Hello Everybody,
Sometimes you put your heart and soul into something and things don't turn out the way you hoped. In one of last week's papers there was a story about a little girl in Seattle named Gloria who died of cancer last week, despite months of prayer vigils by, literally, thousands of people. It was one of those stories that makes a healer team like us take pause. I mean, in this business we get calls all the time from people who want some kind of assurance that they can be healed and we have to tell them, sorry, there is no guarantee. We can hold your hand, help ease some of the pain, maybe help you turn to a new direction, and gather momentum for a much better life. In the end, though, it's really not up to us. Sometimes the universe has other plans for our lives.
When I was a family caregiving consultant for family members taking care of a loved one with Alzheimer's Disease and related dementias I struggled with this every day. ALL of my clients' patients died. That's what happens when you're 80 or 90 or whatever age you happen to make it to. There was nothing I could do to stop the inevitable. And I often thought that I had so few resources available to help them in the way they wanted (monetary aid and adequate help to keep their relatives at home) that there really wasn't anything useful I could do. But whenever my day felt bleakest I'd get an email or an actual handwritten letter letting me know that the emotional support I offered at what seemed to me some insignificant step along the way meant more than I could ever know. I wallpapered an entire wall with these notes. I still have them stuffed in a file somewhere, a reminder that sometimes the smallest things matter the most.
Paul and I were wondering how some of you have been. You'd be surprised at how little we find out about the impact of what we do. I understand why. I see my chiropractor or acupuncturist when I'm in pain -- not when I feel good again! If you felt like dropping us a line or two we'd love to hear from you.
In the meantime Paul and I would like to share the most recent blog I wrote about Gloria and info about the free talk I'll be giving on Wednesday. We both plan to be there and it would be great to see any of you who would like to attend.
Sheryl Karas
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A Prayer for Gloria
Yesterday's Santa Cruz Sentinel had an article guaranteed to break a mother's heart. A child's family in Seattle gave up their medical battle with the widespread neuroblastoma (cancer) that was overtaking their daughter and turned to prayer instead. The family asked for people to pray for their daughter Gloria and the Seattle Times gave the story 5 months of serious coverage. Reporters close to the family say they are forever changed by the family's determination to heal their daughter through the power of prayer and by the heart-wrenching struggles they faced in making this decision. Four years of medical interventions had been of no avail. It seemed fruitless and painful to put their child through more torture. Yet, despite the efforts and outpourings of love and faith by literally thousands of people, on Friday last week Gloria died.
What can a person say about something like this? The child's mother apparently had heard a voice she believed to be the voice of God tell her before Gloria's cancer was diagnosed "When I heal her, I will change the lives of many." The family says that their faith allows them to believe that healing has occurred even in death because to be with Jesus in Heaven is a healing in itself. But, as a person brought up Jewish, this is a thought pattern that's hard to fathom. My gut reaction was that her death could lead just as many to doubt their faith as the story within the hospital walls led so many to embrace it.
Jerry Brewer, one of the Seattle reporters who covered the story and who has been writing regularly in his blog about this, hadn't analyzed his feelings yet at the time I wrote this piece except to say that the miracle everyone was hoping to have happen occurred for him in the five weeks preceeding the girl's death. Something about how everyone touched by this family was transformed by the power of their faith really got to him and he firmly believed that the prediction the mother received must have been meant to be much more than about whether her daughter's body survived the "healing."
I asked Paul for his opinion about this. He seems to always have a deeper understanding of the spiritual significance of things than I tend to. He believed that the fact that Gloria frequently prayed for other people in the hospital and in her room, even offering up her suffering as a sacrifice for some other child in pain, touched people most of all. "It's not just about whether you win or lose." He said. "We all die." It's more about how we choose to live while we're here. What we do and why.
Why are you here? What inspires you to get up in the morning? And if you could honor the urgings of your heart -- and not just your head -- what would it be trying to get you to do with whatever time you have left in your life?
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Free Talk:
Flower Essences as a Tool for Personal and Spiritual Growth
by Sheryl Karas M.A.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
United Way Conference Room
(next to Way of Life store in the Begonia shopping center
at 1210 41st Ave., Capitola)
FREE
(sponsored by Way of Life)
The evening's lecture will include:
• Brief introduction to flower essence remedies
• The mind/body/spirit connection and the world of psychoneuroimmunology
• Archetypal spiritual expressions found in nature and in ourselves
• Using flower essences to come more fully in alignment with our Highest Self
• Questions and answers
Sheryl Karas M.A. has been studying flower essence therapy for 10 years and is currently developing a Flower Essence self-awareness deck to help people learn to use flower essences more effectively.
Contact Sheryl at (831) 325-4076 for more information.
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Thanks for Your Referrals!
We've gotten a few of those lately and we so appreciate it.
Interested in a session yourself? Send us an email or give us a call at (831) 325-4076.
