Francis, the Healer

I don’t know that Pope Francis would think of himself as that, but I surely do. Before he arrived on our shores on Sept 22nd, he wasn’t even on my radar. Of course, I knew of Pope Francis and his eschewing the worldly trappings of his new role, and his deep compassion for the poor and infirm and the children. But the  day he landed in Washington, DC, and was escorted around the city, my heart was enthralled. When I think on that week, I remember the milestone addresses to Congress and the UN, and at Ground Zero, and the beautiful Masses he offered, but mainly my consciousness embraces his rides through our streets and the love and compassion pouring out of his eyes and hands, his entire being. So healing - right off the TV screen. And millions felt it. The energy in our country was glorious.

I’m reminded of a study done years ago by a Harvard Medical School professor, David McClelland, PhD, from which the term the “Mother Teresa effect” emerged. McClelland demonstrated how the power of love could make the body healthier, by showing a group of his graduate students a documentary of Mother Teresa lovingly ministering to the sick. Before and after the screenings he tested the levels of Immunoglobulin A - an antibody which combats viral infections in their saliva. The IgA levels rose significantly even in many of the students who thought Mother Teresa was too religious or a fake. He subsequently discarded the film and simply asked the students to think about times when they felt loved and cared for, and times when they were loving to others. The IgA levels rose again. McClelland admitted that he’d aborted colds with this technique (me too) and he became an advocate for the role of love in modern healing. Me too.

One of the greatest lessons I learned from my spiritual teacher, Hilda Charlton, was that the Universe and everything in it is energy, Love being the most powerful. We were all extravagantly showered with the energy of compassionate love which poured from Pope Francis as he moved through our cities’ streets that week. He was blessing and healing us whether we were consciously aware of that or not. My gratitude knows no bounds, dear Francis, and I rest more and more in my conviction that Love Heals. 

Pope Francis - What A Blessing

We’re all being mightily blessed. And I’m so grateful.

 Love heals is a constant theme for me and for the past three days, we’ve seen Pope Francis sharing his boundless love and caring and joy in DC and NYC and through TV to everyone on our Planet. And today he’s in Philadelphia.

My heart is overflowing with appreciation for his generosity. When I think of the tens of thousands that have gathered to be near him, I feel there’s great hope for our human condition. Obviously in the midst of our raucous, cynical, often violent world, many are still drawn to pure goodness. This is beautiful beyond measure. This is very good news. 

Hilda “Hit”

I was outside at the river wall this morning, to greet and listen to my guidance. 

I’ve been feeling a bit wifty the past week and this is not ok with me, though I realize everything is purposeful and this is probably a message for me to chill.  Yesterday I’d listened to a *Hilda recording that I’ve had for several years. It’s what she calls a Healing Concentration and she lovingly and powerfully guides the listener to sending golden Healing Light to every part of the body. I felt fabulous afterward and vowed to do this daily to assist me through this current malaise.

This morning I felt she was there with me and she encouraged me to share what came to me, even though it’s similar to another recent blog, which, I'm happy to report, has been helpful to me and many others. However, it's always appropriate to follow Hilda's advice, so here she is. Feel that she’s speaking to you. She is. 

I’m with you, darling. You must keep focusing on the Light. Walk in It; shower in It; let It shower you. Feel Its vibrant aliveness soaking into all your pores, saturating your bones and muscles and ligaments and joints and organs – all the vital systems within you – respiratory, circulatory, digestive, eliminatory. Let the Light saturate your brain, bringing it brand new Life – new neuropaths – new connections – great clarity and creativity. Feel Light vigorously flowing through you – washing away the old and depositing New Life within every cell and atom of you. Yes, Elizabeth/Betsy get into your computer and share this soon as a blog, a podcast – wherever you can.

Hilda called me Betsy most of the time. That’s the name I grew up with. I never liked it and started using part of my real name, Elizabeth, in the mid '80’s. On my birth certificate it says Mary Elizabeth. 

Much of what followed this morning was personal, but she ended with a message that seems right-on for all of us. Re the healing Light flowing through our bodies:

 Now do it. Be it. Receive. Relax and Receive constantly. We’re always with you. We’re here to assist you in this fine endeavor. Smile and know that you are not alone and that you are indeed getting better every day and night. Your job is to know that. Blessings to you always. Know that you are loved.

I firmly believe that as we wake up, embrace ourselves with Love and take exquisite care of our body/mind/spirit system, life will be Better and Better.

*I met Hilda in1976 and though she left her physical body in ’88, she continues to be my spiritual teacher.

Blessings Abound

I’m walking in the park this glorious morning and bounding down the path towards me is a little beagle. I say “Hi, there” as he passes by and notice that he’s stopped and is coming back. He reaches up and licks the fingers of my right hand. Ahhhh - How blessed am I this beautiful morning.

Daily Shower

This morning I was struck by what I feel are thoughts held by many, that illness is inevitable, and aging, always arduous. Clearly our society is youth oriented and the media bombard us relentlessly with how to look and feel forever young. But intuitively we all know that “enyouthening” is an inside job. The better care we take of ourselves, the more conscious we become of the Energy in which we all live and by which we are all nurtured, the better each and every day of our lives becomes.

And I was thinking how long it takes many of us to awaken to that consciousness of Who We Really Are, and how years of “being in the dark” about Life and Love have created a lot of baggage in our bones - our shoulders, hips, knees, etc. I celebrate how salubrious a session of Jin Shin Jyutsu or Acupuncture or Massage can be.* But if I’ve learned anything on my life/healing journey, it was to take full responsibility for myself everyday and in every way. This often entails allowing myself to be guided to whatever/whomever can assist me during a particularly challenging time. Hence, the aforementioned modalities.

