The Guest House: A Journey of Discovery through Cancer

As a healer, author W. Jacqueline Johnson knew a cancer diagnosis could be a gift in one's life, bringing valuable life lessons and even transformation. But nothing prepared her for her own diagnosis and the debilitating effects of chemotherapy and radiation. In , she narrates the story of her diagnosis, treatments, and the surprising aftermath. Johnson shares how, as a healthy woman who only saw the doctor for checkups, she is thrown into the medical system's maze, having tests she never heard of and accumulating enough insurance receipts to fill a large notebook. Her progress is as slow and unpredictable as an upstate New York spring. In , she tells how she lost all faith in the healing process. But one day something happened as she danced beside a flowing stream, and she felt the subtle energy returning to her body. Slowly, bit by bit, the healing process worked within her in ways she never thought possible as she experienced the liberation of vulnerability and doorways opened through pain. She learned lessons during the journey that led her to believe that cancer is, indeed, magical.