I recall the exact day my world changed in what I consider to be traumatic proportions. A day seared in my memory forever, for its tender breaths of love and also for its portents of devastation. My young son and I picnicked in our sun splashed backyard, playing catch and collecting stray balls from the deep fern glade. I still hold this day with a certain reverence, for it marks the beginning of the end of the world I once loved. A world I worked very hard to create.

However, nothing lasts forever. Little did I know winds of change were in the air. In the end, every shred of my cherished existence would be ripped away, leaving me shattered, shaking and forlorn, deep on the ocean floor of life. It would become a trial in loss, fortitude and profound lessons. And, most amazingly, it would also become a passageway through transformative changes and rebirth that I could never have willingly conjured.

Lyme disease stripped me of everything: my career, income, home, marriage and health. My journey to the underworld of life was akin to Persephone. The months and years of isolation, floating bereft on my sofa detached from the world and it social happenings, lost from my children’s school activities, instead forced me into personal retreat from life and brought me into a very mystical place of stillness. My inner journey of healing was as profound as all the physical ministerings we tended to.

As human beings we are remarkably elastic, evolving and adaptive. We can re-frame our thoughts and cells and our vibration, as well as our health status in so many different facets. Lyme disease forced me to change, to dig deep, to reflect and grow into a person of greater wisdom and clarity and now infused with passion and mission to end the suffering too many of thousands, like myself, endure. Renewed and well, I live with deep respect and gratitude for the many miracles each day presents and the beautiful synergy of compassion I meet in the faces of everyday life. I feel honored and am blessed to have a second chance at life. May the sun and stars and gifts of rebirth guide and protect my journey and yours.