Ana Lucia Rodriguez De La Rosa

“Memoria selectiva para recordar lo bueno, prudencia lógica para no arruinar el presente y optimismo desafiante para encarar el futuro” Isabel Allende

An animation of how deep our Oceans are

@TheCancerSutra It is amazing to read this. You are powerful, and yes, compassion helps. I have been in remission for 3 years, but sicker & with worse side effects. I do note the change in removing self-criticism & having Faith. Still sucks! 🙏🕯️

I have gone through treatment for stage 4 cancer at 30, 35, and 37. In order not to repeat the same circles of mental health hell each time through, I’ve tried to examine my actions from each time before and build in some expectations about what I might face. Each diagnosis and treatment period has been uniquely shitty, but I’m still ultimately me, so I can assign a good deal of certainty to my inferences and behavioral predictions. I’m 3 months into remission for the third time now at the age of 37. I’m still getting back into the swing of ‘normal’, but I’m consistently noticing jumps in my productivity, my brain power, and my emotional health in the last few weeks. This is happening notably faster in this remission because I can point to mood swings or mental health checkpoints and tell myself, “This is fine, this is where you're supposed to be; you’ll get through it”. Most things are more tolerable when you remove internal criticism from the equation - it’s just hard to do when you’re experiencing something like depression or anxiety. I'm getting better at it. And this isn't to imply that things are perfect in my life. I still have to get both my hips replaced imminently, and I'm still in monitoring for that whole cancer thing... but generally speaking, things are pretty damn great! Given what I've been through and what I may face in the future, that's an incredible sentence to type. #thankscancer #melanoma #mentalhealth #fuckcancer

Let's be brave and human, and reach out. If they work or study with you, be kind and accommodating. If they are your friends, give them a call. If you're unsure, send a kind message asking how they are doing. If you believe in God, pray for them. Reach out to their caregivers.

Sociopolitical-level solutions take time... but we don't need to wait. We don't need many more YA Cancer diagnoses to see that this is a SOUL CRUSHING problem. It begins with us. YOU and I. You have a young person around you who is battling or has survived cancer. Find them.

Wow ❤️🌼 #lifeisbeautiful If our hospitals were filled with people like you @drsgu3 the WORLD would be a different place. You are amazing 🙌

Octopuses really have super powers, why is everyone casual about it?

My soul singing while it rains. 🎶JS Bach: Cantata 21. 7th movement. 🎶 “(…)O soul, see, I am with you. Soul With me? Here [it] is indeed pure night. Jesus I am your faithful friend, Who also keeps watch in the darkness, Where there are pure rogues.” youtu.be/8K3O0u0bPh4?si…

The end of that conversation — and an immense consolation of feeling what I felt. Of being an unapologetic human. And I hope to continue feeling sad and angry when I experience evil things. And I pray I can never say I got “used to it/them”. I survived too much: to LIVE 🤍

I tried to make sense of what this meant. Time? Education? The ability to have lived through much? The many places I have been? Experience? Age? Why would this person expect me not to feel sorrow in the face of what should be, to the very least, sad 2/3

I recently heard one of the worst pieces of advice I have ever received: “You shouldn’t be heartbroken or surprised at this point” (in the face of injustice, lies, betrayal, and a lack of compassion). I remained silent… 1/3

It hit me: nothing. I hope nothing makes my heart so cold and dead that I can't feel sorrow or anger at unfairness or misery. This reveals who they are: expected numbness and silence in the face of devastation, calling that a road to success. End. 3/3