About twenty years ago I moved to the Newburyport area with my then-girlfriend. She was a cancer survivor and when Bernie Siegel, the doctor who wrote Love, Medicine, and Miracles, came to town to talk, she got us tickets. It was a full house at the Nock Middle School auditorium and people listened intently as Bernie talked about his experience in allowing will and love and positive thoughts to help a patient to cure him or herself when they had cancer. At one point during the evening he asked for audience participation. He wanted to know what youd show someone to remind them of the miracle of life. Hands shot up around the auditorium. The answers were much of the following... A baby. A puppy. A kitten. Picture of a sunset. Picture of a sunrise. Picture of the ocean. Picture of a mountain. Picture of children playing and laughing. Flowers. Picture of old couple holding hands. A father and mother holding a newborn. Someone suggested playing classical music for the person. Or showing them beautiful artwork: a painting or sculpture, or reading them a sonnet by Shakespeare. On and on the answers came and then they stopped. After a pause, one tremulous voice, lacking the confidence of all the others because his answer was quite different and rather bold, stuttered as he spoke. H-H-How about a m-m-mirror? Bernie, who had been pacing the stage, looking into peoples faces as they spoke, stopped. He paused. The room grew quiet. He smiled. He then said something like, Ill be signing books tonight after the event and of course I want to hear your stories about your lives. But do yourself a favor. After you spend some time with me, spend some time with that person there. He knows something about life. I think of Bernies talk from time to time and our tendency to see the miraculous in so many other things other than ourselves. But the truth is, we all have the stuff of life in us. We just have to be reminded of it from time to time. Onward, by all means, everyone. Wednesday is ready for you.
Posted on: Wed, 30 Jul 2014 10:21:17 +0000
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