The Boomerang Effect

More realizations, and another day of being grateful for this long, strange trip I'm on.

There were two lines that Charlotte had requested her anesthesiologist repeat to her frequently while she was undergoing surgery last Friday:

You are being healed in body, mind and spirit.
You are going to recover quickly and fully.

I repeated these words, silently, almost like a mantra as I placed my hands on the necks and backs of my clients during the day. And I knew that I was part of a large web of people all doing the same thing, in some form or fashion, to send healing energy to a friend. As I worked, what I became aware of was how these words were moving through me and then--amazingly--returning to me. Charlotte's desired affirmations for herself were going out to her and returning to me. Odd, in that I had no cancer and I'm not aware of anything that would require a quick and full recovery.

Unless we are talking about other wounding, that of the emotional or spiritual nature. I reflected on the forgiveness that I had experienced around her. And I'm aware that there are likely other places, other doors, other alcoves in my soul that contain "sins" of "the world" that will eventually require forgiveness. A paragraph in our EfM materials really leaped out at me as I read it last night:

What does it mean to rise with Christ? Often Paul comments on the fact that Christ, the Risen One, should have appeared graciously to the one who had persecuted him. It was clear that to meet the Risen One was also to be forgiven. What then does it mean to be committed to that risen Christ? Inevitably it means committing oneself to forgiveness as a basis for living, and so to living not only as forgiven, but also as forgiving (cf. Matt 18:23-25). For those who identify with Christ, it is not enough to wrestle with the world's evil simply in obedience; they must also wrestle it in forgiveness, since they know that they are forgiven.--Education for Ministry, Year Two, NT, pg. 306

I have been immersed into that feeling of being forgiven and hence able to live as forgiving. Having my heart cleared then allowed for me to fully connect with Charlotte and her loving community of friends and family in such a way that the prayers were going out from me and, like a boomerang, returning to me. It reminded me of lines in Isaiah 55:

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
and do not return there until they have watered the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

Wow!

And what of my clients? They reported feeling "amazed" at their massages on Friday... amazed in ways that were beyond what they normally experience. I've left a copy of the affirmations on the shelf with my shea butter at my office. Perhaps they'll become as much of a part of my routine as holding a client's head in my hands.