Featured Article: "Soil, Body and Soul"

by Nancy Moran, BSN

Foreword by Crystal Jones, MPA and Karen Malone, MA, BA (Hons.), PGCE

The following is a Featured Article from one of our students on the MSHS Integrative Health and Wellness specialization, Nancy Moran. In this beautiful piece, Nancy shares her heartfelt story, giving us a glimpse of the impact of integrative medicine from a most personal perspective.

Through her own personal commitment and conviction, together with the evidence-based information about integrative medicine she is gaining from the course, Nancy has been able to make decisive choices about the type of care she provides, giving her the gift of being able to be optimize the care she provides a loved one.

This moving personal account illustrates just what integrative medicine is really all about, and what it means to real people, looking for answers, hope and healing in their quest for health and wellness. Everyone at ICAM sends Nancy and her husband Terry our very best wishes for a full recovery.

Walking through my garden, I eye the rows of plants to assess their condition and plan what chores come next. I stop often just to gaze upon its crawling-out-of-control beauty. In my garden, I think my best thoughts and feel most content. My garden is a micro-sized farm in the city. Its extension into the front yard caused a city inspector to ticket me this spring for violating a zoning regulation which prohibits commercial agriculture in a neighborhood setting. I was told to dismantle the garden within 10 days. I called to tell him that I would not comply. Growing food for my family is human right. Besides, I told him, my husband has cancer and that garden is his healing food pharmacy. The inspector rescinded the ticket upon learning the truth. I once told my husband's oncologist that while he “used Round-Up,”

I “prepared the soil.”

Integrative medicine is working in our lives. Since the cancer was aggressive, we needed the chemotherapy to get us back on level ground. My role as caregiver was to support my husband's immune system, keep his strength up and help his blood cells regenerate from the collateral damage brought on by both the chemotherapy and the cancer. I am charged with making the soil of his body inhospitable to that “invasive weed” called cancer.

My husband often watches me as I wrestle with weeds, erect trellises and harvest whatever is peaking at the moment. He listens to my stories about the weather and how the plants are doing. I tell him about the micro-organisms, insects, worms and other critters that reside in the soil and brush. I look him in the eye and tell him with all seriousness that the same rain, solar energy and soil that make up these plants will soon become part of his body.

Walking upon and receiving sustenance from our little 1/6th acre lot is a greater miracle to me than walking on water. My childhood Catholic faith told me that I was “made from dust and unto to dust I would return.” We are part of the earth. Our existence can not be separated from other life forms, many of which I have come to count as my allies. I see the plants, beneficial microorganisms and insects in my garden as members of my husband's healing team. I have profound gratitude for them all and I honor their role in our lives.

When I wasn't growing foods to support my husband's health, I researched his particular form of cancer. I applied to the Integrative Health and Wellness Masters degree program at UMDNJ, in part, to help me base my interventions on the solid ground of evidence-based Integrative/Complementary and Alternative Medicine. I want to understand how to best support his body's innate wisdom to heal. There are many mysteries to be approached and problems to be solved. I look forward to the challenges, rewards and relationships that my education at UMDNJ will bring.

Nancy Moran, BSN is a public health nurse and yoga instructor, who resides in Tulsa , Oklahoma with marvelously well husband, Terry.