Healing from Cancer with a little help from a special Garden

Courage. More courage. Faith. Hope and trust. Large quantities of these core elements are required of people being treated for and recovering from cancer.

Such was what I learned in a profound and humbling way a few years ago when I was on the board and later chair of The Wellness Community of Central Indiana (a organization devoted to helping cancer patients and their families - see http://www.twc-indy.org/). The Indiana participants receive free professional psychological services from qualified therapists, directly supported by an advisory board of top oncolgists and radiologists from the greater Indianapolis medical community.

It was also my first learning experience about applied spirituality, a realm where doctrine is not nearly as important as faith and love in large measure. I saw patients and their families - many facing a terminal diagnosis - embrace and deploy these critical elements in a way that was both inspiring and humbling.

I first became involved in the Wellness Community while living in California, and was most intrigued by the claims and comments of national writer Norman Cousins (now deceased) who wrote the book "Anatomy of An Illness," describing how he believed that personal attitude directly impacted a person's immune system.

Of course, now some two decades later, much formal research has found direct connections in a variety of proven ways.

Thus I was very humbled and happy to learn that the Benesse Center of Oncology (http://www.benesseoncology.com) was adding a remarkable "healing garden" to its state-of-the-art facility southeast of Indianapolis. Patients undergoing chemotherapy already are provided with a beautiful quiet area where they can privately be joined by family or supporters while being treated. Now they will soon have an extraordinary garden to view through large floor to ceiling windows during treatment. Angela Gill, executive director of the Major Hospital Foundation, is coordinating this important effort.

Cancer can be devastating, and facilities like Benesse -- together with its extraordinary medical staff and supporters - make conquering this dreaded illness perhaps a little easier. As they say at Benesse, "hope has a new home."

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