I was touched by an interview I just found on Gabrielle Roth’s Website. Dr. Lipman interviews Lynn Kohlman, a model, and now “samurai sister” who is a survivor of both breast and brain cancer. Lynn describes the challenges she faced, the emotional turmoil, and the transformation of her healing process.

Here’s a little excerpt:

Dr. Lipman: Your oncologist seems to be unique in his understanding of the spiritual connection to cancer and forgiveness and regret. Did his insight help you?

Lynn Kohlman: My oncologist wanted me to consider deeply how I felt about forgiveness and regret. He had no idea that my mother had died a week earlier, but it was immediately where my mind took me. Forgiveness was easier for me to understand than regret. I had, in a very small way, and far too little, and a lot too late, forgiven my mother just before she past away. She was suffering from Alzheimer’s, but I was reassured that she knew from my embraces how I felt. When I took her portrait that day, so close to her passing, she looked directly into my lens and tried so hard to smile. There were tears in her eyes as I held her fragile and transparent hand… Since then, I’ve been going around my world forgiving as much as possible… Regret gave me pause. Why had my oncologist used this word? Was it so I wouldn’t regret chopping off my breasts? Was it so I wouldn’t regret the relationships I never had with my mother and father? Then I just happened to read a quote by Mark Twain: “you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the things you did.” This opened my eyes to a whole new perspective. I looked again at the meaning of regret, and instead of backward, I began to look forward. I decided to wake each morning with a smile on my face and love in my heart, determined to have no regrets. I would create each day. I would make it as happy and joyous as possible. One day at a time, moment-by-moment, I was getting lighter.

Dr. Lipman: After all you’ve been through, people may be surprised to hear you say that cancer has been a gift. How do you explain that?

Lynn Kohlman: It’s ironic that cancer has been an unexpected gift. It has opened my heart and soul to a dramatic change, a transformation. Threads I have gathered from my experiences with photography, meditation, yoga, and the wilderness have intertwined to sustain me. The peace, serenity and beauty inside me bursts out. I was too timid to believe in my beauty as a model, but here I am, 60 years old with a double mastectomy, hair fried from radiation, never again feeling timid, never feeling more beautiful.

Take a moment and read the rest. It can be found at Gabrielleroth.com -> Community -> Healing -> Wounded Healers.

Technorati Tags: Glam Media, Glam, GlamSpirit, Wellness, Health, GlamNetwork, Breast Cancer, Wounded Healer, Healing, Brain Cancer, Lynn Kohlman, Gabrielle Roth, Breast Cancer Survivor

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