(Photo credit: Bloomberg Business Week)
The first wave of the baby boomers turns 65 this year! Amazing! As I was checking out the news online this morning I read where an "elderly" woman of 66 years of age, was robbed in Austin. Elderly? At 66? I wonder how the boomers will react to being called elderly. Like many other aspects of our society about which they have managed to change our thinking, I'm sure this healthy, food- and exercise-conscious group of folks will make a mockery of that image as well. The boomers I know do not think of themselves as old! And I believe that our "thinking makes it so!"
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I remember being hospitalized in 1999 with the horrible flu that was making the rounds that year. I was very ill - I even had a "near death" experience. I remember being in a foggy haze when a young nurse came in and spoke to me. She said, "They told me there was an 'elderly' woman admitted who had beautiful hair, but I had to see for myself!" I don't know how beautiful my hair was, but it was long and thick, with absolutely no gray hairs. Anyway, the compliment aside, I was horrified when I realized the "elderly" woman she spoke of was me! I had just turned 60 the month before, and until that moment, I never felt "elderly"! My hair is still thick, and I still have very few gray hairs. My ophthalmologist was shocked when, as he was telling me that certain hair dyes could be harmful to my eyes, I stopped him to tell him I did not dye my hair. And I still don't feel "elderly"!
When I was admitted to the hospital, barely able to breathe until they put me on oxygen, one of
the first things they did was x-ray my lungs, someone holding me up while they did that. My doctor soon came into my room and with a long face told me that there was a spot on one of my lungs. (No, that's not really my x-ray.) At that moment, I was too sick to care, and struggling just to breathe. My son Craig notified a friend of mine from my Unity church that I was ill. Later I was told that they immediately started a prayer chain for me. During the hours of that first fretful day, I remember feeling like someone or something had come into the room. I looked toward the door and felt it even stronger. There was a mist of some kind that seemed to be whirling into the room. When I saw it, I relaxed and knew everything was going to be okay. The prayers had been started for me I later learned. Upon my release from the hospital a couple of days later, my doctor did a followup x-ray that showed no sign of a "spot" on my lung. He couldn't explain it other than to say maybe it had just been a "shadow" to begin with. I believed it was the prayers that were being said for me that removed that "spot"! (By the way, I called the paramedics the night I got sick. I told God, "Let me live just one more hour and I'll never smoke another cigarette as long as I live!" And He/She did... and I haven't!)
Imagination? Or was what I saw and felt that day merely the prayer "energy" of my friends being released? This morning I read a beautiful little piece in my favorite devotional, A Cherokee Feast of Days by Joyce Sequichie Hifler, that I'd like to share with you:
"When we last saw Essie she had been ashen and without the strength we see in her now. Now she sits flat on the ground, legs straight out in front, and reeds tumble across her knees and lie around her. Nimble fingers seek the perfect one to start a basket. Essie is close to our hearts. She has our Grandmother's name. Her reticence does not inspire idle talk, so we ask what happened to change her. With a quick glance, she says, 'God heal.' 'Is it possible? So quickly and completely?' Hesitantly, she asks, 'You got fast oven?' I say I do. 'What make it work?' 'Why, microwaves -- energy. They change the molecules, the structure of the bread from cold to hot.' Seconds pass. She says, almost too softly, 'Prayer energy. Make me well.'
In an article in The Washington Post in 2006, Rob Stein wrote: Many studies indicate that "The quiet meditation and incantations of praying, or the comfort of being prayed for, appears to lower blood pressure, reduce stress hormones, slow the heart rate and have other potentially beneficial effects."
"When quantum physics was emerging, Einstein wrote about spooky interactions between particles at a distance," Mitchell W. Krucoff of Duke University said. "That's at least one very theoretical model that might support notions of distant prayer or distant healing."
We "believers" do not need scientific studies to prove the benefits of intercessory prayer. Nor do we need studies to show us that our thoughts and prayers have energy that often "creates" changes -- in our or others' health, the circumstances of our lives, or our world at large. This is why it is important for us to pray for things like peace on earth. Even the emails we are sent that ask us to "pray for a cure for cancer" cause us to take a moment and send a positive thought into the noosphere, where all human knowledge is supposedly contained. Knowledge that we all contribute to and draw from. Imagine the powerful energy of the billions of thoughts! Energy that can bring about change -- both positive and negative.
This New Year, let us all monitor our thinking. When you find yourself holding on to negative, painful, angry thoughts, think of all the people in the world who might be doing the same thing -- like the Taliban! You might be feeding powerful energy into their world and their dangerous ways of acting. Quickly change your thinking (and "change your world" as well) to peaceful, positive, loving thoughts. And SMILE! It's hard to be in a negative mood for long with a big smile on your face. There is scientific proof that the muscles used in smiling produce a flood of endorphins and serotonin in the brain that makes us feel good! And if enough of us keep flooding the noosphere with thoughts of love and peace and happiness, maybe in our lifetime we will witness a critical mass in consciousness and the positive energy our thoughts produce will bring about a miraculous change (what de Chardin called the Omega Point) in the evolution of the consciousness of our planet. And there will be PEACE ON EARTH at last!
Pray for someone.
Love,
Marilyn
P.S.
If you have an example of how praying or even thinking has brought about a significant change in your life or someone else's life, I would love to hear from you.
