A Gift of Healing From My Childhood
Yesterday marked nine years since my mother’s passing. Mother’s Day is bittersweet for me because I miss my dear Mommy but I’m overjoyed and grateful to be a Mommy to my own grown children and a Savta (grandmother) to their children.
Our son echoed my experience saying that, at times, the nine years feel like it's been nine months while at other times, it feels like 90 years.
My mind wandered to what I learned about healing from Mom, early on. For me, it was that love heals everything. I believe it does. It doesn’t fix everything or prevent everything, but it heals at the deepest level of the heart and soul.
I specifically recall being a second grader when I got chickenpox. We played connect-the-dots on my body, with Calamine lotion. My Mom cut fresh flowers from the garden and put them in my room. My Mom, Dad, and my maternal grandfather, didn’t want me to get too comfortable having meals brought to me on a tray and being able to watch the living room TV from where they moved my bed, so they bought me a present.
They made sure to explain that it wasn’t a gift for having gotten sick, but rather, a get well gift that I could look forward to. I didn’t understand why they would give me a gift that I couldn’t use. It was a jump rope, a Frisbee, and some seeds to plant in the garden. I choked back my tears as I thanked them, as not to seem ungrateful, secretly thinking it was mean somehow.
My grandfather said it made him sad to see me ill and so he would keep picturing me up and well, running around the yard, playing, jumping rope, planting my Zinnias and marigolds until it came true. Mom told me to do the same. Picture myself in perfect health, returning to all of those things that made me happy. And I did.
I healed and was so excited the first day that I could go out and catch up with the picture that I had held in my mind. It was a magical moment. Little did I know that decades later, I’d teach others to do the same, calling it a visualization, that invites an image of healing mind, body, spirit, and emotions in perfect alignment.
While I healed from my bout with chickenpox, I was given puzzles and coloring books with new crayons for something to do, but nothing was more powerful than that gift I couldn’t use until I was well. Nothing, that is, except the love that was behind it all.
Take a moment to recall a beautiful memory of love and healing from your mother or someone else who loved you deeply.
Be well and stay enchanted.