JOAN RIPOLL

CONSCIOUS TRAVELER

(I apologize if the Google translation has errors.)

Hello stranger,

in 2016 I was diagnosed with an incurable type of cancer, Multiple Myeloma; In 2021 I was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Cancer is always a complicated diagnosis but I continue my journey without any medication or any notable scares, I "only" have to be willing, every three months, to "get over" a test and wait for the next one, and so on another until the end arrives, which - I don't forget - can be at any time or for any other reason.

In fact, you do not need to have been diagnosed with any "non-curable" disease to take the journey that I propose in this blog. There is nothing new in knowing that death is an indestructible part of life, the novelty is to accept it and integrate it into everyday life.

Taking this trip without having a personal reason to feel pushed to start it - such as your own diagnosis, or that of someone close to you - I find it to be a generous and brave act. Generous for the gifts you give, to you in the first place, and to those who love you in the second place; and brave to be able to face death face to face and accept it as the traveling companion it has always been, nothing more to do, just live fully. So, if you're at this point, congratulations on making it this far!

If I have created this blog, it has been thanks to the search I am doing trying to find spaces where I can mourn my own death. And I'm not talking about palliative care for people who are in a very advanced state of their illness - which are there - nor about mourning spaces for people who will continue to live after we have died - which also there are - I'm talking about spaces, sometimes more emotional than physical, where people who have received a diagnosis "without a cure" can share with others and be listened to and accompanied in the process we are starting.

So it all boils down to grieving one's own death, which involves living consciously to die consciously, although when I speak of conscious death, I don't just mean physical death. But you will discover that by reading my thoughts.

I hope you can get some benefit from this blog. Please feel free to share your thoughts and/or comments with me.

Arenys de Mar, November 2022