Presented by
Pennsylvania Neurological Associates, LTD.
Charles S. Yanofsky, M.D. |
Albert. W. Heck, M.D. |
Jon L. Vickery, M.D. |
Francis J. Janton, III, M.D. |
| Liana Laza, M.D. | |
Janice Morrow, Practice Administrator
108 Lowther Street
Lemoyne, PA 17043
(717) 774-2202
NEW TEACHERS . . . NEW
LESSONS
It’s taken me along time to start this latest entry.
After the events of
Septmber the 11th, I, like everyone, felt such sorrow
for all those people
who were lost. It’s February and a big part of me still feels empty inside..
The events of that day taught us all the true meaning of courage,
determination, and selflessness. The police and firefighters who went into
those buildings without a moment’s hesitation, and the passengers on Flight
93 who brought the plane down in
“hero.” They taught us all so much about why we’re really here. It was an
awakening that could be seen and felt all over the country. There were a
great many lessons to be learned here, and we were all enrolling. I wanted to
continue this education, so I went seeking more new teachers. My new
adventure taught me more, gave me new insight. It was more bountiful than I
ever could have imagined. These new professors guide me, and give me new
insight to each and every day. Come with me now and meet my new mentors who
live with adversity, and become richer and wiser because of their life
experiences.
My number one source of inspiration and knowledge is 11. Mattie J.T.
Stepanek signifies all that is brave and beautiful in
this world. This little
man who calls himself a “poet and a peacemaker,” lives his life in a
wheelchair, on a ventilator, with oxygen being pumped into his fraile body by
a machine. He has a very rare form of muscular dystrophy. This ravaging
disease has claimed three of his siblings and has confined his mother to the
same mode of steel transportation. He started writing poetry when he was
three. I stumbled upon his book quite by accident one day in Barnes &
Noble.
I saw this book lying on a table with hearts all over it. I turned to the
middle and found beautiful poems that I had to own. When I flipped back to
the inside jacket I found they were written by this very wise little man.
Since then I’ve discovered Mattie on “Good Morning America,” “20/20,” and
even taped a segment of “Oprah” when I heard he was going to appear. When
Oprah asked him about the death of his brothers and sisters, he explained
that it’s alright because they’re in heaven now. To quote
Mattie, “When you
lose a loved one, you gain an angel.” This, from an eleven year old! His
book, “Journey Through Heartsongs”
is now on the New York Times bestseller
list right where it belongs. The world is waking up to Mattie, and what an
awakening it is. God has given us such a gift by keeping him with us, and by
sharing the feelings, insight, and talent of this gifted child.
Here is one of my favorite poems ~
“On Being a Champion
A champion is a winner,
A hero . . .
Someone who never gives up
Even when the going gets rough.
A champion is a member of
A winning team . .
Someone who overcomes challenges
Even when it requires solutions
A champion is an optimist,
A hopeful spirit . . .
Someone who plays the game,
Even when the game is called life. . . .
Especially when the game is called life.
There can be a champion in each of us,
If we live as a winner,
If we live as the member of a team,
If we live with a hopeful spirit,
For life.”
This poem was written September, 1999. Mattie was 8!
Buy his book, and give yourself the “gift” of Mattie.
Meet Phillip Simmons, a literature professor who was diagnosed with ALS
in 1993. He was thirty-years old. He was told he had less than five years to
live. Nine years later he is still here, and he is still teaching. His
lessons can now be found in his new book, “Learning to Fall,
The Blessings of
an Imperfect Life.” “Learning to Fall” brings to light the journey we must
all take -- “the work of learning to live richly in the face of loss.”
Along his journey he found inspiration from the beautiful words of the
poet Rumi. He turned inwardly to the world of
meditation, Buddhism, and
“living in the moment” from the Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh. Confronting his
fears, he learned to take them on, one by one and win. This victory gave him
insight not only into fighting his disease, but in making the “art of
Living,” really living, a reality. A reality where he could
personally grow.
So that now he could share that wisdom, that vision with all of us.
“The greatest gift -- we can be sure of possessing: the present moment.
. . .The present moment is the unfinished house in
which we dwell. . . . We
are here, in the unfinished house of the now, for the duration. The joy is in
the building.”
“The imperfect is our paradise.
Let us pray then that we do not shun the struggle. . . May we live fully
in each flawed and too human moment, and thereby gain the victory.”
“It is out of our acceptance of all that we are, that we are called to
our highest human duties.”
“The work of learning to live richly in the face of loss -- work that I
call ‘learning to fall.’ When we learn to fall, we learn that only by letting
go of our grip on all that we ordinarily find most precious -- can we find
ultimately the most profound freedom. In the act of ltting
go of our lifes we
return more fully to them.”
“We are all --all of us -- falling. . . . If we are falling toward pain
and weakness, let us fall toward sweetness and strength. If we are falling
toward death, let us fall toward life.”
His words, like Mattie’s, are wise and wonderful. Sometimes they just
leap off the page, grab you, and shake you. They make you listen. They make
you stop. They make you think, really think about what this is all about.
--- About your growth, your strength, your fulfillment to all those around
you, your contribution to all of this. THAT alone is worth the price of
admission!
He unfurrows our brow when he gets us to look at the
lighter side of
human nature, as he points out, “For most of us a mystical experience
consists of finding a parking space with time left on the meter.” He also
zaps us back to reality when our self absortion of
what we can no longer do
turns to total paranoia. Yes, our judging, criticizing, worrying, doubting
minds know for a fact that “right now there are people scheduling meetings to
discuss your thighs!”
