Humor Healing Launches

Check out our daily cartoon in the new Humor Healing section. A new cartoon each day Monday to Friday and read about humor healing and how it helped this writer deal with a difficult situation in his life.

Prayer Unanswered?

I just got home from having a painful surgical procedure that I usually have a couple of times a year. No, I should correct that. I usually have it a couple times a year, but it is not always painful.

In 2000, I had a heart transplant and every so often the cardiac team requires me to check for rejection of the transplanted organ. This is done via heart biopsy in which, under local anesthetic, a catheter is introduced into your vein through your neck near the collar bone. The catheter is inserted all the way to your heart through the vein. Then a wire-like instrument is inserted into the catheter, then into your heart, and clips off tiny pieces that will be viewed under microscope to check for normal or abnormal cells.

As you can imagine, having a tube rammed into a vein in your neck is no picnic, but in my case the procedure is even more abrasive. You see, normally the doctor would go through the right side of the neck where your vein has a direct path to the heart. However in my case, since the vein on the right is occluded, the vein on the left must be used. Its path normally starts on the left, crosses the chest and merges with the right vein. Then to make it a little tougher, the vein on the left has a couple of corkscrew turns that have to be navigated along the way. If you don't know your way around, it can be a painful ordeal... and sometimes even when you do know your way around it can be a painful ordeal.

Last night, after meditation, I used a technique to send healing energy to the procedure room where the biopsies are normally performed. The effect of this technique would be to spiritualize the room and the participants so the outcome would be for the highest good for all participants and I am confident the technique was successful. Yet, I am left wondering, "if it was successful and the technique should have made the biopsy nearly painless, then why did I endure another painful encounter?".

It's kind of like a prayer that seems to go unanswered. You ask for something, and at first glance it appears like you are ignored. This is what many of us would think. However in my case, my beliefs are so engrained in me that I can come to another conclusion. My technique was successful, or my prayer was answered. The rationale is this: I was considering a situation where I expected the regular amount of pain and through the technique, hoped to reduce it to nominal pain. When instead, today's procedure was to be extremely painful, and after the technique of pain reduction, I was left with regular pain.

So to recap, when we ask for something and it appears not to be granted, we must look at what greater pains may have rained down on us if we had not prayed at all. Our prayer may have reduced greater pains to normal, instead of reducing normal pains to zero.

In short, always be thankful, because things could always be worse.

Making Progress

Ok, here I am, back at the computer and... it doesn't seem so bad. At least not like yesterday. It didn't take any time at all to get typing today. In fact, it feels like a continuation from yesterday. Like I had never left the computer, but I have. Now I'm making progress.

It's amazing the feeling of accomplishment even the first day after taking that baby step. It works like this, once you've done something positive for yourself, you feel the need to back it up with another positive step or the first step is wasted. In not wanting to waste that first, all-important step, you are compelled to follow it up. Then the cycle continues over and over, again and again, with each successive step getting easier and easier. Before you know it, you have developed a habit, a "healthy" habit, and you know how hard habits are to break.

For me, not only did I make a commitment to begin writing something each day, I returned to the gym today after a 4 month respite (had a lot of critical stuff going on at home that needed my attention). So now I'm multitasking my baby steps. The benefits of the progress I made yesterday did not only affect my writing, but it has had an influence over another aspect of my life requiring attention - my ongoing physical fitness.

It's kind of like baby step synergy. Synergy is where the sum of the parts exceeds the whole. We use baby steps to get going on an issue we are trying to correct, but the motivational effect of the baby step for ISSUE#1 on our life, is carried forward and helps with ISSUE#2 and #3, #4, etc. The motivational energies from all the baby steps of each issue exceeds the motivational effort required for the individual issues themselves. Now that's synergy!

So with the extra motivational energy floating around me, I wonder what I'll do next?

What will you do next?

Something good I hope. Something you have been trying to do for a long time. Just go for it. You've got help.

Stuck Inside

Right now, I'm just sitting here, staring at this computer. Wondering why my fingers are not busily hammering away on the keys banging out a blog entry.

The answer is, "I DO know, and... I DON'T know".

Let's do the "I DON'T know" first. I don't know why I just do not get going, doing what I need to do right away. I enjoy writing (when I get to it - ha ha!) and I enjoy creating the Healing Digest. They why don't I get going?

It's because "I DO know why!". I spend my time thinking about what it is I want to say. I mull it over. Make all the corrections and adjustments. And then marvel at the product. Yes, the product that never gets onto paper (or on screen, that is) for anyone else to see.

I have become very good at performing a multitude of tasks in my mind. In fact, I live in my mind and am quite comfortable there. This is great, except the people I cohabitate and consort with are left in silence - a place by the way I'd love to be, but most people don't.

So what to do...

The answer is BABY STEPS! Yes, baby steps. One step at a time, just like the name of this blog. I need to take one step at a time. Just like you do in trying to get out of the habits that tend to take YOU over - habits like overeating, drinking, smoking, etc., whatever you're into personally.

Now I've taken my step. Today. Right now. This little blog entry.

When are you going to take yours? How about today! OK. Sounds good! I'm looking forward to it.

P.S. Don't forget to check back tomorrow to see if I've taken step two. Oh, and by the way, check yourself while you're at it!