“Let your thoughts be where your feet are and love direct your steps” is my life mantra. Love, compassion and gratitude flow from my heart to my head to direct my steps on a daily basis. I had an incredible massage the other day and as my body began to unblock, my thank you began. I knew Becca, the massage therapist only through her mother, Diane, who had been my ICU nurse for my parathyroidectomy and left thyroidectomy surgery.
My life for two days after surgery was largely forgotten. Swallowed in a haze of pain, lack of sleep and fear woven into my reality. Diane stayed with me and with the reassurance of a veteran ICU nurse, I knew God had brought her to me. She told me stories of her grown children with life events that reminded me I would live to experience those with my daughters. Diane was there when the path report returned with thyroid cancer and we scripted how best to share this with my family.
The massage was symbolic, freeing and absolutely what every part of my mind and body needed. I shared of my healing journey and Becca mentioned a musician that we both loved. The song, “You Can’t Rush Your Healing.” I hadn’t heard it but have listened to it dozens of times since. At the end, I gave Becca a happy for her and her mom. Go to lunch and make a memory for me. It was her mom’s compassion and caring that pulled me past the digital labyrinth of medical monitoring into a safe place. That legacy is carried through her daughter who has those same healing hands.
Grief and suffering have a way of making us suspicious when we encounter true happiness; reducing our capacity to give and receive love. As a friend texted me from something she’d read. “As we seldom know what roads people have traveled before a shared encounter or why they have come into our lives, we should always give those we meet the gift of an open heart.”
No matter the depths of your pain, let love be the continuum leading to a whole formed from many facets. Know that you are loved.