Healthy Living by Willow Creek Springs
A podcast about practices to promote healthy lives featuring experts, businesses, and clients: we gather to share our stories about success, failure, exploration, and so much more. Our subscription episodes feature some personal and vulnerable, real-life stories that are sensitive to some of the general public.
Healthy Living by Willow Creek Springs
What if Your Greatest Challenge Becomes Your Greatest Blessing?
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Healthy Living by Willow Creek Springs +
The moment you hear the word "cancer," your world shifts—everything that once seemed important fades away as you face your mortality head-on. But what if that terrifying diagnosis could become the catalyst for the most profound spiritual awakening of your life?
In this deeply moving episode, I take you directly from my chemotherapy appointment to share a extraordinary encounter that left me weeping openly in a hospital waiting room. After having my chemo pump removed, I met an 85-year-old former nuclear scientist battling the same cancer diagnosis. What started as casual conversation transformed into one of the most powerful spiritual connections I've ever experienced—a moment where two strangers recognized the divine purpose within their shared suffering.
My journey with squamous cell carcinoma has taught me that healing goes far beyond medical treatments. It's about purging not just the disease, but everything that no longer serves you—toxic relationships, limiting beliefs, material possessions, and emotional baggage. What replaces these things brings "seven times seven blessings," creating space for authentic connections with people who appear exactly when you need them.
My guest Todd offers observations from watching my physical transformation—the visible shrinking of tumors, the return of energy, and most importantly, the spiritual growth that's emerged from this challenge. Together, we explore the false dichotomy of "good" versus "bad" experiences, recognizing that even our greatest challenges can become our greatest teachers when approached with an open heart.
Whether you're facing a health crisis or simply seeking deeper meaning in life's challenges, this episode offers a powerful reminder that suffering often contains hidden gifts. When we embrace our difficulties with curiosity instead of resistance, we discover that the universe delivers exactly what we need, even in hospital waiting rooms.
Are you ready to transform your perspective on life's challenges? Your greatest difficulty might be disguising your greatest blessing.
Intro for podcast
Here is the link for Sunday's 4 pm Pacific time Zoom meeting
Hello and welcome back to the Healthy Living Podcast. I'm your host, joe Grumbine, and this is a special subscriber episode and I'm just really grateful to everybody who has taken the effort to subscribe. I hope you take the time to listen to these and I hope you find them informative, inspirational, entertaining and whatever else you might get from it, but at very least, you know you're helping me. You're helping me move this mission forward to bring the truth about healthy living to the people who need it. And whether you participate by listening, sharing, joining as a guest, it's all important. So I just wanted to start off by saying that Today I'm going to share an experience that I had and I'm also going to introduce a guest who will hopefully be with us many, many times. His name is Todd Coburn. Todd, how are you doing today? I'm fantastic, joe, and Todd is a veteran from the Marines. He's an amazing individual who is exploring the truth with me on many, many levels, and mostly spiritual, but on the physical plane as well. And remember, this is a podcast about healthy living. That's mind, body, spirit. We're all made of everything and it's equally important. We can't forget any of these pieces. So Todd's been staying with me for the last couple of days here at the Gardens of Hope and getting to know the gardens, experiencing a little horticultural therapy and just working together on bringing this plan that we're working on to life, and I thought, well, I just got back from having my chemo pump removed and I had a powerful experience. I says I don't want you to sit with me and we can, I can share this with you and the audience will get to listen in when, when they have the time.
Speaker 1:So today was five days after I had this pump installed that was pumping a compound called 5-fluorosil into my veins through a pump, into a port that goes into a vein right next to my heart. And it's the funniest thing because I just got out of the shower for the first time in four days and it's healed up enough where I can see the thing sticking out of my chest a little bit. So I'm definitely turning into some kind of a cyborg here, but I'm mostly human, okay, but you know I was really excited. Finally I get to get this poison to stop dripping into my veins after five days of it dripping, but you know the whole time, remember. After five days of it dripping, but you know the whole time.
