I
am Catherine Musinsky, a breast cancer survivor of six years.
Full recovery means healing others as well as yourself. Thich
Nhat Hanh's meditation instruction for hard times: breathe in what
you feel, then breathe out compassion for everyone else in the world
that feels just like you do. Each one of us assigned to walk through
some kind of suffering is given a fundamental challenge: first, not
to succumb to an isolating, shamed self-abnegation in the face of the
challenge, in other words, to heal ourselves, then take what we've
learned and help others to heal. There are no national boundaries to
human suffering and redemption.
In
2010 a good friend and filmmaker, Brynmore Williams, made a short
movie about my recovery from cancer. I am a dancer, and I found that
henna body art combined with dance formed an uncannily powerful
elixir of healing. The celebration of beauty, the exquisite henna
design on my new, reconstructed breast, plucked me out of the state
of shameful hiding I had felt about my transformed body. In the film
I danced topless with only a henna tattoo on my bare chest, and the
film ended up receiving 8 awards and many more festival screenings
because it had a simple, direct message. Celebrate your body.
Understand that you are beautiful.
Cancer
is one of any number of devastating losses or traumas humans are
bound to experience. Our tendency, at least in the Judeo-christian
traditions familiar in my corner of the world, seems to be to bury
our pain beneath layers of virtue, or self-sacrifice-- or on the
other extreme, intoxication and forgetfulness. It's harder than it
seems to love ourselves in a balanced way, without reacting to our
misfortune as if it were some kind of punishment. It's not
punishment, it's just a hard lesson, and we need each other to get
through it. This final point gets lost. We can't, can NOT do it
alone. We need to be held and understood. We need to be witnessed.
There is nothing I love more than traveling and meeting
people with totally different backgrounds than myself, and finding
all the things we share in common. I have a powerful need to share
what I have learned about recovery, especially through yoga, art and
dance. The body holds secrets that only the body can reveal. Please
see the movie, UNCHASTENED. If I am accepted I will freak with
delight, and if not I hope I can keep in touch with the project and
cheer you on from the sidelines. Great work, Terri, and all who have
joined her in this exciting venture!
