Ruth and John at "Gibby's" in Old Montreal, Canada

Welcome to the beautiful

season of fall!

I hope you're enjoying this season, and settling into the comforting routines that resume after summer is done and school begins. My summer was packed with activity (I finally cleaned the basement!!) and trips to California and Canada, capped by an "all clear" check-up with my oncologist in September, which always fills me with gratitude and relief. My hair length has reached the "Chia Pet" phase and I am feeling really strong.

As my favorite season unfolds, so does a regular schedule of speaking and performing dates, including a few fundraising causes dear to my heart. Of special note would be the Estuary Benefit on October 7th  - I owe a great deal to the integrative, hands-on healing provided by this organization during my cancer treatment last year.

I am also excited to be making progress with a new book concept that has been in procrastination stage for a long time. In fact, I will be experimenting with the direction of my new manuscript in the Music of Life essays I include in these newsletters. If you're ever interested in reading some of our old newsletters, you can find them  on my website, www.ruthmcginnis.com. 

The Music of Life entries are archived at www.myspace.com/ruthmcginnis .

(Speaking of MySpace, please visit - I could use a few more friends!)

Enjoy this blessed, and always too fleeting, season of fall.

The Music Of Life:

Reflections of a Year of Grace

One of the books that deeply impacted me during my illness last year was Cancer as a Turning Point, by Lawrence LeShan.  LeShan is a psychotherapist who studied the effect of counseling, along with medical treatment, on cancer patients who'd been given poor prognoses.  He discovered that the patients who used their illness as a catalyst to "harness their individuality" and "live a life and lifestyle that made them glad to get up in the morning and glad to go to bed at night," were the ones most likely to not only survive, but thrive.

As someone who has written and spoken about "Living the Good Life," "Celebrating the Imperfect Life," and "The Music of Life" for many years, the exercise of looking at the way I lived before my diagnosis and asking myself the question: "So, given a second chance at life, how should I live?" has been very interesting.  I would not change my profession, as I love performing and recording music, sharing my message of well-being, life meaning and balance with groups as a workshop leader and speaker, and writing books. I also would not change where I live or the people (from my husband to my friends to my neighbors and acquaintances) in my life. I am a blessed woman, and I know it.

What I did face, and have continued to explore during this first year of remission, is  though I would not change what I do, in order to infuse my daily life with more joy and meaning I would change the way I do what I do. And this has required a re-ordering of my professional and personal world.

In the creative life I've pursued for 30 years, I've often felt like the lonely pilot of a plane, working frantically to keep it in the air while fixing the engine at the same time. Paradoxically, I've never had the natural stamina of the "energizer bunny," Type A, relentlessly creative people I've rubbed shoulders with in the music industry. I am not an easy traveler, I need a lot of sleep; and when I run myself too hard I pay a price with lingering fatigue.

In the old days, I could run my battery low and then, in order to rise to one occasion or another, force something to keep me whirling even though the well was dry. I find I can no longer do this - or, as Dr. Wheelock pointed out, perhaps I am simply choosing not to live my life running on fumes.

A year ago, I faced a season that I described as an opportunity to live my own message. A year later, I am in the midst of a season of grace, still grappling with how to live that message with the insights of cancer. How does the saying go? "We teach what we must learn."

This year has taught me that the process of embracing a consistently enjoyable way of life is essential to overall well-being. I cannot go back to the old patterns, the futile obsessions with control, and living a life that too often felt hard. As I open myself to a more joyful and fulfilling life, I can move forward as a purveyor of influence, decision by decision and choice by choice, gently re-ordering my world.