Sandy Duarte
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Acceptance in Cancer Healing: Turn Resistance to Growth
Typography hero image with Playfair Display heading Start with Why not on a warm teal background, supportive subtext One breath, one line, one loving thought, and a small line Acceptance is strength, styled for a hopeful cancer healing article inspired by Cancer Ramblings by Sandy Duarte.

The Alchemy of Acceptance: How Cancer Ramblings Turns Resistance into Growth

The room was small, the lights were buzzing, the words were heavy. Stage 4 cancer. In Cancer Ramblings, Sandy Duarte let the truth hit for one full day, then a new question rose inside her. “Why not?” It was not an answer, it was an invitation. She could not change the diagnosis, but she could change how she met it .

The Pivot That Starts Healing

Sandy writes about moving from “Why?” to “Why not?” as the moment everything changed. “There’s always a choice. Even in the dark.” That choice became her raft. It put the “captain of my spiritual ship” back at the wheel, and from there, acceptance arrived, then transcendence .

Acceptance, Then Transcendence

What does acceptance look like when life breaks open? Sandy names cancer as “my new teacher,” even “a strange unwanted friend for a short period of time.” She lets it be a moment, a pause to be, and writes, “I accepted the reality of this new journey, and from there it led me to transcendence.” In that space, she asks better questions. What is the lesson, what can I gain, how do I sit and be still. She finds simple truths, that life is fragile and beautiful, that we are strong and resilient, that love guides, that faith holds. She begins to dream within the nightmare and to choose life with a brave heart .

A Hidden Lifeline: “I Am Not A Writer. But I Had To Write.”

Sandy says it plain, “I am not a writer. But I had to write.” The pages began while she walked hospital laps with her “chemo-friend on wheels,” when thoughts and feelings begged to be shared. The foreword invites us to let “the writing that was her lifeline become your light line.” Writing became structure on the wildest days, a way to stay present when everything felt like whitewater .

What Acceptance Looks Like In The Body

Sandy does not fight reality, she fights for herself. She partners with treatment and talks to her own body with care. She even speaks to her lungs in the shower, asking the right to help the left. Later, she reflects on how belief and self-talk supported real change, noting how mindset and intention can shape the brain, and how strong belief and self-compassion helped her body heal. Friends and doctors saw the difference, they noticed her resilience and a “new glow.” It stopped being only survival, it became a new way to live .

Simple Practices From The Book, Spoken Like A Friend

Here is how you can try what helped Sandy, one small step at a time.

  • Write to the Light. Sit for five minutes. Write a note to your most loving self. Tell the truth, ask for help, say what hurts. This practice shifts attention from the pain to the strong part of you that is still here. Sandy recommends this in Cancer Ramblings .

  • Love Chants. When fear floods in, repeat quietly, “love, love, love.” Keep it simple, keep it steady. It will not fix everything at once, but it brings you back to center, and it clears the mind so you can breathe again .

  • SOS, you are not alone. Sandy writes from round three of chemo, “You are not alone… Sit. Breathe. Feel your breath move… Are you breathing or being breathed?” Let one breath be your focus. Feel it go in and out. Let that be enough for this moment .

  • Mind the mind. Sandy used two fast movie clips. Clip one, leaving the hospital, cleared. Clip two, wind on her face by the ocean, smiling. These flash cards pulled her out of fear and into hope. “So we fight cancer with the mind.” Once you have your mind, she writes, you have your body, your soul, your everything .

  • Allow the wave, then choose momentum. There were days Sandy could not get out of bed. She let herself rest without shame, then she returned to small acts of life, like writing and gentle movement. That rhythm, rest and motion, kept her spirit alive when it would have been easy to go numb .

Love, The Last Word

The book returns to love, again and again. When all else fails, Sandy writes, “Lean on love… Rise to love… Decide for love.” Even the cadence becomes a kind of medicine. Family, friends, and faith become candles in a dark cave. She calls them her ride or dies, and she lets their faces, their hugs, their presence, bring her back to life for a moment at a time .

A Glow You Can Feel

Amy Powers met Sandy after chemo and saw someone “on the glow,” a woman who radiated “serenity and quiet power.” The foreword names the steps that shaped this glow. Sandy accepted what was true, she embraced treatment, she committed to healing at every level, and she framed her suffering as part of a larger story. It is why Cancer Ramblings reaches not only patients, but also the people who love them .

What To Try Today

  • Whisper “love” five times. Feel how your chest softens as you say it.
  • Write one honest line to the Light. Put your hand on your heart while you write.
  • Picture one future moment that feels good, even if it lasts one second.
  • Ask yourself, what is one thing I can accept right now, so I can move forward a little?

Sandy Duarte shows that acceptance is not surrender, it is the start of real strength. “These two words led me to the magic that is acceptance,” she writes of “Why not.” The fire began to burn. From there, she found transcendence, not by leaving her life, but by living it more truly, one breath and one brave choice at a time .

If today is hard, you are not alone. What is one tiny step toward acceptance you can take now, a breath, a line on paper, a whisper of love, and where might it lead if you let it? .