The devastating emotional impact of the losses on 9/11/01 was the equivalent of having every emotional bone in our bodies broken simultaneously.   No one had any experience with an event or  situation of this magnitude.  Things were perilously skidding sideways. I clearly saw the light and I knew I needed to get help…and fast.

As I began seeing Dr. Vilardi in early November, I realized I was being given an opportunity to reach for something I had always wanted.  I would finally find that place of mental health that had eluded me since childhood.  In order to navigate my young family through the maelstrom that we faced I needed to be as mentally and emotionally stable as humanly possible.  I wanted a happy, grounded life for my children and me.  I was so tired of being misunderstood and misunderstanding.  I was so tired of fighting when all I wanted was happiness, peace and harmony.  I was committed to doing whatever it took to go all the way.  Little did I know then that I was embarking on the single greatest journey of my life that would take me to that place of which I had only dreamed.

Continue reading →

In November of 2005 (four years after 9/11), the final pieces of the puzzle suddenly fell into place and I broke through the final ceiling to experience the mind-blowing understanding that is mental health….

…and the  ‘burst of creative energy unlike anything I’d known before,’ that Dr. Vilardi had described, kicked in.

For the next two years, I enjoyed a manic ride of revelation, enlightenment and awareness that I could have only imagined in my wildest dreams.

Continue reading →

I was called to knit.  I couldn’t have stopped if I’d wanted to.  It was coming through me.  I was compelled to create and craft with my hands.  It calmed my mind and soothed my soul as I  experienced this wild ride.  It wasn’t a conscious effort or something I thought I ‘should’ do; it was a true calling .  I wanted to create something beautiful, tangible and warm for all the friends that I loved; to care for them with loving thanks for all they had done for me.  I felt them and sensed them; the women who had helped me in my daily life and the ones who had supported me from afar.  The ones who needed help themselves who were struggling for one reason or another.   We were all mothers of school-aged children.  Who takes care of mothers?  And what mother doesn’t need care?

Continue reading →

“If everyone was given what we have been given, we would live in a far kinder and gentler world.”

–Lisa Luckett, 9/11 Widow

Over the months that followed the breakthrough, I went through my days thinking and processing.  As a light showing in the distance, the concept of a new, lifestyle platform began to come into focus.

It’s original definition:

COZMEENA (kohz-mee-nah) Noun, adjective.

“Where Love Lives”.  The brand name for a philosophical, light-hearted lifestyle platform based on consideration, generosity and love, caring for oneself and others, helping all to heal through genuine acts of kindness. Finding the positive in a negative situation. Gaining comfort through any of the five senses. Mindfully and consciously applying enlightened forward thinking in one’s everyday life.  A place where all the good people already know each other even if they haven’t yet met.

Continue reading →

An excerpt from the book, “The Light in 9/11: Shocked by Kindness, Healed by Love” 

By Lisa Luckett

Continue reading →

In the spring of 2008, my mind started slowing down.  The Acme rocket had finally run out of gas. I had exhausted every angle of the Cozmeena vision that I could think of.  It was time for the next phase.

During those months of discovery, I had such a clear vision of how to help that I wanted to shout it from the rooftops.  I felt I had a solution.  I wanted to save the world.  I wanted everyone to know what I knew, to have what I had and to see what I saw.  Yes this was a heady notion.  Yes, the notion was a bit grandiose but (although it sounds crazy now) I felt I could do it.

Continue reading →

In the fall of 2008, Wall Street crashed and all Hell broke loose.   Everyone watched as the stock market dropped to half value.  The American economy was tanking and people were panicking. The American news media offered a new form of terror.  Now, seven years after 9/11, the emotional sores that had been left untreated festered even more.  The New York Tri-State Region and the same population that had been directly affected by the attacks on the World Trade Centers were hit again.  The centrifugal forces of our culture’s emotional instability started spinning again and now corporations and companies, as well as individuals, were breaking even further.

Continue reading →

(Because there are no photographs of me with a bald head, I am borrowing a photo of Robin Roberts, newscaster on ABC-TV and one of my personal heroes.  Robin’s elegance, strength and fortitude through her two battles with cancer is an inspiration.  Her contagious smile says to me,  ‘everything’s going to be okay’.  We love you, Robin! Thank you for showing us how well it can be done.)

Four months after Wall Street crashed, in late January 2009, I went for my annual mammogram and ultrasound.   Every year I have a routine ultrasound because I have ‘dense’ breast tissue.  Dense breast tissue is 4-6x more likely to become infected with cancer as well as being so much harder to analyze.

As I was leaving for the appointment, a friend of mine jokingly said to me, “Don’t worry.  You’re only in trouble if they tell you that you need to watch ‘the movie’.”

The tech kept going over the same spots on the ultra sound.  The radiologist came in and looked at the screen.  She saw two suspicious areas.  I have chosen this practice and pay out-of-pocket for my annual screenings because if they do see something, they biopsy it the same day.  Good thing!  She did a needle aspiration of the first dark spot and we watched it collapse on the screen; it was only fluid.  The second spot, however, required a core biopsy where they clip small pieces of tissue to be analyzed.  This takes several days.  As I was leaving the doctor looked at me very sincerely and said, “I don’t like how this looks and I’d like for you to watch a movie.”  I knew then that I had it.  Breast cancer.  The look on her face said it all. I saw her again as I was leaving the office and she said simply, “Don’t worry, you’ll be fine.”  Not exactly warm and fuzzy but, as it turns out, pragmatic and true.

Continue reading →