I will have to save this, Andrea, for I am a cancer patient, too, and your text speaks to my greatest fear. And should the day come, I will read your words again, and they will come alive in me.
- I thought of the trees, and how one tree in need of safekeeping activates a whole net, in fact, and this in turn will enable every member to grow stronger.
Nothing is ever in vain. And no love ever truly dies.
May you be surrounded by neighboring trees, pouring their mycelium in to your soul so that you both may benefit from the mutual codependency. Thank you for deeply sharing your silly and your sorrow and, most importantly, your soul.
Hi Andrea, as one of the therapists reading your newsletter, I will firmly side with you on this one. If your spirit is buoyed by buoying the spirits of others, then keep your codependency coming. The ridiculousness of our world and the “fact” that everything is ultimately made up, only strengthens your argument. In addition to being a therapist, I am also a hospice nurse, and if more people approached their mortality with the light and sparkle that you do, I believe our ultimate farewell would not leave so many of us fearful unto our last breath. Thank you for the light you bring and the love you spread. 💜
Every post here feels like a gift of love - thank you, Andrea! I had a moment once, possibly while throwing myself a pity party over my own health challenges and the related difficulty of earning a living, when these words arrived inside me - “your job is to love the world.” I’ve been repeating them over and over to myself ever since, and when I walked out of your show in Denver a few weeks ago, the words that kept replaying in my heart were “this is what love can do in the world.” It felt to me like every heart in the theater was broken wide open with love. Thank you for being you.
Oh Andrea, I’m letting my heart break so my spirit doesn’t, thanks to you. Thank you for being one of the most magical expressions of love in this world. Today, I’m taking this sentence with me: “But I know the meaning of my life is to love my life, no matter how it shows up.”
All day today, through increasingly severe ME/CFS, I've been practicing loving my life one moment at a time. I've been holding it together and thanking the (gay) gods for the illness even though it's broken my heart a thousand times. Reading this allowed me to fall apart. Thank you. I don't know you, but I love you so much, Andrea. Hal
My oncologist told me last July that I would be dead by January (2024). My metastatic cancer is progressing. I have one son whose father died of a sudden heart attack on May 6. I've been watching what he is going through dealing with his grief and being the executor of his father's estate. My motivation to stay alive now is to not put him through the death of a parent again so soon. I hadn't thought of this as co dependence until I read your note today. I don't care what it's called. It's helping me stay alive.
Hi Andrea, I've got a chronic illness and rare disease and always find your perspective so freeing. First - being biologically human is deeply unfair and I hate that part of existence. Im so sorry you have to face this again in the present tense. Second - in my therapy, we talk about Interdependence. It's like Co-Dependence's friendlier sister. The idea that we are deeply connected in positive ways, but there is more of a balance of self in the relationship. I found the label freeing, since I do think we all profoundly need and support each and to find a path where we don't lose ourselves in the process feels beautiful. But thirdly - a case for codependency may have a role to play and I love that shift in narrative. But also F cancer.
I love you. I love this. You light up the world with your you-ness. And (like lightning 🙃) jumpstart every heart into noticing their own illumination. Thank you
Oh that bit about the trees always reminds me that that's where I will return too when I'm no longer here, they are where I have always felt the most connected and at home. Thank you as always for your vulnerability and making me laugh through tears. Keep dancing in this holy ridiculousness :) Xoxo
Thank you for you for your Honest Irreverence, your mycelium, and your Poetry. Also, for your insistence that your heart is in a codependent relationship with your spirit. Even when a loving expert said ,no. I have come to believe that allowing heartbreak is the most powerful medicine. 💜
I started reading this standing up and then realized quickly that I needed to sit down and let your words wash over me and into my heart and soul and whatever manufactures tears in my body. U teach so much just by being the incredible human you are. I can’t explain it but your realizations and humor and utter honesty feel like meditations that calm me. Love the spiritual practice of making fun of our spiritual practices:) Thank u, thank u, thank u🤍
That is the most beautifully powerful piece of writing ever! Thank you so much for sharing, it lifted a weight from me, i didn’t know was there. Yay for the co-existence that keeps our spirits from breaking.
I will have to save this, Andrea, for I am a cancer patient, too, and your text speaks to my greatest fear. And should the day come, I will read your words again, and they will come alive in me.
- I thought of the trees, and how one tree in need of safekeeping activates a whole net, in fact, and this in turn will enable every member to grow stronger.
Nothing is ever in vain. And no love ever truly dies.
Thank you for this. ❤️
I feel the same. Andrea and I are sisters in this cancer family, and her journey might be my own in time. And she is my light and my solace.
