The Healing House Open House
On January 30, 2011 we held The Healing House Open House as an inaugural fund raising event for Team Inspiration. At the Open House we offered many of the services that we believe are important for healing body, mind and spirit: Yoga, meditation, massage, acupuncture, reflexology, music, healthy food, herbal teas and the sharing of our energy and love! I would like to thank everyone who was a part of this very special occasion and vision for Team Inspiration! Your support and love made this event truly a magical experience.
The Healing House Open House was inspired by my journey with so many incredible cancer warriors including my friend Kristen Adelman, my brother Mike Blimmel, my brother-in-law Mike Tingler, my mother Barbara Blimmel, and my very special patients at University of Maryland Greenebaum Cancer Center, especially Michael Dahan and Jessica Hensley. Michael was one of my very first patients and he and his wife, Isabelle designed and published our website. Michael also wrote a beautiful essay about his journey titled “The Dragon Gate” which you can find on our website; just follow the JOURNEYS link from the main page. Jessica has also written a beautiful essay about her journey as a cancer warrior and our journey toward the creation of the Healing House which you can find on our website on the HEALING HOUSE page.
The Healing House Open House was inspired by my journey with so many incredible cancer warriors including my friend Kristen Adelman, my brother Mike Blimmel, my brother-in-law Mike Tingler, my mother Barbara Blimmel, and my very special patients at University of Maryland Greenebaum Cancer Center, especially Michael Dahan and Jessica Hensley. Michael was one of my very first patients and he and his wife, Isabelle designed and published our website. Michael also wrote a beautiful essay about his journey titled “The Dragon Gate” which you can find on our website; just follow the JOURNEYS link from the main page. Jessica has also written a beautiful essay about her journey as a cancer warrior and our journey toward the creation of the Healing House which you can find on our website on the HEALING HOUSE page.
We had a wonderful turn out with over forty guests, ten practitioners and several wonderful volunteers who made the day very special. With all my heart, I want to thank the wonderful practitioners who offered their gifts of healing with such overwhelming generosity, and all of the guests and volunteers for supporting Team Inspiration and the Healing House. It was truly a gift just to be in the presence of so much unconditional love and support. Thank you!
Ashley Litecky and Jessica Sunder led us in wonderful explorations of body, mind, and spirit through yoga and relaxation classes in our yoga room. Our youngest yogi was five year old Ty, who is Jessica Hensley’s son and our eldest yogi was 92 and she participated in the yoga class while sitting in a chair. Ashley guided her through modifications so that everyone was able to participate in this wonderful experience! We are pleased to share with everyone that we will continue to hold weekly yoga sessions with Ashley in our Yoga Room on Wednesdays. Please call Brenda @ 443-745-0749 for more information or visit our website @ www.teaminspiration.org
We had a delightful mix of exquisitely prepared raw foods, music, and healing books and gifts at the Gratitude Café. Sunday Alexander, a graduate of Johnson and Whales Culinary School and now pursuing her degree in nutrition so that she can fulfill her dream to be a registered dietician and nutritional chef, prepared tomato bisque and curried wraps for us. She will continue to work with us as we develop the Healing House. Sunday and I met at UMMC where she is also an excellent patient care technician.
One of our fabulous yoga teachers, Ashley Litecky, is also an herbalist and graduate of Tai Sophia Institute. She provided us with wonderful herbal teas. Our beautifully decorated cake was made by Stacy Duncan. Her daughter, Ashley Ernst, is working with Team Inspiration to create Vision Journals for cancer warriors to use as a means of expression and empowerment as they face the many challenges along this journey.
We were also blessed to have a very gifted musician, Ian Collins, who played his acoustic guitars and sang for us in the Gratitude Cafe. He wrote and performed our Healing House Open House song titled, Letting Go, which is so exquisitely beautiful that it brought many of us to tears! He also brought his African healing drum, called an djembe shared with us and played duets with other gifted musicians and singers who “just happened” to be there!
If this was a bit too much excitement and one felt the need for a little quiet time, there was a wonderful selection of healing books and a few quiet places where one could find time for a massage acupressure, craniosacral work, zero-balancing and reflexology to provide an opportunity to experience all that is within our reach to facilitate our own healing process!
The Healing House Open House would not have happened without the tremendous support, talent and enthusiasm of my girl, Brenda McCabe. In fact she has given support to Team Inspiration in every area imaginable in the past year, from stepping in last minute as a cancer warrior triathlete, hand painting my bike helmet for Kona, providing vintage tea cups for our herbal teas, creating a beautiful banner for our Gratitude Café, and the list goes on!
I would like to thank all of our guests and practitioners who were a part of our Healing House Open House. We will continue to grow the Healing House, so please join us for our next event!
We will also begin holding yoga and meditation classes on Wednesdays, beginning February 23 from 4:15 – 5:30 and 5:45 to 7:00 p.m.
Please contact Brenda McCabe for more information and registration @ 443-745-0749.
Once again, our deepest and heartfelt gratitude to Our Healing House Practitioners:
Ashley Litecky, M.S., ERYT: www.DeepGreenWelness.com
Jessica Sunder, M.A.., A.T.R.: 443-889-1396, JessicaSunder@gmail.com,
Kristina Garner, CLMT: 443.415.8838,
Christine Ruan, C.M.T.,, R.Y.T., 410.852.3613, unwindmassageandwellness.com
Laura Mueller, M.Ac., L.Ac.: 410.707.1394, www.LauraMueller.com
Jean Werner, CTACC, NBCR, 443.445.3732, LightthePath@comcast.net
Sunday Alexander; 443.985.0031
Ian Collins, 410.491-4424
Brenda McCabe, Life Coach, Pilates Instructor, Woman Extraordinaire, 443-745-0749
