Love in our Society

I was about to name this piece Violence in our Society, but no. That word alone elicits such dark energy and we need Great Light at this time. Due to two healing experiences in my life – healings that delivered me back to vibrant aliveness instead of into a grave - I've become a staunch advocate of this Energy that we all share. I'm talking about the Universal Energy within which we all live every second of our lives. It moves the tides in the oceans, blooms the flowers in Spring, beats our hearts and breathes us, to name just a few of its life sustaining attributes. 

Each and every one of us is responsible for the Energy in and around our bodies. We create the quality of this Energy by the thoughts we're thinking and the feelings they engender.

Currently, it's seems our World has gone mad. And though I'm acutely aware that the majority of the peoples on the Planet are loving, caring and compassionate, our minds and hearts and souls have been being assaulted by fear and confusion. Now, right now, we must take a stand for Love. Not romantic love, but the essential Energy of the Universe, Love.

We simply cannot afford to be drawn into the anger and hatred that's being spewed forth. Honor your precious Energy and use It only for good. There's a wealth of goodness around us at all times, we need to tune into that. If you're still watching the news, be there and send Love out to whatever you're viewing. Feel that there's a powerful flow of Love pouring from your chest cavity (metaphysically referred to as the Heart Center). Commit yourself to that Love – live there. Decide to be a blessing everyday, wherever you go. In our own corner of Life we can be adding Light to the darkness relentlessly. Every little bit helps.

We are Body/Mind/Spirit Beings. Choose now to emphasize Spirit – that's the most important part and will guide you to the actions your body must take. And, use your brilliant mind to Imagine. We can be healing our World unceasingly by visualizing Peace – praying for Peace – meditating for Peace. John said it in the '70's: "Imagine all the people living life in Peace". Let us please Imagine. Let us be The Love. This is our job right now. Accept the mantel.

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

"Waiting for Elizabeth: a Love Story" by Ben Bryant

I want you to know about him and this accomplishment of his, so let me introduce to my blog followers, my husband, Ben Bryant. He recently completed an autobiographical Trilogy from  his early childhood in Bristol, Tennessee, to arriving on another planet called Hollywood at age 13, to relishing the delights of being a busy singer/actor in NYC after college. (Three Stages) Ultimately he became involved in film and video production and editing and enjoys that to this day. (Circumstances Beyond My Control) His final book, which reveals life from 1990 to the present day is entitled Waiting for Elizabeth. Many of these years were arduous for me/us and I didn’t want him to write about them, but there was no stopping his need to do so. Then, he had the audacity to ask me to write the Foreword. With part of me kicking and screaming, I did so. Hope you enjoy.

Foreword to Waiting for Elizabeth

I was shocked when Ben asked me to write this foreword. Truth be told, I didn’t even want him to write the book. Who wants to resurrect life’s painful chapters even if they ultimately deliver the players to peaceful conclusions? Not me! But the determination (bordering on bull-headedness) and dedication of this man to tell his story, was non-negotiable. So here we are.

Much to my dismay at times, he read every chapter of this book to me. And though it was often “not a day at the beach”, it wasn’t as difficult as I’d anticipated. Toward the end of the reading, I was struck by an unlikely image. It was of the phenomenal documentary Winged Migration, where we got to witness birds of every conceivable variety, leaving their nests and flying thousands of miles over oceans and mountains and continents – flying it seemed forever – to their “vacation homes”, where they hung out and mated and re-grouped. Then with a seasonal shift, there they were flying back from whence they’d come. It was extraordinary, thrilling, inspiring, and to me, exhausting. I couldn’t imagine flapping my wings for such a long time. What a tough gig for these beautiful creatures. 

And somehow, as I listened to Ben’s story, I had a similar reaction. It wasn’t exhaustion, it was amazement at the resiliency he’d brought to his personal journey. From childhood he was clearly a gifted boy. His singing was remarkable and he easefully moved into a theatrical career in California after college. Broadway beckoned and he became a busy singer/actor the first week he arrived in The City.

Theatre, as it turned out, was not his calling and his interest in film production took over. Being a born leader (Someone said to me recently: “Ben doesn’t suffer fools gladly.”) his powerful voice served him well as a Producer and First Assistant Director in film, commercials, and live musical events. An innately curious man, he was always willing to jump into the deep end of the pool, often conquering very steep learning curves. From film he moved on to video production – shooting, directing and editing. All of these disciplines require much study and practice. And in our relentlessly shifting technological age, there’s no end to the ever-evolving tools. Ben just keeps embracing it all.

Furthermore, and perhaps most significant, through many of his most stressful periods – even our separation and divorce, as devastating as they were – Ben maintained his equanimity. The vicissitudes of life seemed to be no match for his innately positive perspective. And I was amazed as he shared his rendition of our most arduous times, that I wasn’t more upset. I could hear that his love for me had remained despite the anger and hurt, and that the love ultimately eclipsed them. Moreover, given that his ground of being is firmly ensconced in his steadfast sense of humor, laugh-out-loud-funny was often the result.

So I emerge from this scrutiny of his/our passage with great admiration for him. Having to move himself and all his gear to new locations to accommodate whatever was developing in his work life; and constantly needing to address and conquer unfamiliar equipment and challenging projects seems not to have drained but to have buoyed his robust energy. It seems he could flap his wings forever. I salute that. 

I’m very proud of him and his indomitable and adventurous spirit. By the way, I love him.