Janette MacKinlay, artist, author, activist, friend (See http://www.911blogger.com/node/22460), has been diagnosed, and will undergo extensive brain surgery on Friday, February 12, 2010. The surgery is scheduled to last four hours and Janette will have to be awake throughout the surgery, speaking, and being asked to move her limbs. Her ability to speak was impaired by the tumor and they anticipate that she will lose her ability to speak during the operation. The prognosis remains grim. She does appreciate all the thoughts, love, remedies, cures, directed her way. She is in the care of her two sons who are giving her devoted attention during this time of crisis.

Many people have sent me suggestions for cures, remedies, and I haven't passed them all on. I did give her a copy of the recipe for herbs that helped my fiance many years ago. I must respect and support Janette's choice of treatment, especially since she is in the care of her family and the decision is a very personal one which most powerfully affects her and the people caring for her. All we can do is offer her our love and support.

I do not attend church or believe in "organized religion," but I do believe in the power of focused intention, prayer, the psychic entanglement between all people in a larger field of consciousness. On a hike yesterday, my friend was telling me that Waldorf schools were successful because teachers took the time to focus their attention, meditate, heal their relationships with their students outside of the classroom... I've heard of scientific studies showing the healing power of thought or prayer upon individuals. I don't think it could hurt, if we, who know, love, care about, appreciate Janette send her our loving attention, healing thoughts, prayers, best wishes, particularly tomorrow during her surgery (probably between 11:30 am and 4:30 pm Pacific Time).

Janette told me that she would be taking her new notecards with her to the hospital and looking at them and speaking about them during the surgery. They are beautiful and bring her much joy. Her ability to seek, find, and create beauty has helped her throughout the ordeal of her post-9/11 experience. She does believe that her exposure to the 9/11 toxic dust caused her tumor.

Last year, Bill and I attended a Teachers 4 Social Justice Conference, where we tabled 9/11 truth materials, and I attended a keynote speech centered around a poem which included a line about "roses growing in concrete," marvelling that they could grow at all, and remarking on their incredible beauty, despite the scars they bore.

None of us are perfect without blemishes of some sort. I see Janette as a beautiful rose, blossoming in the rubble of the World Trade Center towers, an extraordinary gift to all of us, sharing her wisdom, insight, creativity, joy, pain, anger, courage, connecting east with west, victims, first responders, family members, researchers, activists, and artists. Her honesty, openness, generosity, kindness, energy strengthened all of us. I believe that Janette's loss is our loss. It is so hard to bear the thought of losing her. I do hope others will join me in evoking that mysterious power which grants life or death to aid us in healing Janette, so that we won't be deprived of her.

I know that Nelson Mandela, and prisoners sometimes showered whatever living thing, even prison guards who entered their cells with love, to sustain their own spirit and to survive. Janette has that enormous capacity to find beauty and joy in nature, particularly flowers. So, tomorrow, I suggest that we each give some attention to at least one flower, notice its beauty and the delight you feel towards living things. Send that joy, love, and your best wishes to Janette, hold her in your heart. Life is a miracle. Savor and appreciate the moment and sharing this journey with Janette and so many other wonderful, courageous spirits. Allow that love to spill over to all those affected by the dust, and all those in the larger expanding circle who have been harmed by the wars, the surveillance state, the injustices caused by misplaced fears. We might lose Janette, but if anything will heal and save humanity, it is our individual and collective love of life, outweighing and overcoming fear and pain. To some extent, we are all roses trying to grow despite the concrete which envelopes us.

Janette's website and book are at- http://www.theneedtoremember.com.