The Power to Heal

Oreo is an elderly woman who lives in Findhorn. Oreo is an ordinary person whose inner light and spirituality runs deep and wide. She shared her life story that was not unlike many that we've heard from family and friends, but for Oreo she saw her life's journey as not so much a romantic tragedy as an opportunity to discover her inner light -- a light that is always present within us, but not always realized. She shared her story of a childhood raised in the wilderness of Zimbabwe and how the animals of the African Safari were not to be feared, but respected. She learned how to move away carefully from dangerous situations and learned where to play, where to watch and when to interact. She struggled with depression due to a feeling of abandonment when her parents sent her away to boarding school which was a terribly negative experience for her. She learned in this experience that she would never do this to her children. She shared her pain of 23 years of an alcoholic husband that later ended in divorce. She talked about the death of her husband and hoped that he had found the peace he sought in Whiskey and beer. She talked about raising her five children and the struggle with a son whose patterns were similar to her late husband, but found his opiate in drugs and careless living that landed him in prison for a time. She talked about all these struggles as an opportunity to be in touch with the spirit within her and how each of these experiences deepened her spiritual life and she found her release in poetry, meditation, and a change of life.

Oreo realized that she was a part of the problem for both her husband and her son and she knew that she needed to look within her spirit and see where the darkness of her heart lay so she could be fully human in the midst of life's dark and empty moments. In this time of searching she found her peace, her inner light in seeking and searching for the inner-light of every person, every tree, every plant, and tiny animal. She said to us that it was only when she could see the inner light in nature and within the hearts of each person could she begin to heal herself. Oreo learned that in order to change she needed to look at at the world differently and her spiritual disciplines began to see the world and its people as connected into an intricate web of life that includes all living things. She believed that

"How we view the world on the outside, is how we view ourselves."

This philosophy of spiritual living is enough to call us out and take an honest look at our life's perspective. If we find so much wrong with the world around us; If we are afraid of new experiences or if we find ourselves withdrawing from the world, we are likely to view ourselves in negative light and unwilling to risk changing ourselves and instead we withdraw into our own repressive self and quickly lose the spark of light that is within each of us. Likewise, if we are secure with the world, we'll be secure with ourselves. If we see the soul of the sun each morning and each night, we'll see our own light as a light for others. If we can feel the wet grass in the morning under our feet, the evening breeze, and the good smells of nature, we'll begin to see that the soul of nature is not so tarnished and it then stands to reason that my soul, our soul is not as tarnished. When we see the light of nature and in others, we reflect the light within us.

We have the power within us to heal ourselves. Healing begins with attitude and presence. When we can approach life as a sacred dance within this intricate and fragile web we call the earth, healing can happen. When we can begin to personalize God's presence as the spirit within us and around us, healing can happen. When we can look at people of different races, customs, and cultures as our brothers and sisters who are seeking similar light and understanding, healing can happen. When we can approach the world as sacred and good, healing can happen. The power of healing begins with our view of the world around us. The power of healing is within each one of us.

As I babble on, I begin to put into perspective this wonderful gift of life -- and not just my life or the lives of family, my children, or my friends. No, life is much more connected than that. Living is never a celebration of the life "I" has been given, it is is a celebration of life given to all living things, and the earth with its rocks, its dirt, its trees and animals is living too and so when the life of the world in compromised around us, our life is compromised too. And so I babble on as one who needs healing, healing that is more than physical healing of the self, but the healing of the whole creation. It begins with the words of Oreo, "How we view the world on the outside is how we view ourselves on the inside." When we begin to see the world with the eyes of the Spirit, then healing will begin. So how does the world look to you?