Jumping Over the Moon
Have you every tried to Google yourself? I did it tonight, and was surprised to find myself out there a few times, among the many other people with the same name, and finding fragments of my life. Here is an essay that came up, written 10 years ago when I was in chemotherapy.
* * *
Jumping Over the Moon
Have I ever seen this illness as an opportunity to grow? As a challenge to be welcomed for the good that will come from it? These questions startle my sleepy morning thought.
Last night I had the humorous thought of surmounting challenges like the cow jumping over the moon. Just leaving them behind with such a vigorous and buoyant leap of growth that they simply have no more relevance to who I am.
The temptation of course is to feel hemmed in, constrained by the fearful sense of disease, and to begin shaping one's days and one's expectations according to that projection. But why is that future more real than the one where I joyfully transcend this fear.
This is not about running away, running away from cancer - or any difficulty. That won't work and I know it. It is about opening heart and mind to the pure love of God that touches and transforms human thought. Healing is about standing still in the sacred present and listening to the still small voice utter itself. Listening in quietness and confidence for Love's amazing word.
That kind of prayer brings guidance specific to the human situation. Then we humans must take the next step. That step can be a small change in thought that brings new options into view. And sometimes that next step is a great leap forward into a future unimagined just a few moments before.
gg murray 1995
* * *
Jumping Over the Moon
Have I ever seen this illness as an opportunity to grow? As a challenge to be welcomed for the good that will come from it? These questions startle my sleepy morning thought.
Last night I had the humorous thought of surmounting challenges like the cow jumping over the moon. Just leaving them behind with such a vigorous and buoyant leap of growth that they simply have no more relevance to who I am.
The temptation of course is to feel hemmed in, constrained by the fearful sense of disease, and to begin shaping one's days and one's expectations according to that projection. But why is that future more real than the one where I joyfully transcend this fear.
This is not about running away, running away from cancer - or any difficulty. That won't work and I know it. It is about opening heart and mind to the pure love of God that touches and transforms human thought. Healing is about standing still in the sacred present and listening to the still small voice utter itself. Listening in quietness and confidence for Love's amazing word.
That kind of prayer brings guidance specific to the human situation. Then we humans must take the next step. That step can be a small change in thought that brings new options into view. And sometimes that next step is a great leap forward into a future unimagined just a few moments before.
gg murray 1995
posted by Gail Murray at 8:12 PM
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