THE HEALING POWER OF LOVE



Many articles and books have been written about the healing powers of love and prayer. My wish for today is not to top what has already been said, but – from my most recent personal experience – to agree with the premise.

There have been other times in my life when I have experienced the healing power of friendship and love, but I believe that as we age certain subjects affect us more profoundly, especially those related to our own mortality.

I recently underwent knee replacement surgery and returned home just two days ago. The surgery itself was not life threatening, but the fact that it had to be postponed three times due to unrelated infections left me quite undone by the time I actually entered the operating room.

More to the point, it became ever so much clearer prior to the surgery and immediately afterward that the experience of receiving the love and prayers from those near and dear was both powerful and healing.

Just as some would not argue the existence of God from a logical perspective, one also can’t prove how the energy of love and prayer works to assist those in need. However, especially since the 1980s, scientific studies have shown that no matter what the disease, those who have people praying for them do heal far better and far faster than those who are isolated and have no extended family or group of friends extending themselves to the patient in need.

Today, I am here to attest to the fact that the caring thoughts, the love, and prayers sent to me these past weeks did not merely warm my heart metaphorically. Throughout the days and nights in which I felt an urgent need for assistance – the love of others was both palpable and extraordinarily curative.

While there is no one way to love or to express one’s love, it is always a feeling of warmth, a personal attachment that feeds our souls and offers us the hope that we desperately need in times of distress. It is often accompanied by a deep feeling of gratitude for all who put their own needs aside during times when we need them. The feeling may not have a particular word and it may be difficult for us to measure, but we certainly do feel it.

In the late 70s and early 80s – a time many referred to pejoratively as New Age thinking – I was in training to become a psychotherapist and began to read the writings of people such as Dr. Larry Dossey. Knowing that he – a Western medical physician – was supporting the power of prayer and love and that the top medical schools in America were requiring their students to take courses in spirituality and healing, allowed me to put on an entirely new thinking cap of my own.

In Dossey’s five-part series, "LEARN TO USE THE POWER OF PRAYER, LOVE and INTENTION TO HEAL," he takes a very clear position on the healing power of prayer. He writes about scientific research regarding the various healing powers, stressing “the converging functions of prayer and love and some of the limitations of modern medical practices.”

As the executive editor of EXPLORE: The Journal of Science and Healing, and the author of at least ten books about consciousness and spirituality and their roles in the healing process, he addresses this subject with a fount of scientific knowledge, and, as a treating physician, he thereby legitimizes the topic.  He does not merely share anecdotal experiences, though many medical cures begin just that way.  He and many in medical research and medical practice are now – thirty years later – acknowledging the mystifying experiences of patients and are now open to ways of thinking that encourage their patients to help heal themselves as well as to accept the love and prayers of others as being a vital part of the healing process.

So, to all of you who sent me your positive thoughts, your healing energy and prayers, I thank you from the bottom of my heart and remind you – as I am reminding myself – that we don’t have to wait for catastrophic incidents or tenacious traumas to send others our love or to offer it to ourselves, as well.

Wishing everyone excellent health and loving people in your life who will be there when you ask them to be there ... and even when you don’t!

Warmest regards,
~ Linda

HERE AT WOUNDED KNEE!

As many of you know, I had knee replacement surgery this past week and along with many of you who have experienced poor health care as well as excellent care, I feel the need to honor all those who restored my faith in the healing profession and those who chose the profession as their life’s passion for all the right reasons.

First and foremost I'd like to express my gratitude to Dr.Steven Zelicof, whose last words to me before I entered the operating room were: “Don’t forget. Linda, my goal is to do everything that’s best for you, causing you no undue pain,” to his first words while I was in the recovery room surrounded by my family :"Perfect! Everything went perfectly!”

In addition to never expecting anything in life to be “perfect,” it was more than wonderful to hear those words said and to be met during the following three days with nurses, nurses’s aides, attending physicians, and absolutely everyone on Dr.Z’s team with nothing but utter respect as they attended to each of my needs.

