rai

This is emotional but it’s also inspiring. It’s encapsulates it all between life and death - because they are married to each other. This is a wild story… Kathleen was the first to talk of death doulas, which helps usher life out. It’s not just support for the dying but also a support for the community… -
— Rai in 2020, On becoming a Death Doula
So I want to tell you about the miracle that’s been Happening. So if you’ve been following the journey, back in 2015 on February 27, I got my breast cancer diagnosis. So this February 27 will be five years that I’m on the journey. So I’m changing the dialogue. This is no longer a cancer journey. It is a miracle journey”…
— Rai in 2020, On Miracles
I don’t think we’re by ourselves. I feel we’re with ourselves. And in order to heal, it’s really important to go inward and to get quiet. And that can feel like a very lonely journey. You have to walk through the fire on your own. I think it’s important to be alone. It’s important to be quiet. It’s important to not have all that noise (to heal).
— Rai 2018, On her journey
I feel we all want to make a difference. We all want to feel like our lives matter. We feel good by giving to others. I feel it’s a truism. It may be a little bit selfish but in a pure way of I’m going to feel good when I do something for others. And yes, self care and self love and nurturing oneself is super important. If we don’t do that we have nothing. We won’t have much to give. But it feels good to use what happened to me... to use that as a background and then - how do I push through this? How do I make this about others?
— Rai 2017, On being positive
On February 27 this year it will be two years since I was diagnosed with breast cancer. At first I thought I would die because it’s really scary and it’s a weird journey to be on when all of a sudden you’re faced with your mortality. But when people ask me about my health... I say I’m alive! When you think about it. That you and I and your friend your sister and your dog got to wake up today got put on the wake-up list - that’s really profound... So I’m happy to be alive. I’m happy to be here. I’m happy that my angels and my creator and the universe put me on the wake-up list, which makes me feel like my mission isn’t over.
— Rai in 2016, On being on the wake-up list
So, crazy thing, but since I last sat in this chair, amongst a myriad of things, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. And it’s fascinating because sometimes I start crying and other times it doesn’t even faze me because I know, as I often tell friends, that it is a fire I’ve been asked to walk through and it really means a lot because it’s shaping me into... I feel like rediscovering who I am and connecting with my soul.
— Rai in 2015, On dealing with cancer
I look around and there’s all this ephemera. And there’s all these memories and all these pictures, and all these cocktail napkins scribbled on, and numbers, and business cards, and photos, and photocopies, and tissues with lipstick marks on them, and little blurbs... And I just look at this grand archive of my loves and my struggles here, and it’s not like saying goodbye, but it is turning the page... and it’s bittersweet, and this is life.
— Rai in 2014, On leaving New York City