be with my mom–so good to be “home.” I grew up near one of the most beautiful national parks in the whole wide world!

During sweet Alisa Vitti’s panty party, the message of prioritizing self-care really hit home for me. I decided now was the perfect opportunity to get my feet in the stirrups and check up on all my bits and pieces.

As a predominantly raw food vegan, I thought it wise to request the full gamut of blood tests, a pap smear (the last one was 15 years ago) and figured it would be a good time to ask a few questions about the “cyst” I’ve had on the back of my thigh.

How the Lump in My Leg Became a Lump in My Throat

It showed up mysteriously four years ago, and I’ve been watching it, hoping I could vaporize it with green juice. After four years of wishing, hoping, waiting, watching, wondering what the heck it was, this little “cyst” was starting to take up a bit more space and a bit more of my attention than I was comfortable with.

Not much smaller than the size of the end of my thumb, I didn’t worry about it much. However, when the doctor took a look, he scheduled surgical removal for 4:00 pm the same day.

*gulp!*

I’m not one to chop and dice body parts unnecessarily, yet this time I felt science was on my side since my efforts to neutralize it with nutrition had proven unsuccessful.  Yesterday afternoon at 4:00pm, with Little House on the Prairie reruns playing in the waiting room, I went “under the knife” to remove the little invader cyst.

Turns out it wasn’t so “little” and it wasn’t a “cyst.”

It was a fatty tumor that had been hiding more than a golf ball’s worth of tissue under my          skin. When it was all over, I looked at the knarly “specimen,” then collapsed in a puddle of shaky nerves and gratitude for whoever had the smarts to invent anesthetics.

The results of all my tests are not in, but the image of that specimen and the ache in the back of my leg is enough to hit home hard about the fact that ignorance is not bliss. Negligence is not sexy.

I Would Never Put Off Addressing My Daughter’s Health Like I Did My Own

 I do my best to put attention on the positive things in life, and yet no amount of good vibrations or green juice neutralized my tumour over the last 4 years. It took my sassy soul-sister Alisa, and the nudge of my magnificent mom, to finally drag my tender loins in to the doctor for an inspection.

It’s funny for me to consider that I would never put off addressing my daughter’s health, the way I put off addressing my own. I have renewed determination to prioritize self-care, to confront what is uncomfortable before it creates bigger, deeper, knarlier problems.

All this got me thinking…

I haven’t had a TV in over 15 years. I couldn’t even tell you the name of a single show that airs these days. I rarely go to movies, never read headlines or watch the news (much to my father’s dismay). I’ve generally felt this kind of information is negative, draining and instills fear in the hearts of people, so I have avoided it, choosing to put my attention on the positive.

Recently, despite all my attempts to preserve the power of positive vibrations, some of the facts and figures about the state of the world have penetrated my bubble, and my heart has felt heavy with concern.

There are a Few Things Weighing Heavily on My Heart Right Now

waterfall
Just the other day I drank water from this very waterfall. It was incredible. So pristine and clean and delicious. I almost cried at the realization of how rare such a simple treasure is these days. My mom thought I was crazy for doing it, and talked about “beaver fever.”

I sipped back what has to be the sweetest water I’d ever tasted, and then
stopped to think of the buckets, gallons, swimming pools, oceans worth of medicated, fluoridated water passing through pipelines of the world. I felt as though I had a long, lost and forgotten treasure leaving a cold trail along the inside of my mouth and down my throat.

I like to put my attention on the positive.

I also recognize times are changing. There are real threats to human health and well-being and I won’t keep ignoring them hoping they will go away like I did with my tumor.

I want to know and better understand what’s really going on out there and the implications of this for human health. I want to understand the solutions and inform myself so I can be aware, prepared and confident about the future. So we all can.

I’ve been busy and have made a few phone calls, met a few people, and I’d like to share with you some of what is coming to light for me right now. In these times of economic, environmental and ethical crisis, we do well to put our attention on the positive. And that doesn’t mean we can get away with ignoring, avoiding or denying the things that do not work, or are not serving the best interests of human health and wellness.

There has to be a way for us to confront the tides of the times without creating drama, fear or worry.

As I sit here balanced on my right butt cheek nursing my wounds, I feel more confident than ever that the time has come for us to look the tiger in the eye with love and commit to better understanding our obstacles, so we can find solutions together.

I’d like to take the time to write more about this, so I’ll catch you tomorrow with a bit more to say on the matter and some exciting upcoming interviews that will help us rekindle hope where headlines may have installed fear and worry.

In the meantime, if you could send a few loving thoughts to the back of my left thigh, I’d be really grateful. 🙂

Lump-free love,

Tera

tera

www.wishsummit.com