Sunday, March 23, 2008

• You could have knocked me over with a gentle breeze.
  My mom and I had a most interesting and exciting conversation on the phone this evening.  I had called with holiday greetings and to give the girls a chance to talk with her and we were just about to finish our conversation when she said she had something she wanted to tell me about.  Of course, this caused my throat to close up a bit, thinking she had some awful news of her health or something equally unpleasant to convey... yet the energy I felt from her like that and I relaxed a little.
  ~
  What did she want to say?
  ~
  She has been exploring guided imagery this past week.  She has a rheumatory disease (as my sister does with Lupus) and experiences chronic pain with periods of intensity (in the mornings especially) that keeps her in bed.  As a result, she feels trapped in her condo... life... body... all of these things.  Of course she is seeing a doctor and they are working to find her the right mix of drugs to help her pain (I believe that she is currently taking steroids).  Nothing she has tried so far has had much effect on diminishing the pain.  She decided to try these cds she bought on one of her book journeys because she feels desperate for relief and why not, you know?
  
  Well, it's working.  She feels relief while she is using the tapes and for a short time thereafter.  She feels most relaxed and has been able to get a good night's sleep every night she's used the cd to guide her through.  She has not slept well in some time.  She is using a meditation/affirmation series (though she could not remember the woman who does the recordings) that is specific to rheumatory issues.  She was excited to tell me because she knew I would have some idea of what she was talking about and she felt surprise that it was working.  She waiting to make sure it wasn't a fluke before she said anything.  I laughed at that.  I am so excited, so thrilled to know that it is working for her, even if only during the time she meditating.  I am so happy for her, and selfishly, happy for myself.  It is such a validation to me, to the way my mind works, that my mom has embraced something so outside her sphere of experience.  My Catholic, church-going mom.
  
  She asked what I thought and I told her that the beauty of this practice is that literally, with practice, the feeling of wellness that she experiences will continue and expand.  The more she practices getting to that place of painlessness, the longer she will be able to maintain it.  Eventually she won't need the guided recording, she will be able to get herself to that place on her own.  That's the whole trick, getting there on your own and being able to stay there.  She laughed when I told her I suck at it, and I used the example of Jesus being the perfect example of a person who was able to constantly maintain the feeling of peace... nirvana.  I actually used that word and she didn't laugh at me (I am the New Age freak of the family and I am often good-naturedly laughed at).  She got it... she understood where I've been coming from for these past years.  She said, "I realize that there are many facets of spirituality."
  Holy crap.  This from the the woman who supposedly cannot separate herself from the concept that only baptized Catholics get into heaven.
  I'm blown away.
  I'm overwhelmed with gratitude that guided meditation is working for her, I feel like something has been awakened in my mom... illness has brought forth this in her, out of need.  And as always, I am stupefied by the way the Universe works.
  "It's like magic, isn't it Mom?  It feels like magic, but YOU are doing it.  The tiny speck in you that is God is rising up, showing Herself as who you really are.  You are taking back some of the power of yourself.  And that really is magic.  I am so excited for you."
  Again, no laughing.  She agreed that it is like magic.
  
  And all this is so synchronistic with my reading of A New Earth.  It is impossible to have such a multitude of minds attempting to digest such a simple yet massive concept and there not be tangible evidence of the power of that.  My mom.
  The energy of that.
  It is humbling and thrilling.
  This book is not just for freaks like me, who would read this stuff even if it weren't on Oprah.  It is for everyone.  The message of it isn't new, but I have never had quite as much of a grasp on the concept of living in the Now as I do when reading Eckhart Tolle's book.  It could be only that I am now ready to understand it better, however I cannot help but think that it isn't just me... it is a movement where I am the tiniest speck of light among a gazillion others.  The light is growing... and I know it must be getting pretty damn bright in here when even my mom can see through the veil, even a peek.  My mom, folks.
  The world is awakening.  I may not live to see it fully realized, but I am a part of the process.  What a privilege, what a moment in eternity to be here...  in the Now... of that process.
  It's blowing my mind.
  Good night.
  
  
  

  • 10:29 PM
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