I am excited to share a positive update about Santiago. During a recent blog post (https://www.thenatureretreat.com/post/santiago) we discussed praying to cut the size of his largest tumor by 50%, stop growth in other tumors, and clear cancer from his spine.
I visited him 10 days ago just after he got his MRI, and the results were great, blowing away his doctor’s expectations for both his reaction to, and the results from, this round of chemotherapy. Below is a before-and-after picture of his largest tumor. As you can see, this tumor was reduced by at least 80% (if not completely)!
One could reasonably argue that our collective prayers made no impact, and this was a result of his treatment. However, I don’t think it is a coincidence that this one tumor was nearly eliminated while others decreased in size by 0-50%.
I believe Santiago has an abundant spiritual presence which allows him to inspire and connect with many, many people. Personally, when I am with him, his expansive spirit and singular struggle to simply stay alive has led me to think more broadly about life and purpose.
For example, it could be said that being alive in the US has never been better, as long-term trends related to education, health, wealth, equality, crime/safety, employment, access to electricity/water, etc. have only become more positive.
However, we must ask ourselves, why then are suicides, depression, overdoses, anxiety, loneliness, and happiness at all-time-worst levels? Beyond this mental health crisis, why are we also close to losing one million plants and animals globally to extinction and why is our climate irreparably changing? How can we address these global challenges in a way that works for both people and planet?
As I sat for hours in an emergency room during my last visit, Santiago inspired me to explore a path forward that is a greater purpose for developing Simply Shenandoah. He helped create clarity around the impact of a regenerative development paradigm that considers an entire living system within a place, and the continuous and progressive harmonization of its dynamic relationships.
In the hospital, I then wrote the piece below about applying this thinking for a Community Leadership presentation that I gave last week on regenerative development. I believe his role as a teacher is already starting. As he continues the next phase of his treatment plan (which, not coincidentally, is regeneration from the inside-out in the form of immunotherapy), your spiritual support for him is both vital and greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
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Concluding Remarks for presentation on Simply's Regenerative Approach, 9/20/19:
Can you see a future where we are talking in 2050 today about a “Dark Ages” period that we experienced over the last several hundred years?
A time when colonization led to the wiping out of most indigenous cultures that had a symbiotic and healthy relationship with Mother Nature...
when industrialization then damaged our connection to the natural environment....
and when technology (e.g., screens) negatively impacted connections we have with ourselves and each other.
But then, we reminisce about how the world slowly started “waking up,” and what the Shenandoah Valley did to become an exemplar in a global movement toward conscious living:
… we demonstrated how to embrace holistic mind-body self-care and move away from prescription pills for mental fitness.
… we demonstrated how to localize food production and affordably scale nourishing diets.
.… we demonstrated how to reverse climate change and regenerate our forest and agricultural lands.
… we demonstrated how to re-organize our built environment, our economy, and even our consciousness around a collective wellness mission.
In other words, we came together as a community to fulfill our highest potential at the individual, group, and regional level.
We leverage this success and join others in becoming an acupuncture point for the country, accelerating change and allowing the United States to scale the concept of harmoniously integrating ALL living systems, in a way that aligns modern living with Mother Nature.
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