One of my favorite “NO FEAR” T-shirts says that, “If you’re not living on
the edge, you’re taking up too much space!”
Phillip agrees, “Some of us go willingly to the edge, some of us are
driven to it, some of us find ourselves there by grace. But all of us get
there some time in our lives, when through the gateway of the present moment
we glimpse something beyond. And when we do, may we open ourselves to wonder,
may we surrender to the mystery that passes understanding, may we find
ourselves at the threshold of this eternal life.”
His wonderful book gets us to stretch, to grow.
Stretching is the metaphor Sue Bender uses for her book, “Stretching
Lessons, The Daring That Starts from Within.” She helps us realize the
potential that lies within all of us. She does this with candor, & humor.
She
takes you along for her own personal ride, and from the very first page you
don’t want to get off! She tells you to “listen to what your soul is trying
to tell you. If you are willing to trust, to have faith in the unfolding, we
can go on this journey together.”
She explains that whenever her intuition kicks in, she gets goose bumps.
“Goose bumps happens when your soul comes close to
you, breathes lightly on
the back of your neck, and wakes you up.”
“Plato spoke of goose bumps as vestiges of long ago, when our souls were
seen as having wings. Plato believed that the openings from which the wings
had to grow were rigid and closed at first, preventing them from shooting
forth. But slowly, with love, and care, and patience, the rigid part melts --
and the soul begins to grow wings.
Is that not wonderful?
Let us grow wings together!”
How about you? How are your goose bumps, and what are
they trying to tell
you??? Are they nudging you? Are they trying to get you to let the world know
who you really are, and what you’re really about?
“Each of us has our own way of expressing ourselves.
Each of us has something special to give.
And it is important to value our own way of expressing ourselves --
WHATEVER it is.”
“A sheltered life can be a daring life as well. For all
serious daring
starts from within.”
Eudora Welty
“What do you want?
What does it cost?
Is it worth the price?
It took me years to learn that NOT risking was too high a price.”
“Every blade of grass has its Angel that bends over it and whispers,
“Grow, grow.”
Talmud
“Valuing our way is how we whisper, GROW, GROW.”
“WORKING WITH EASE IS COUNTER TO OUR CULTURE. WE’RE TRAINED IN
LIMITATIONS.” To that I say, “AMEN!”
“Opening up will come from slowing down.”
“It never dawned on me that STOPPING had made the difference.
If we never pause long enough to know the silence, how will we know the
possibilities it contains?”
“Slow motion gets you there quicker.”
Hoagy
“UNDERCURRENTS -- that’s what’s under our need to accomplish anything.
Practice feeling good where you are.
Stretch in all the places you haven’t yet lived in yourself.
Let yourself have more of your self.
The more aspects of yourself you can feel, the more options you have, the
more power you can draw from.”
“Be careful what you put after ‘I AM’ . . . . because
you are.”
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.”
Nelson Mandela
“Each of us has something to give and it is important to trust and value
that -- whatever it is.”
“There are different ways of being an artist. What we do with our lives
makes us an artist.”
Sue Bender’s thoughtful book is packed with so much information, so many
observations, and she raises so many questions. She had me “stretching”,
alright. She made me question, examine, and re-examine everything, AGAIN. She
made me “see” that my Journey is just beginning, and I had so much to learn
that I want to share, and so very far to go.
“Stretching Lessons” is about coming home to a deeper place inside
ourselves. It is about opening hearts and growing the wings of our souls..”
“What I want is a soul with wings and big feet.”
“My wings may not be ready to soar, but I’m ‘TAKING ROOT TO FLY.”
“Lightning at the Gate” author, Jeanne Acheterberg
also helped me “see,”
and pointed me to the next “classroom” along my journey. She has spent the
last 25 years researching, writing, and teaching the importance of
visualization and guided imagery in the healing process. In 1999 she was
diagnosed with a rare and sometimes deadly form of cancer of the eye.
What she describes in her “no holes barred” text, put me right back there
where we have ALL been . . . .
When she FINALLY got THE NEWS, “I disbelieved the diagnosis. I was
disconnecting. . . Terror was unfamiliar territory, and it helped to have it
named.”
“ I went into shock mode. Shock serves as a useful purpose: it enables
you to keep on keeping on.”
She asks her doctor, “By the way, what causes this thing?’
“Life.” He’s right.”
“Renovating my life would not do the trick; I had to reinvent it.”
I think her book should be called, “Enlightening at the Gate.” She
focuses like a “lazer” on the importance of the bonds
we create with EACH
OTHER. The bonds of care, love, trust, hope, and belief.
The lessons we learn
from each encounter as we weave these bonds, THAT’S
what’s important.
“I figure if I did know the ultimate outcome, I’d probably screw things
up by rushing through some important steps, give myself a spiritual or
psychological bypass in the process, and miss the whole point.”
Thanks to these wonderful books, and their teachings, you “get” the point.
“If I were to wish for anything,
I should not wish for wealth and power,
but for the passionate sense of the potential,
an eye which, ever young and ardent,
sees the possible.”
---- Soren Kierkegaard
Let us all “see” the possible, in OURSELVES and in
OTHERS. Let us GO
together, GROW together on our journey, called LIFE!
© 2002 Cathy Finney