When I pressed the button on the bed’s remote for assistance, there was no waiting for an oral response over a loud speaker asking what I needed. Instead, a nurse appeared almost before I completed buzzing. I was always met by a smile and a sincere response to whatever my question was. The few times that a medical decision had to be made, a physician was at my bedside in moments and the problem was given proper attention.

This may sound as though I’m paying homage to what we should all expect pre and post any surgical procedure. As most of us know, that seldom happens. Whether it’s because we have too few hospitals properly staffed and/or equipped or it’s yet another consequence of today’s economy, it's always the suffering patient who suffers unnecessarily when those who are supposed to be care-takers fail us in their care.

So, as I am still in Rehab and suffering from the pain that everyone warned me about, I shall keep this short and simply hope that I have expressed my heart-felt gratitude to Dr.Zelicof and the staff of Sound Shore Medical Center. I wish any of you who might now be facing any surgical procedure now or in the near future the unusually wonderful quality of care that I received.

Wishing you all good health and healing ~

Yours,
Linda

       LABOR DAY 2010 ! 


Take the day off from worrying!

I don’t think any of us would deny that Americans are a hard working people and that most of us have work ethics worthy of being admired, acknowledged, and celebrated. Those were certainly the sentiments in 1894 when Congress finally passed an act making the first Monday in September of each year a legal holiday throughout the nation.

As stated by the U.S. Department of Labor:


"The form that the observance and celebration of Labor Day should take was outlined in the first proposal of the holiday: a street parade to exhibit to the public ‘the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations’ of the community, followed by a festival for the recreation and amusement of the workers and their families. This became the pattern for the celebrations of Labor Day. Speeches by prominent men and women were introduced later, as more emphasis was placed upon the economic and civic significance of the holiday. Still later, by a resolution of the American Federation of Labor convention of 1909, the Sunday preceding Labor Day was adopted as Labor Sunday and dedicated to the spiritual and educational aspects of the labor movement.”

Much has happened since those early days at the start of the 20th century, and in today's complex world where all of us would like to see a return to prosperity, it is perhaps more important than ever that we honor and respect American workers – no matter what their occupation – and hope that the government that we have always worked so hard to support will once again support us in essential and significant ways.

However, the celebration of Labor Day this year is less a celebration than a half-hearted acknowledgment and a time to reflect, unfortunately, on the country’s sagging economy and all the people who are struggling to survive. In recent years, Labor Day and, more specifically – Labor Day weekend – has turned into a time for barbeques at home and/or modest vacations, as well as sale days to help ready our children to return to school.

This month alone, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released unemployment figures that reflect a rate increase of 9.6 per cent with a total number of jobs lost more than  50,000. but not enough.  And while I have no answers as to how to solve this monumental problem, I do know how very important it is to do so,  if we are to avoid the ripple effect of unemployment on individuals, families, and the nation as a whole.

Lest anyone think that an unemployed person is pleased with his free time and not overwhelmed – and/or actually clinically depressed – by mounting bills and the frustration of not being able to meet his responsibilities, think again. Whether or not you believe in a past life or a future life, one thing is certain: this life we live now is the one that we have the greatest ability to influence.

Whatever the government does or does not do to help us, we each owe it to ourselves and to the generations that follow to be our best advocates. We must keep our focus on maintaining medical and social benefits; the quality of our children’s education, and the quality of our daily lives.

It is all too easy for some people – whatever their socio-economic position may be – to feel depressed and hopeless not only about work and financial woes, but about the general political climate world-wide. However, such thinking will prove to defeat us as a nation and deplete whatever energy we need to make certain that we do our very best to fight for our individual and collective rights as Americans, as a people who believe in democracy and the democratic process.

So, despite whatever fears we may be harboring about the rate of unemployment and the plight of laborers across the country, it is of the utmost importance that we continue to honor the American work force. To do anything less is to give up, and that is certainly not in anyone’s best interest ... and has never been what has singled us out as a moral and courageous people!

On that note, I wish everyone a peaceful Labor Day weekend and hope that - for at least these few days - those who have real worries and concerns are able to put them aside, enjoy friends and family and the very notion that we do, in fact, honor all working Americans who strive to live decent and dignified lives.

Yours,
Linda