The trees in the forest do not get a fungus because they did something wrong.
If you seek and find compassion for someone who has hurt you and then forgive the offence and feel love return, can you do this for yourself, when illness or disease comes knocking?
When Andy was diagnosed with Parkinson’s our feelings mirrored much of what I felt when I was hurt by my friend’s words in the previous blog.
Initially, Andy’s diagnosis brought us sadness and the perception we’d been wronged. Later, we felt angry and disappointed and lastly, we felt betrayed. All these reactions are natural and there were good reasons for them to have come up.
They also took us further away from love and, by proxy, further away from healing.
Because compassion led me to forgiveness which led me to love for my hurt friend, would that be the remedy I needed for myself?
How in the world could I do that?
I learned that when the betrayal was with oneself or one’s circumstances that those hard feelings DID have to be felt for a little longer than when dealing with someone else. We are organic beings and we cannot separate ourselves from our feelings because they run through us like a river through a meadow.
Also, like a river, those feelings will keep moving if we allow them to flow and soon enough we will be ready for the next step which is looking deeper and understanding that the nature of illness and disease is not personal.
The trees in the forest do not get a fungus because they did something wrong.
After beating yourself up for all the mistakes and errors of your life, perhaps you will notice that many people made the same mistakes and are not sick. And many who are sick didn’t make those errors.
As you understand that the illness and disease was not your fault and you are not being punished, that understanding turns into compassion and then forgiveness for yourself.
You have the ability to open your own headwater gates and allow the love to flow freely.
Can you imagine, or do you know what this feels like?
You can also read this article in my column in my local newspaper the Taos News.
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