Re: [TMIC] OT:Healing Words for the Body, Mind and Spirit," by Caren Golman":

[Heather & Pieter]

I do believe this.  I had a bad car accident in 1991.  My life changed.  I did not take so many things for granted then.  I thought that my divorce back in 1984 had been life altering.  Not so much as the accident. Then another car accident in 1994.  My car was rear ended then.  Not as bad as the drunk driver who pulled out in front of me in 1991 when the accident was a T-bone one. Then in 2003 (Sept) TM hit me like yet another car accident.  Now THIS is really life altering.  However, I am doing the best I can to live life to the fullest now.  Who knows what else could be lurking around the corner. So I'm just keeping on - keeping on.    Heather in Calgary ----- Original Message ----- From: Krissy Z To: TM List ; TMA-New-England Sent: Saturday, July 01, 2006 12:25 PM Subject: [TMIC] OT:Healing Words for the Body, Mind and Spirit," by Caren Golman": Diagnosis: Spiritual Growth Before my accident, there were ten thousand things I could do. I could spend the rest of my life dwelling on the things I had lost, but instead I chose to focus on the nine thousand I still had left. –W. Mitchell From the forward by Belleruth Naparstek in "Healing Words for the Body, Mind and Spirit," by Caren Golman": Getting diagnosed with a life-changing or life-threatening illness presents such a confusing rush of odd, contradictory reactions. Sitting in my therapist's chair for over thirty years, I've been afforded a powerful look into the fear, grief, elation, shame, relief and anger that gets turned loose inside a person's weary, shell-shocked body when confronted with bad news. We all carry a basic, narcissistic belief that it can't happen to us. This is how we get through the arbitrary dangers of the day, after all—by assuming we are cloaked in magical protection that renders us immune from the ugliness and bad fortune we see landing on others. And because we cherish our fantasy that we are in control of our lives—especially dear to us citizens of the West—we tend to believe that our luck has been earned, through good character and smart choices. So the news of illness catalyzes a disorienting undoing of some of our most closely held assumptions about ourselves and our lives. Like Alice, we fall topsy-turvy down the rabbit hole and land, naked and trembling, in an entirely new place. It's weird territory, where the old rules and definitions simply don't apply. Strange and scary as it is, though, it's also exciting, life-changing and god-awful interesting. If we're lucky, our painful circumstances become a riveting invitation for growth and spiritual awakening on a newer, deeper level. As with all undoings, we've been handed an opportunity to reexamine and recreate ourselves, to reaffirm or redefine our sense of meaning and purpose. Any artist knows that deconstruction has its payoffs, and we are, of course, the artists of our lives. * * * Krissy Zodda Tri State Support Group Leader http://www.geocities.com/tmladyk/home.html ~I'm In pretty Good Shape For the Shape I am in~ Sneak preview the all-new Yahoo.com. It's not radically different. Just radically better. No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.394 / Virus Database: 268.9.8/380 - Release Date: 6/30/2006