MARIA DIVINA O’BRIEN
The Unwelcome Guest…
In my life I have had a lot of unwelcome guests.
Pain, trauma, grief, to name a few. But nothing compares to the absolute humanity you face when you receive your cancer diagnosis. You confront your history, your mortality, and your dreams, all at once. How have I lived my life? How much longer will I get to do the things that I want to do?
When you start the journey as a cancer patient, decision making is very easy. Slowly you start to remove the toxic...the malignant…and replace it with what is pure, and nurturing.
The Before…
In 2020, while the world was battling COVID-19, a different battle was brewing inside of my body. In August 2020, I felt a lump growing in my right breast, but like many women who occasionally have lumps under the arms and in the breast, I waited for it to disappear...like it had so many times before. I tried to hide from the threat that was growing at first, telling myself I was worried over nothing. But deep down knowing, something was very wrong.
I refer to all of this as the BEFORE…
In November of 2020, I sat down with the doctor, and breathed deeply while he confirmed this breast cancer diagnosis.
After losing my mother two years before my diagnosis, I had started to practice mindfulness meditation and gratitude as a way to cope with the grief, but also learn from it.
This practice allowed me to grieve the cancer free person I was BEFORE, and to see my diagnosis and my medical challenge as an opportunity to learn and improve the way I lived my life.
Pursuit of Joy in a pandemic
The mental health of a cancer patient during the COVID-19 pandemic is challenging. We are going through the biggest battle of our lives, yet, we are more isolated. So I had to find ways to boost my capacity to love, to learn and to grow. To self-heal.
I started to aggressively pursue joy in my life. Why you might ask?
I looked back to when I felt most at peace, It was clear, it is when I was behind an easel, creating with my hands. Pen to paper…and reconnected to the source that all creatives know so well. It is from this source, I turned my eye to the beauty of the people I met every month in the waiting room of the St. James Cancer Clinic.
I saw in them the poetry of survival- and it inspires me every day.
Many of them shared stories with me about devastating news, extraordinary pain, and yet...their patience and positivity shined outwards. Every time I sit amongst my fellow cancer patients and their families, I see and feel a great ocean of resilience.
I encourage anyone at any stage in their life, cancer patient or not, to find the joy in their world. Be grateful for every opportunity we have to live and learn each day. In our lives, certain events can most certainly be seen as major obstacles. But if you choose to BELIEVE that those obstacles are really opportunities in disguise...it will transform that experience...and you in the process.
Maria Divina O’Brien is a director of Mindwise Project, currently working on a Spotlight Initiative Gender Based Violence #TechForGood Project.
View more images from this
therapeutic Art Initiative at
www.viewsfromthewaitingroom.com/