Thank you for this. Beautiful words.
May you be surrounded by neighboring trees, pouring their mycelium in to your soul so that you both may benefit from the mutual codependency. Thank you for deeply sharing your silly and your sorrow and, most importantly, your soul.
Thank you Jess. ❤️
Hi Andrea, as one of the therapists reading your newsletter, I will firmly side with you on this one. If your spirit is buoyed by buoying the spirits of others, then keep your codependency coming. The ridiculousness of our world and the “fact” that everything is ultimately made up, only strengthens your argument. In addition to being a therapist, I am also a hospice nurse, and if more people approached their mortality with the light and sparkle that you do, I believe our ultimate farewell would not leave so many of us fearful unto our last breath. Thank you for the light you bring and the love you spread. 💜
Thank you for your beautiful words.
Hospice nurse here….you are SO right, Amy. 🩷
Every post here feels like a gift of love - thank you, Andrea! I had a moment once, possibly while throwing myself a pity party over my own health challenges and the related difficulty of earning a living, when these words arrived inside me - “your job is to love the world.” I’ve been repeating them over and over to myself ever since, and when I walked out of your show in Denver a few weeks ago, the words that kept replaying in my heart were “this is what love can do in the world.” It felt to me like every heart in the theater was broken wide open with love. Thank you for being you.
"The sight of her giggling made me feel like I could compose the sheet music for laughter." Thank you. Thank you. Your words heal us all.
Oh Andrea, I’m letting my heart break so my spirit doesn’t, thanks to you. Thank you for being one of the most magical expressions of love in this world. Today, I’m taking this sentence with me: “But I know the meaning of my life is to love my life, no matter how it shows up.”
❤️❤️❤️❤️
💜💜💜
Beautiful. Codependent or not, I am grateful to be a tree in your/our lush loving forest. 💚
❤️
Same. ❤️❤️❤️
All day today, through increasingly severe ME/CFS, I've been practicing loving my life one moment at a time. I've been holding it together and thanking the (gay) gods for the illness even though it's broken my heart a thousand times. Reading this allowed me to fall apart. Thank you. I don't know you, but I love you so much, Andrea. Hal
Thank you for being here Hal ❤️
My oncologist told me last July that I would be dead by January (2024). My metastatic cancer is progressing. I have one son whose father died of a sudden heart attack on May 6. I've been watching what he is going through dealing with his grief and being the executor of his father's estate. My motivation to stay alive now is to not put him through the death of a parent again so soon. I hadn't thought of this as co dependence until I read your note today. I don't care what it's called. It's helping me stay alive.
Thank you for this Jan. Sending you so much love.
Hi Andrea, I've got a chronic illness and rare disease and always find your perspective so freeing. First - being biologically human is deeply unfair and I hate that part of existence. Im so sorry you have to face this again in the present tense. Second - in my therapy, we talk about Interdependence. It's like Co-Dependence's friendlier sister. The idea that we are deeply connected in positive ways, but there is more of a balance of self in the relationship. I found the label freeing, since I do think we all profoundly need and support each and to find a path where we don't lose ourselves in the process feels beautiful. But thirdly - a case for codependency may have a role to play and I love that shift in narrative. But also F cancer.
❤️❤️❤️❤️
I love you. I love this. You light up the world with your you-ness. And (like lightning 🙃) jumpstart every heart into noticing their own illumination. Thank you
Oh that bit about the trees always reminds me that that's where I will return too when I'm no longer here, they are where I have always felt the most connected and at home. Thank you as always for your vulnerability and making me laugh through tears. Keep dancing in this holy ridiculousness :) Xoxo
Thank you for you for your Honest Irreverence, your mycelium, and your Poetry. Also, for your insistence that your heart is in a codependent relationship with your spirit. Even when a loving expert said ,no. I have come to believe that allowing heartbreak is the most powerful medicine. 💜
I agree!
I started reading this standing up and then realized quickly that I needed to sit down and let your words wash over me and into my heart and soul and whatever manufactures tears in my body. U teach so much just by being the incredible human you are. I can’t explain it but your realizations and humor and utter honesty feel like meditations that calm me. Love the spiritual practice of making fun of our spiritual practices:) Thank u, thank u, thank u🤍
Thank you thank you so much !
well said, Karen. I have had the same experience. Sit down and bathe, yes!!!
That is the most beautifully powerful piece of writing ever! Thank you so much for sharing, it lifted a weight from me, i didn’t know was there. Yay for the co-existence that keeps our spirits from breaking.
Please accept my tears as an IV drip of love.
Profound.