Speaker 1:Remember, if anybody's listening to this, I want you to understand I'm dealing with healing from squamous cell carcinoma and this has been as much of a burden and a trial and a difficult thing. It has ultimately been the biggest blessing of my life and I'm hoping that through this podcast and my experiences with the people that are involved, you'll understand that it doesn't matter what happens to you. We all have things that happen to us. We have things that go wrong. We break bones, we have bad falls, we have bad relationships, we make bad choices, we get addictions, we do stupid shit, and the only thing that we control is our attitude and what we're going to do about it. And that's what this show's about.
Speaker 1:Because, for whatever reason, I was given the, I didn't wasn't given the quit gene and when I found out that I had this, I'm like, okay, I guess I gotta beat this, I gotta overcome this, I solve this problem. And I didn't ever look at it differently than that. And when I began this journey and I began telling the story of my plant medicine journey and all of these things and I'll always weave this together but when I began this, the first messages that I got from God, from the Spirit, from my teachers, from all the places that my messages are coming from my inner being, I said got to get rid of all this stuff. And so I started purging and I purged, and purged, and purged. And I tell you what, from literally the second that I made the decision to do this, what has taken its place has been exponentially full of blessings. Whatever the thing that was holding me back, the thing that replaced it, gave me seven times seven blessings, and that's not an exaggeration.
Speaker 1:And Todd is one of these people that came to me within a couple of months after I started purging, and what I mean by purging. I purged my business, I purged my warehouse, my office, my everybody that wasn't bringing something to my life, my bad habits, I mean everything went all my grief, my anger, my frustration, it all just my anger, my frustration. It all just has been leaving, leaving, leaving until I finally did the last plant medicine session with Bufo and it all left me and I made a deal with God and said I'll do whatever it takes. And here I am doing whatever it takes, and you can take that for what you will, but I'm just sharing my experience, and so this is all leading up to this, where I'm going in to get this pump taken out of me and while I'm sitting there waiting you know, I had to sign in and just wait because I thought my pump was going to be finished sooner than it was I still had to wait an hour and 40 minutes in the waiting room because it wasn't done. They had to. They want to get every last drop of that stuff out of you and I'm like, all right, I'll sit and wait. So I'm waiting.
Speaker 1:People are coming and going, they've called me in, finally, and this guy, this old man, comes in and he came in with his wife shortly before they called me in and I could see he had like a hairnet around his ear. And could see he had like a hairnet around his ear and I could see through it and, oh my god, it looked like a, like a toxic waste dump. I mean, I could tell whatever happened to him and he's in a cancer ward, so I'm assuming it had to do with cancer. Just ate his whole ear up and all the area around it. It looked like a, like a bomb crater and I could see this through this netting and I'm like, man, poor bastard. You know, I'm just thinking I don't know this, through this netting, and I'm like man, poor bastard. You know, I'm just thinking I don't know anything about this guy.
Speaker 1:But and then I he came in, I think with his daughter. Well, now I know it was his daughter and she was talking to him and saying well, do you know, we're gonna get this, get a wheelchair for you. You're gonna have to go all the way down to the hall. He says I'm fine, I don't need a wheelchair, I can walk down to this hall, I'm not exhausted. And I could tell by his lucidity that this guy's all right. And he looked like he's at least 85 years old and he didn't look to be physically all that robust. But when I heard him talk, I'm like all right, this guy's okay, I like him. Any old guy that's got some spirit, you know you. Just you got to love it. So they call me in.
Speaker 1:Finally, my beeper goes off. I'm like I finally get this thing out. And uh, they call me in and um, you know, the nurse is talking to me and she starts taking apart the pump and pulling the pack out of there. We're talking a little bit and um, and she finally, you know, takes off my uh, you know, I opened my shirt up so she can disconnect the port or you know, from the port and everything. Then she says well, we got to give you this. Where do you want your injection? I'm like, which injection, you know? And I I knew this was coming because I, it's all in my thing, but I didn't think about it.
