When I was diagnosed with breast cancer,
I was drawn to nature. During the year of surgeries, chemotherapy and treatment, the time I spent with nature had a
profoundly calming and centering affect on my health and well-being. I wrote in my journal:Connecting to the cycles and seasons of nature, to the rhythm and cadence of life in the ebb and flow of birth, death and renewal, it is easy to find my way from feeling lost to remembering the magic, meaning and purpose of being here, of being alive. To taste time that does not go too fast or too slow but is eternally measured in the spaces of now; this is where the convergence of the physical and spiritual worlds meet most directly and I find myself standing in the middle, with an awareness that any separation was only a misunderstanding on my part.
It is a green medicine. Casting for Recovery offers free fly-fishing weekend retreats for breast cancer survivors, allowing women an opportunity to reconnect with time and life in a natural setting. Fisher people know, it is not so much about the fish - the call of fishing is about stepping out of the time you are in to a time more in tune with the inner rhythm of being. The Casting for Recovery retreats offer a forum for women with similar experiences to meet, learn fly-fishing skills and gain a respite from their everyday concerns.
