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Horizons Magazine
FEBRUARY 2001
Animated by a higher power, our minds help us or hinder us;
my hands still down after the car accident; dealing with obstacles
Hello and welcome to the February 2001 issue of Horizons Magazine. First I want
to say thanks to everyone who has called and emailed and sent cards and gifts
(and love!) as I heal from my car accident of a few months ago. I'm steadily on the
mend and am in good hands as I heal. Good hands. Hmmm, I've been thinking a
lot about hands lately, especially since I don't have full use of mine yet. The right one - and of course I'm right handed *hehe* - seems to have a mind of its own, and the feeling and use of it comes and goes. I'm beginning to type a little with my left hand and I've gotten one of those trackball mouses that I can manipulate with my right hand using mostly my thumb. That is, when my thumb decides it wants to work! I'm really learning how to stay in the moment and make the best of the moment, rather than relying on What Used To Be.
As I heal, I am ever more aware that it is not me who animates and controls this body I inhabit. I send the proper signals from my mind to my hand or arm, and it may or may not do my bidding. I joked with my friends Judy Jones and Claudia Barden that I'm getting a real opportunity to work on practicing telekinesis (moving objects without physical contact) but haven't been able to make the mop work on its own yet! As I contemplate what I am and am not able to do, I am aware that there truly is a Power much greater than my own that animates me, that lives and moves and has Its being in me, just as I live and move and have my being in Him/Her/It/They. I can wish all I want but there is something greater than I that enlivens me and embodies me. Or do I mean is embodied by me?
I am reminded that yes, it is important to step out into the world and perform physical service to my fellowman, but that my physical vehicle is not the only create-tive apparatus I have. Since I have spent much time away from not only the keyboard since the accident, but away from most household chores, yard care and all hobbies, I've had time to just sit and be. I was lamenting to a friend not long ago that I'd for once like to go somewhere and not feel I had to take notes about what I was doing so I could share it with others. I'd like to be able to have a few thoughts and not feel I have to write them down. I'd like to go to a conference and just listen, and not have to take notes to transcribe later. As a writer, I was never without pen and paper tucked away in a pocket just in case. *hehe* You laugh, you know what I'm talking about, don't you?
So here was the Universe, as always hearing and answering my every prayer, and giving me the chance to do just what I asked for. To sit and BE and be hands-free. So I contemplate the fact that here is me in my body, yet it is Another that makes it all possible. I contemplate that, if Someone sees fit to give me such a terrific gift as this physical body, which allows to me go do and have and be anything I want, the least I could do is respect it and treat it as the beautiful gift it truly is. This is the vehicle I'll be driving for maybe another 70 years so it behooves me to give it good fuel and regular maintenance. Yeah, yeah, we've all heard that through the years, but this time, with this new insight, I GET it. I get it. I also realize that as I get older, I want to become more active than I am now. I want to go more places and do more physical things and have more vitality and stamina to do so. I'm blessed in that I have no health problems despite my typical American diet the last 48 years. I think my saving grace has been that I've practiced yoga and meditation regularly since my 20's and have had virtually no stress in my life for the past dozen years.
Our minds can truly help us or hinder us, and the less physical activity I can do, the more I appreciate having the create-tive power of my mind still available to me. I know that I don't have to catch every cold that comes along, although everyone else in the office may be sniffling and sneezing. I know that if I can keep my attention on what is going right in my life, the more harmonious my life is. I know if I can keep my attention on all the things I CAN do despite my temporary disability as I mend, the better I'm able to cope and find alternative ways of doing what needs to be done.
That was another a-ha for me. Realizing that if I needed to get something done, hands or no hands, I could always find a way to do it. If I needed another person, invariably a friend or delivery driver would ring my bell at just the right moment and give me that helping hand. It never failed. It never failed. And I don't expect it to. I always expect that, just as has always happened in the past, I will feel watched over and cared for, protected and blessed, no matter what is going on in my life. I will always have the help I need at the exact moment of my need. To paraphrase a song Rev. John Considine had us sing at Unity of Melbourne a few months back: Thank you God for the blessings of today. Come what may I'll be grateful to you. Thy will be done in my life today. It's always good and I'm grateful to you. And it is always good and I am grateful.
Scott and Shannon Peck in this issue talk of encountering obstacles, and trusting the Light rather than telling the Light where to lead. They suggest we surround ourselves with people who honor and cherish us. Diana Daffner reminds us that it is our presence that is a real gift to others, more so than the presents we give such as on Valentine's Day. When we approach our beloved with reverence, we touch the divine that lives in each of us. Lloyd Thomas says that Love does not consist of gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction. I'd like to add, "love also consists of choosing to look outward together in the same direction." Remember, we always have a choice and if you're in a relationship and feeling unloved, which direction are you choosing to look in?
Alan Cohen asks Can you laugh your way through challenges? Are you bigger than your circumstances? If there is one purpose to relationships, it is to empower each other to be more comfortable, confident, alive in who we already are. Who we already are, I think that's important. Sometimes the best thing we can do for a friend is help them reframe what is happening in their lives so they can see it from another perspective. You know, like before enlightenment, I chopped wood and carried water. But now, after enlightenment, I chop wood and carry water! Philip Humbert gives us 10 Ways To Keep Passion In Your Relationship, but as my friend the sbpt says, People who like each other will always find a way to work things out.
Ma Yoga Shakti reminds us Whatever circumstances we are in, they are divine. If we remember the grace of God, everything becomes very light and we get intuitive knowledge. Rev. Tom Sannar explains Step 8 of his 12 Steps of Spiritual Freedom and it includes maintaining a positive attitude regardless of what is occurring in your life. Colin Tipping writes that expressing even an infinitesimal amount of willingness to see the perfection in any situation enables us to remember at a very deep level who we really are. Gillian MacBeth-Louthan tells us to embrace the possibles and the impossibles with the same passion. My success in being able to do that depends on how I'm letting myself feel in the present moment. I know it is an important part of the process to raise my personal vibration to a high enough level that I am enjoying life, so that I can attract enjoyable people and events into my experience. I must take responsibility for how I perceive my life and how I react to it.