Speaker 1:And she said well, we're going to give you this drug that is going to stimulate your white blood cell growth, because the chemo attacks your white blood cells. So this is going to cause it's a growth hormone that goes to your bones. She goes, it might make your bones hurt. I said so, that's what they were talking about, because I've had several people tell me after they've had chemotherapy, their bones were aching. I says well, that's what this is from. Is this drug that they give you to generate white blood cells? So it goes to your bone marrow, which is where you make the stuff, and it causes it to make it. Well, when you make stuff, it hurts. All right, I can handle that.
Speaker 1:Then she says you know, and you just got to make sure that you get enough calcium in your diet. So she mentions diet and I'm like, oh well, I'm on a really strong diet and this and that she's like well, you know, tell me about that a little bit. And so I started and I mentioned methionine. Of course everybody knows me, knows about methionine, because everybody thinks cancer only eats sugar. And I said I learned a lot. I said it's only been six months.
Speaker 1:I've been on the crash course for dummies and not so dummies all the way to where I'm at now, where I'm the resident expert in my field of the cancer that I have, and I don't call it anything else. People, oh, it's the bad words, this is a fucking cancer. It's the word that describes this thing I have. I don't consider it good or bad or sideways. It's a thing that's trying to live and I'm trying to live and we're competing for that. I'm going to beat it. It's going to die and that's how it goes. But it's not necessarily an evil thing. It's made out of me and I'm made out of good, so screw it all.
Speaker 1:So, anyways, I'm talking about this and I didn't realize my wife was right outside the hallway talking to his daughter at the same time. And I don't have a very small voice when I start talking. Generally, people hear me and whatever, I don't give a shit. And you know you want to leave. Leave, I'm not going to barge myself into you, but if you listen I might be interesting, right? And so this guy isn't saying anything to me, but they were dripping him into an IV and they were giving him some grief about he was not hydrated enough because his blood was too thick and he's like brr, fuck you guys, you know, and I'm just like I like this guy, and anyways, they finally get done.
Speaker 1:So she injects this thing into my arm and know, getting all tidied up, ready to go, she unplugs me, I'm free. And then, as I get up, my my wife goes oh, you got to talk to my husband. And she walks in. She goes what kind of cancer do you have? I'm squamous cell carcinoma. And she goes oh, my God, that's exactly what my dad has. And she says well, I want to talk to you because she heard me talking about diet and I'm like, ok, no problem, let me get cleaned up and let's get out of here.
Speaker 1:And so we go out and they're both sitting in the waiting room and my wife is talking to her and I forget exactly what they were talking about. But she was talking about how they were doing an immunotherapy treatment and working with the. They call them the MK's killer cells that are your body's natural immune cells that can kill cancer cells and they have some new immunotherapy treatments that they give you those extra cells to that your body can attack them. And I says, well, I says I've learned a lot. And she's asked me do you know this doctor and that doctor? And I'm like, listen, I have learned so much that I didn't. I don't have it all at the tip of my tongue now. So all the people I know I might mix this person up. I've heard about this person. Maybe the people I know and talk to I can definitely share, but I didn't connect every dot she was talking about.
Speaker 1:But she's working with this guy, I think, in San Diego or San Clemente and this wellness institute and there's a lot of good programs out there and there's a lot of good things that I told her I go, you know, just remember, your situation is unique and my situation is unique and the thing that's going to help you may or may not be the thing that helps me, but I know some things that will help everybody. And that's where I'm starting. And we started talking about diet and I said, well, she says, oh, he's on a really on a strong diet, but he cut out carbs, cut out sugar. And I says, okay, so where's he get his protein? And because that's where I started, that was exactly what I did. I cut out my shark carbs, cut out my sugar, because I know, we know, cancer prefers glucose, it prefers sugar. But I said you know, don't fool yourself, cancer is a smart motherfucker and it knows how to eat fat and it knows how to eat protein and it can eat everything. It will stay alive, just like you will. You cannot starve it to death. You can try and you can weaken it, but you can't kill it that way.
