Why did she wait thirty years to release her book?

Because I healed myself of lupus, over the years I have told many people my story. I was happy to share it, hoping that it might benefit someone. I became a massage therapist in 1987 and have told many of my clients of my story. Sometimes, one of them would give my name to someone they knew who had lupus. After talking with many individuals with lupus over the years, I never heard whether anyone had tried to emotionally heal herself or himself.

Since the general consensus is that no cure for lupus exists, at times I have wondered if my recovery had been perceived by others as so extraordinary, or odd, that it might be too difficult for another person to come close to duplicating it. Even so, I still felt it was possible that another person could also heal from lupus the way I did. The desire to share my story of healing has never left me. I just had to have a little more faith in the process!

A part of me kept wondering if there was a way to get through to people with lupus, even at the risk of my ideas not working for someone else as they did for me. The idea of writing a book about my experiences came to me as I was having lunch with my sweetheart, Bill Workman, in September 2004. I began writing this book two days later.

When I healed myself of lupus in 1978, I was only 24 years old, so I didn’t have much life experience or perspective to write from. I was still discovering who I was and what I wanted to do with my life. I would be foolish to think I have it all figured out by now! But I have gained some familiarity with how to release painful emotions.

I have continued my healing journey and experienced a diverse world of recovery work since I began in 1977. One experience just flowed into another. I “followed my bliss,” as they say. I experimented, searched, discovered and uncovered multiple facets of myself. I developed my intuition even more and had wonderful spiritual experiences, which had a tremendous impact on my life.

My healing journey has been an ever-evolving celebration. Ever since I was a child, I have been curious about transformation. Fairy tales and magical stories filled my imagination as a child. As I grew into a teenager, I acted onstage in plays and transformed myself into characters such as Peter Pan, an old spinster who poisoned old, lonely men in Arsenic and Old Lace, and the romantic, idealistic lover, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet. As an adult, I kept reinventing myself by exploring different professions and personal growth work.

Now I can see that healing myself of lupus carried me forward into healing in many areas of my life and that this early achievement is very precious and significant to me. When you’ve climbed the highest mountain, you feel like you can climb them all! I believe that all the energy I have put into the healing process—all the workshops, classes, sessions, treatments, ceremonies and studies—has come back to me as a thousand-fold blessing and continues to do so.

There are many times when I want to go within and not seek answers outside myself, when I want to connect with my own inner voice and guidance. Other times, I feel that I have something to share, learn, write or teach. I want to keep experiencing healing in its many forms for as long as I live. It is my birthright.

It is your birthright too!