When I was admitted to the hospital, barely able to breathe until they put me on oxygen, one of
the first things they did was x-ray my lungs, someone holding me up while they did that. My doctor soon came into my room and with a long face told me that there was a spot on one of my lungs. (No, that's not really my x-ray.) At that moment, I was too sick to care, and struggling just to breathe. My son Craig notified a friend of mine from my Unity church that I was ill. Later I was told that they immediately started a prayer chain for me. During the hours of that first fretful day, I remember feeling like someone or something had come into the room. I looked toward the door and felt it even stronger. There was a mist of some kind that seemed to be whirling into the room. When I saw it, I relaxed and knew everything was going to be okay. The prayers had been started for me I later learned. Upon my release from the hospital a couple of days later, my doctor did a followup x-ray that showed no sign of a "spot" on my lung. He couldn't explain it other than to say maybe it had just been a "shadow" to begin with. I believed it was the prayers that were being said for me that removed that "spot"! (By the way, I called the paramedics the night I got sick. I told God, "Let me live just one more hour and I'll never smoke another cigarette as long as I live!" And He/She did... and I haven't!)Imagination? Or was what I saw and felt that day merely the prayer "energy" of my friends being released? This morning I read a beautiful little piece in my favorite devotional, A Cherokee Feast of Days by Joyce Sequichie Hifler, that I'd like to share with you:
"When we last saw Essie she had been ashen and without the strength we see in her now. Now she sits flat on the ground, legs straight out in front, and reeds tumble across her knees and lie around her. Nimble fingers seek the perfect one to start a basket. Essie is close to our hearts. She has our Grandmother's name. Her reticence does not inspire idle talk, so we ask what happened to change her. With a quick glance, she says, 'God heal.' 'Is it possible? So quickly and completely?' Hesitantly, she asks, 'You got fast oven?' I say I do. 'What make it work?' 'Why, microwaves -- energy. They change the molecules, the structure of the bread from cold to hot.' Seconds pass. She says, almost too softly, 'Prayer energy. Make me well.'In an article in The Washington Post in 2006, Rob Stein wrote: Many studies indicate that "The quiet meditation and incantations of praying, or the comfort of being prayed for, appears to lower blood pressure, reduce stress hormones, slow the heart rate and have other potentially beneficial effects."
"When quantum physics was emerging, Einstein wrote about spooky interactions between particles at a distance," Mitchell W. Krucoff of Duke University said. "That's at least one very theoretical model that might support notions of distant prayer or distant healing."
We "believers" do not need scientific studies to prove the benefits of intercessory prayer. Nor do we need studies to show us that our thoughts and prayers have energy that often "creates" changes -- in our or others' health, the circumstances of our lives, or our world at large. This is why it is important for us to pray for things like peace on earth. Even the emails we are sent that ask us to "pray for a cure for cancer" cause us to take a moment and send a positive thought into the noosphere, where all human knowledge is supposedly contained. Knowledge that we all contribute to and draw from. Imagine the powerful energy of the billions of thoughts! Energy that can bring about change -- both positive and negative.This New Year, let us all monitor our thinking. When you find yourself holding on to negative, painful, angry thoughts, think of all the people in the world who might be doing the same thing -- like the Taliban! You might be feeding powerful energy into their world and their dangerous ways of acting. Quickly change your thinking (and "change your world" as well) to peaceful, positive, loving thoughts. And SMILE! It's hard to be in a negative mood for long with a big smile on your face. There is scientific proof that the muscles used in smiling produce a flood of endorphins and serotonin in the brain that makes us feel good! And if enough of us keep flooding the noosphere with thoughts of love and peace and happiness, maybe in our lifetime we will witness a critical mass in consciousness and the positive energy our thoughts produce will bring about a miraculous change (what de Chardin called the Omega Point) in the evolution of the consciousness of our planet. And there will be PEACE ON EARTH at last!
Pray for someone.
Love,
Marilyn
P.S.
If you have an example of how praying or even thinking has brought about a significant change in your life or someone else's life, I would love to hear from you.
"A lovely as always and thought-provoking blog, Marilyn. We do very strongly know that prayer is the most powerful force on and off the planet. We have both experienced it first hand almost daily as believers in our wonderful God. How wonderful 2011 will be if these multitudes of prayers for peace on this earth are at last realized. With such a wondrous peace within the hearts of mankind has to come the sharing of resources with those countries who are struggling to survive with few or none of these resources. For, can there be peace within hearts without such love for others automatically blossoming with the desire to give and share and heal those in need throughout our earth.
ReplyDeleteDoes envisioning of this sort seem fanciful--not to me. It seems Godly.
Thanks again for inspiring always through your blog."
" When my Dad was lying on his death bed, the hospice nurse told me to not cry at my dad's bed, for he could hear that. I had no idea how to "not cry" at the most difficult time in my entire life. My prayer was "God, please help me to not cry". Just that simple....I had my dad 5 days in my home and I never shed a tear. I couldn't figure out why I wasn't crying. I thought it was just the stress or adrenalin. I even commented one day, why am I not crying and my brother is. It was after I had buried my daddy that I finally broke down. Then it dawned on me, it was my prayer for courage to not cry. It worked.. it's the only explanation there was. PRAYER WORKS !!! My motto: Don't ask - just do it!!"
ReplyDeleteLove Devereen