Speaker 1:And and I saw her kind of light up a little bit I says listen, listen, all I know. And I told her this. I said listen, and I was looking at the guy and I said this has been the most difficult thing I've gone through. This is the most horrible thing I've experienced and it has also been the biggest blessing of my life. And the guy lit up and he said how do you know that? And I said he says no, how do you know that? And I said he says no, where do you get it from? Where do you get it from? I said I looked at him and I looked him in the eye and I said I got it from god. And he stuck his hand out and he held on to me and I felt a jolt in my heart and I was like son of a bitch. Who is this guy? And he says, yes, you get it.
Speaker 1:He says and, and we both and I go, he goes, you want to talk about it? I says I'm talking about. He goes, I go, you better watch out, I'm gonna start weeping. He goes, it's okay. And we both started weeping together and this, I mean people were walking away from us and and other people were looking. I didn't give a fuck, us, and and other people were looking and I didn't give a fuck and, um, anyways, we, we continue talking.
Speaker 1:And I said, listen, I, I know, you know what you know, but I know what I know. And I says I, I, I have been given a blessing of all these people that have surrounded me. Then each of them knows the thing that I didn't know. And todd's brought me lots, lots of things, and my cousin Nicole's brought me things, and Florina's brought me things, and Salvador's brought me things, and all the Dr Hoffman and Emil and all these people in this group and all I mean even the doctors I'm talking to. Dr Castro gave me something, and even Dr Namar gave me something, and I'm getting pieces from everywhere, but it's up to me to put it together and see how does it fit for me, because everybody says you got to do this. I'm like I'm already doing this, that's just like that, or I already did that and it didn't work, or whatever. I mean, I'm the one who has to make these decisions, and that's always.
Speaker 1:My biggest message with everybody is you are your doctor, you have to be the one that takes care of this. We field the information for wherever it needs to come, but for me it's not just about receiving it. I need to make sure I can give it back out, because I'm a conduit. I'm not here to just take and grow. I'm here to be a part of this amazing solution that I've discovered and I'm a part of, and all these people that are coming to me get that, and we're all doing the same thing. And so I said listen. I said you need to look up, and this guy starts talking to me. He says you know, I used to be a nuclear scientist. I worked in I think it was White Sands or I'm not sure, but he was part of 50 years. He was working in a nuclear program and the guy is smart as hell and even though he's old and a little bit doddering, we're talking and I just got sidetracked. Anyways, I love you honey. Say hi to everybody.
Speaker 2:Who's?
Speaker 1:there. This is the podcast. Oh, hello, it's all right, this is a subscriber episode, so only people that care are listening. It's all good, it's all good. So, anyways, he starts telling me about he's got this amazing scientific background, and then again he holds his hand out. We said something. I can't remember what sparked the second time. We locked eyes, we both started weeping, we locked arms and he says quantum. And I'm like dude, you get it and I'm like I.
Speaker 1:And then he starts telling me about nikola tesla and and how he was. He was supposed to be aborted. His, his father was a World War I veteran. The Spanish flu was through and he was afraid to have kids and he would have been aborted, but for some reason he wasn't. And he found that out when he was 10 years old and it just, you know, imagine that experience. And that was where we just was like whoa, I mean, this is a dude. I didn't know and I never would have run into, except for this whole experience brought me to this waiting room to sit with this guy and I'm having this most powerful, most profound experience that is just connected to god. I mean it's like, or however you, you, you say that that name and and, and the point is we connected on a deep, beautiful, emotional, spiritual level that was pure and holy in love. And then he starts telling me about how he was a nuclear scientist for 50 years and he was working I don't know what element of it, but whatever element, you've got to be pretty together. And the guy was sharp, I mean, he didn't miss one beat and he didn't, daughter, stammer nothing. And you look at him, you're like see this feebly old guy, benny Hill dude, and instead he's just like bam, bam, bam.
