Greetings for the new year!
Two years ago I took a 6 month sabbatical from my work which proved to be a delicious & productive period of time for me & sent me further on an inner quest which had begun around the time of my 70th birthday.
Well, last November, on November 9th to be exact, another sabbatical was imposed on me. It began that night with extreme pain in my right hip which over the next days, got worse & worse. I ended up in hospital a few days later, & after many tests to ascertain the cause, they established that I had a most serious staff infection which had settled into my right hip replacement. The treatment – surgery on November 17th to remove the hip replacement, inserting a temporary one, IV antibiotics (which I’m still on for another two weeks), and after ascertaining that the infection is indeed gone, another surgery with a permanent hip replacement. So probably by May or June, I should be back where I started from in November! Or maybe not!
Remember Robbie Burns’ poem, “The best laid schemes o’ mice an men gang aft agley?†One never knows do we, what the universe will send our way – more opportunities & challenges to test my Continuum theory, “Health is responsiveness.†Moving with & through the struggles to find the sourcing of resiliency, to find the patience & the peacefulness of allowing oneself to be with whatever comes our way, we join in the river of life.
Watching a DVD film of a workshop presented by Ram Das & Stephen Levine in San Francisco some years ago, entitled “The Heart of Healing with AIDS,†for persons with AIDs and those who were caretaking people with AIDs, I was struck with what Ram Das said about suffering. We suffer when we are not able to be with what is happening, be it pain, both physical & emotional, disabilities or losses. If we can embrace the pain & drop down into it with all our senses, no matter how difficult, there is no suffering.
Needless to say, I have not been able to work & had to cancel the remainder of my classes & workshops last fall. Perhaps by the summer time & into the fall, I will be resuming my Continuum teaching and my counselling practice. I will let you know what transpires.
With love & blessings, Doris
January 28th, 2011
Following is a message about Barbara Mindell whom some of you know through her “Continuum & Art†workshops which she has taught in Vancouver many times through the years:
For those of you who know Barbara Mindell, or have heard of her through the Continuum circles, this remarkable being is gravely ill and is at her home with hospice care. As well as being a dear friend in my life, she has been a guiding light for me and all who know her, with her courage, her bountiful heart, & incredible wisdom which she has gained through her challenges and struggles and her love of Continuum movement. She has inspired me in dealing with my physical limitations as well as lighting up the room with her radiant spirit whenever I am gifted with her presence. She is dying with that same spirit, being grateful for the fullness of her life and accepting what is to come. You may want to join with her in this transition: light a candle, say a prayer both for her & also to have her spirit send you blessings.
Doris Maranda