But the overwhelming thought this morning was that we need to incorporate into our daily lives, basking in a metaphysical shower each day. It can be part of our physical shower, or something that we can simply stand up and do anytime anywhere we can be private for a few moments. We can close our eyes and imagine that we are standing in a large column of showering Light, stunningly beautiful, shimmering Light. Its origin is as far out in the Universe as we can possibly imagine. And we are allowing ourselves to feel it saturating us - every cell, every muscle, every bone, every ligament, every organ, every single atom of our bodies - embraced and healed and renewed by this Magnificent Light. We are feeling totally blessed and healed and surrendered to this Light and know that it has the ability to wash away our baggage, regardless of how long we’ve been carrying it or how heavy it is. How Wonder-full. We breathe out a sigh of relief, and become suffused with gratitude and over and over repeat: Thank You, Thank You, Thank you. 

And so it is. We gently open our eyes and allow a new strength and courage to empower us. We walk tall this day knowing that we walk in the Light always and in that Light all things are possible. 

*My profound gratitude to Jed Schwartz, Dr. Nan Lu & Tatiana Philippova, and Linda Cali.

Here's to The Unfettered Life

Though it's no longer my birthday, I found this little piece on my desktop this afternoon and felt it should be shared. Hope you enjoy.

It's my birthday and for the first time this year it’s warm enough to sit outside. As I’m walking out with my writing book, I hear “go get Hilda’s Saint’s Alive book – there’s a message for you”. I got it and walked out to the river wall and stood there feeling quite exhilarated. 

Usually on my BD I’m a bit glum that here I am getting older and I haven’t done anything yet. That is a lie, of course.  I know that, through God’s Grace, I've done some very good things and there’s a lot more to do. I go back to the table to write and open to this passage in Hilda’s book: “You don’t have to do pranayama, concentration, meditation or contemplation.  You only have to let go of your fetters and everything happens right.” 

May I, may we all, surrender with abandon to letting go of any and all fetters! Thank You, Hilda.

More Gratitude

I was recently asked to write a Gratitude piece. This is what came out. I'd never written about it before. What an adventure.

In 2011, forty years after my life transforming bout with cancer, I found myself walking into a Cancer Center wondering what in the world I was doing here. For symptoms I’d been having, the doctor I’d come here to see had been highly recommended. 

The next thing I knew I was having a complete hysterectomy which revealed a nasty tumor in my uterus. I was not amused. Chemo and radiation were prescribed. I passed on radiation and in a haze of bewilderment, agreed to chemotherapy. I was blessed to have it administered by a wonderful doctor who most generously gave up one of his examining rooms every three weeks for five and a half hours. 

Unlike my first bout in the 70’s, I let people in this time. A team of wonderful women, organized by my dear friend, Alice Evans, covered the first few days after each infusion. They were here to do whatever was needed, which wasn’t much since I felt so terrible. Nonetheless, thank you all. Muguette Hamon, an amazing friend and healer from Montreal, drove to NYC three times in the dead of winter to work on me. Astounding! Thank you, Muguette. My husband, Ben Bryant, couldn’t have been more caring. Thank you always, my dear love. And many were praying for me. Thank you.

By another stroke of Grace I was guided to having acupuncture with Dr. Nan Lu. Thank you, Dr. Lu. In my first sessions with Master Lu, he reminded me that there are no accidents and that this was all purposeful and meaningful. I felt as if he’d been reading my blogs.  This was what I’d been sharing with people for years. I’d even created a DVD/CD project (now downloadable) called the Better & Better Series, to assist Pre & Post Surgery surgery patients and their caregivers. The Series immerses us in the glories of Nature, while beautiful music and inspiring thoughts create deep peace and ease to support the innate healing wisdom within. “Natural Forces within us are the true healers of disease”, Hippocrates. It turns out I used my own work a lot to assist me at this time. 

After the fourth session of chemo, I was really sinking. Though all this time I was able to go within and “work” on myself, I didn’t have the energy to move. It was a very warm April and I was huddled under our down quilt freezing. No one said a word, but I soon learned that my husband and friends all thought the chemo was killing me. In the meantime, I was under the quilt listening inside for some message about what to do here. One day, out of a clear blue sky, I heard, “It’s enough”! What? I asked for a repeat: “It’s enough”. Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you. A wave of great relief washed through me, though I continued to lie there totally depleted. Two days later, a conversation was going on in my head. I heard: “Elizabeth, you know that your body is a healing machine. How can it heal itself when you’re throwing an atom bomb into it every three weeks?” Whoa! That was huge. I don’t know for sure, but that might have been Dr. Lu speaking. Thank you, thank you, thank you. The next day, I called my oncologist and said I was stopping treatment. “You can’t do that”, he stated emphatically. I did, despite the uproar from all my doctors and healer friends. I just knew I had to stop.

It was slow going for about a year. I’d lost a lot of weight and was energetically wasted, but the Wonder of Wonders within me, to say nothing of the ongoing support of Traditional Chinese Medicine (Dr. Lu and Tatiana Philippova), nurtured me day and night. As I’d been writing and talking about for years regarding my healing in the ’70’s, this was again a blessing in disguise. It was no accident; it was another "rite of passage" for me. 

One of my most compelling lessons here was allowing in love. Like most women, I’d always been much better at giving than receiving, and this arduous journey was here to open me up to receiving the great abundance of love around and within me at all times. Thank you, everyone, for reminding me of that. Words cannot begin to describe the Gratitude I feel. I’m so Greatfull* for my life.

* When we’re feeling grateful, we’re full of The Great