Speaker 1:And then he starts talking about you know something about Nikola Tesla. And then he says you know, when I was like 30 years, 20 some years old, he built his first Tesla coil and it was so many watts. And then he said then I built another one and it was I don't know 10,000 volts. And then the next one, it was 90,000 volts and then it was 9 million volts. He says I had this Tesla coil in Florida that was nine million volts. He says I had this tesla coil in florida that was nine million volts. And he says man, if you could see what we were doing. And I said man, you got to meet todd. And I says I and I and I said we got this garden. I said we've got this.
Speaker 1:And then he starts talking about, uh, do you know this guy? And I, you know, he's one of the permaculture pioneers and I'm like, yeah, that name sounds familiar. And he starts talking about worms and permaculture. I'm like, dude, I do permaculture, I've got 30 years of a permaculture garden and we connected on that. And he's like, oh man, I'm like you got to come and see the garden. And then it's funny because his daughter which is this total other connection she starts my wife was talking to her about you know the legal battles.
Speaker 1:Anybody who doesn't know me knows I spent 20 years battling the government over the freedom to use a plant and they locked me up and all this stuff. That's a whole other conversation. But in all this I challenged the authority and said I'm not wrong and I'm going to stand up to you and not going to say I'm wrong. And as a result, they locked me up and locked me up and took all my shit and eventually they gave up. And here I am today and my wife was telling her something about that. She says, oh, I wish I would have known you back then because I have the magic bullet and I'm thinking to myself, yeah, everybody's got the fucking magic bullet and have known you back then because I have the magic bullet, and I'm thinking myself, yeah, everybody's got the fucking magic bullet and it's the sovereign thing and I know, but it doesn't work in court, because I've been there in court and it is what it is. Some people, things work for, some things they don't. But I've watched it in court and watch people get hauled up and thrown out trying to do it, probably not doing it right and I says well, I says you know what?
Speaker 1:When I I heard the Tesla thing and I heard her talk, I go, man, you guys got to meet Todd and I said you know?
Speaker 1:I says I'm well aware and I'm learning more about the state national thing. And she says, well, what I'm doing is different from that. She says it's a diplomat thing and so I'm an ambassador thing. She goes I drive around, I got an ambassador plate on my car and they can't touch me and I've got a formula that does some things. I says listen, you're throwing a lot of information at me. I can't process it all right now, but I like what you're saying. I think we have a lot in common and I know that there's some reason that we all came together. But I can't have that conversation right now. But I can't have that conversation right now.
Speaker 1:Meanwhile, me and dad are just connecting on this powerful, deep level and it looks like he's going to join us on the. I told him about the call. I says listen, I know you know what you know, but you don't know what you don't know. And I know some things maybe that you don't know. And what, if what I knew might help you.
Speaker 1:And these people, I says there's doctors, there's, you know, people with 20 years of dealing with cancer. There's people that are sharing an experience and we're just sharing to better each other. And nobody's making money on it, nobody's doing anything, nobody's selling anything. We're just trying to help each other and we get together four o'clock on Sundays and do that and you're welcome to show up, be anonymous, you can talk, you can listen, whatever you can come for five minutes or stay the whole time, no judging. Everybody's here to help and I think he's going to join us tomorrow and just really. It was another affirmation. And then I get home, I take a shower and this frigging, weeping sore that I've been dealing with. The whole scab came off and finally, I think it's going to heal up. Nice, we're going to be back in the gardens tomorrow. What do you think about all that, todd?
Speaker 2:I think it's absolutely fantastic and just watching this whole process happen A week ago you'd see this tumor, red and just growing, and Joe could barely talk or even move his head to look at you when you say something. I know I could turn my neck all the way down. He's talking. He's not hurting inside. Yeah, the redness has went down. The size has went down. The nodules in the back have pretty much disappeared.
Speaker 1:Softened up way half of what they were.
