​Author Interview 

with Rikki West

Rikki West began training in Muay Thai kickboxing in her sixties, years before she needed a killer body to generate stem cells for her sister Linda’s life-sustaining stem cell transplant. When lymphoma erupted in Linda’s body, the sisters weren’t on speaking terms; their relationship had fractured along deep family lines.  But years of spiritual practice combined with vigorous martial arts, prayer, and a super-healthy lifestyle helped bring about deep healing processes that carried the sisters over the finish line, defeating alcoholism, lymphoma, and lifelong wounds.

Rootlines is Rikki’s first memoir.  Kirkus Reviews praised Rootlines as “A remarkable story of hope and determination passionately recounted.”  Rikki lives with her wife, Jill, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and is currently working on a spiritual memoir.

You are a meditation student, pursuing peace.  How does that work with Muay Thai, a combat sport?

There is no conflict.  In spiritual practice I let myself be aware of what is arising, and sometimes what arises is a difficult emotion.  Meditation has trained my mind to relax in the face of strong emotion, finding a calm center of awareness.  Sparring in Muay Thai requires a similar state of mind.  Sparring is an intense experience; it triggers fear, anger, aggression, and arrogance in rapid succession.  Yet the mind has to stay calm and centered, noticing those emotions but not being owned by them.  The two practices are complementary.

You started training in Muay Thai in your sixties.  What got you started?  Had you been active in Martial Arts before that?

I’m not an athlete; I’d never done anything like this before.  I signed up with a personal trainer because of work stress, and that trainer introduced me to Muay Thai.  I fell in love the moment I strapped on the boxing gloves.  No matter what age you are, there is nothing like punching and kicking things until you drop from near exhaustion!

What is the book about?

This story begins in a fight gym in Mountain View, California, where I learned Muay Thai and got more fit that I had ever been.  In my sixties I was doing jump rope and pushups with the gym’s young fighters. 

When my sister Linda and I argued bitterly about our mother’s end of life care, we stopped speaking.  An ancient family dynamic locked our hostility in place.  But after months of angry silence, Linda emailed me saying she had terminal tumors from Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma which would kill her within a few months.  I couldn’t believe it!  She was just telling me now?

Her only hope was a complete replacement of her bone marrow.  I immediately called her and insisted that I get tested to be a stem cell donor.  I forgot completely that we were arguing.  I promised I would do my best to be a complete match.

I prayed, meditated, and focused all my spiritual and mental energies on becoming a good match.  It might sound crazy, but eventually I got tested, and found I was a perfect match, all 10 out of 10 human leukocyte antigens.  It felt like a miracle.

For eight months I built up my inner stem cell factories.  I became a symbol of health, hope, and stamina for the whole family.  Everyone had faith that the stem cells would have the magical power to cure the cancer and save Linda’s life. 

We hit numerous obstacles, and at one point, to stay alive Linda needed to get into a clinical trial.  She jumped through hoops to get into the one drug-antibody conjugate trial at City of Hope that could hold back the tumors until she could try for the transplant.

It took another six months of treatment, but finally Linda began the transplant.  That in itself was a grueling month-long procedure that brought her to the brink of death.  She came back step by step, one day at a time.  Eventually she gained back her health and her strength.  The cancer was completely destroyed. 

When did you start writing the book?

A few months after the transplant started to take hold.

How long did it take you to write it?

About four months.  Then I worked with readers and editors for another six months to shape the manuscript.

Why did you write it?

I felt that a series of mini-miracles had unfolded in our lives, that we were carried by a spirit greater than ourselves.  I wanted to inspire others with the mystery, using my experience, strength and hope.

What did you learn from this experience?  

Life takes courage. I trained in courage at the fight gym. Training taught me patience and endurance.  Sparring helped me handle fear, anger, and aggression.  It was life in my face, handle it right now.  Boom.  

Happiness sometimes requires sacrificing for someone else.  I had to give up my time, resources, and preferences.  I worked hard to be a safe place for Linda to feel love and comfort.  I ended up getting so much more than I gave.  The healing of old wounds, the discovery of love and intimacy.

We are all going to die.  We don’t have time to waste.  I had to find out what really mattered to me and pursue it with love, and I have to keep doing that.  Now I only do what matters to me.  Being faced with death shocks you into this mindset, but why wait? 

Most important:  Maybe I am not alone.  I felt the hand of a higher power guiding me from the beginning, years before I needed to be a warrior, so I was ready when destiny called on me.  I had the strong feeling of being pulled to carry out my role in Linda’s healing.  I felt guided the whole time.  So maybe I was not alone; maybe I never was alone.

Follow Rikki West at www.rikkiwest.com or contact her at rikki@rikkiwest.com.

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