Speaker 2:So, watching this whole experience, you know I've dealt with quite a few cancer patients through my personal training, personal friends and things like that and unfortunately they didn't have the right recipe. But you know, sitting here with Joe watching this transform and the energy levels and all that stuff, seeing how excited he's getting, and just you know he overdid it a couple of days ago. He was feeling high energy but he rested up and bam, back recharged, just like nothing. Yeah, running around and happy, and we're just full of blessings right now.
Speaker 1:Well, and you know the thing. I think that I want people to learn because you know, when I met you, I know you have a way that you know. You know what you know when I met you, I know you have a way that you know. You know what you know because you've experienced what you've experienced. And my cousin, nicole, she knows what she knows because of what she's experienced, and all these people I know that that that love me and care about me and want good for me. Oh wow, I just tapped my port. Ah, that's still sore. Anyways, don't do that, please.
Speaker 1:The point is is my journey has taught me the things I needed to know. And it's been the strangest thing, because things I thought were wrong I created a place for them and some things I thought were right, I had to say, well, maybe not here. And that's been very humbling because I knew what I knew, just like you know what you know. And a lot of times when people are like, well, like my opinion of chemotherapy was never, ever, no matter fucking what, I would never put that stuff in my body. Why would I put poison in me?
Speaker 1:And as I've grown and learned, what I've discovered is that things are not good or bad, and it's what you do with them and how you prepare to use them. And it's just like fire or a hammer or a piece of steel or flint. I can let it sit on the ground and do nothing, I can make a fire and cook with it, or I can build a bomb and blow you up. I mean, they're all the same things and I think that's the lesson that I'm getting. What do you think about all that?
Speaker 2:Well, I used to put things in a box too bad things over here, good things over here and judging everything. Who are we to judge? Right? This is part of the divine creation, Exactly, and it puts us on a path. The reason why we have pain and suffering is so we stay connected to our creator Exactly. I think that's the most powerful message. Only we can perceive if something is good or bad.
Speaker 2:And I think that's why we're here to say you know what Lord or God or however you want to define it you know I'm here and these are the experiences I like and these are experiences that put me on the path, but I want to ditch those bad experiences and bring love and connect that way, and love creates community and friendship and it heals. Love heals everything. So you know, you can judge anything you want, but as long as you're on your right path and you're connected with love to everything surrounding you, that's the path I like to take and I know that's where you're going 100%, 100%.
Speaker 1:You know, if anything comes out of this podcast, I just really want people to feel through my real experience. That's why I come home and record this right away, while it's still fresh and the emotion's still raw, and you can hopefully feel it, because that's the best that can come out of whatever joy or suffering I'm going through is that I can pass on a little something to cause somebody else to maybe decide, to make a choice, maybe decide or maybe be aware of a thing they weren't or whatever. Maybe have an influence. We talk about influencers and to me that's generally a negative. Be like me, do what I do because I'm cool. No, no, no. I want to influence you to find your joy, to find your love, to connect with your spirit and find God and be part of it, as you're designed to.
Speaker 1:And you know it was funny because when I was talking to the guy and we started connecting, he said, well, she doesn't agree with me. And I said he said where did you, where do you get this from? And I said God. And she said, well, he, she doesn't go. You know what? You're on your journey, she's on her journey and I'm on mine and we're talking right now and maybe she'll see something new out of this. Who knows? But I thought that that was kind of a powerful moment where you know you could tell his daughter loves her father. She went down to Ecuador to help him and bring him back to get treatment. But they don't see eye to eye on everything and, who knows, maybe that'll be a thing that'll cause them to connect.
Speaker 2:Maybe she hasn't been faced with her challenge Exactly.
Speaker 1:Exactly no quicker way to get you. I don't wish that on anybody. However, it is certainly quite a tool. All right, Well, Todd, it's been a pleasure. Thank you for joining me as the first guest on the subscriber side of things, and for everybody who's supported. I'm so very grateful and I just all I can say is let somebody else know we're out here and we'll talk to you next time. Thank you.
