Mission Week Four

This is week four of my thirteen week commitment not that I am counting because very honestly it has become easier for me by the day to be here.  This serene, loving place along with the people who come through here is like living in a world where there is truly more harmony, balance and peace.  I have already met some of the best people who  have some of the most open hearts I have experienced , including the other two missionaries.  One of them has been struggling with cancer for ten years now without any western medicine or procedures.  She is a woman who use to be a model and worked for designers like Karl Lagerfeld.  Now a relatively well known artist in LA she has some of the most beautiful work I have seen in her venue of painting including cards that they carry in the small store here on campus.  I have truly grown to love her and feel a great motherly nurturing from her goddess energy. In fact today she shared with me that apparently she asked about the Holy Trinity church associated with OHI and was told there isn't one.  Prior to this one of the other missionaries had shown an interest to me in attending.  As I rubbed the creak in her neck she began to joke and laugh about this rather odd and in her eyes ironic discovery.  I too found it rather humorous as she made the Baa sound imitating a sheep as we both howled some more at the sheer sweetness of the joke, not judgements at all, just laughter.  I am looking forward to spending more time with her and getting to know her better.  She is becoming like a sister to me and that is the  magic of this place, something one does not see or be a part of normally.  It is a truly sacred and joyful place to be especially when one is vulnerable and injured in any manner.  God knows exactly what we needed.  

A good laugh.  

This afternoon I was assigned the task of checking in new guests who have never been to OHI and are sometimes in that place of unknowing, perhaps a little hesitant, some just not knowing what to expect.  In this group are also people who come to take a tour of the grounds and attend an orientation with the guests afterwards.  There is a look on some of their eyes, such the case with his wife who wanted to know if OHI had ever had anyone as a guest with her health opportunity.  OHI refers to all illness as a health opportunity by the way.  I resonate with this as illness is an opportunity to re-examine our lives and decide what we want to do differently and illness is not the end all but rather an opportunity to show up differently for ourselves, more healthy, whole and respecting our body even more than ever.  I have learned that first hand for myself and I am truly grateful here and now.  To look at the visitor who asked the question for his wife was to look into my own heart and my own eyes.  Later during the tour the same man looked to me for support and I smiled and listened.  All  that I knew to do and all that I sense I am here for.  Just to listen is all.  The fact is that 90 or so people arrive every week here to experience what they have heard from someone else from all over the world, including one young lady here from Japan.  There is a reason for this and I could try and sell everyone on OHI but apparently I don't have to do that because they are doing great without my opinion or my endorsement.  I know that I feel more healed than when I arrived three weeks ago and that is all I need to know.  I know that I am thrilled with the interactions I have had with each person that has crossed through here.   That's all I need to know.  

Once again I sat for a little while with a young lady who seems compelled to be near me.  I am not sure why but what I do know is to surrender to the process.  She asked me politely if I had time and requested the other end of the sofa love seat in the waiting room where it is usually pretty quiet.  She shared some things about herself with me and once again I was called to listen, although I could use more practice on keeping my mouth shut longer.  She like many of us is concerned about the state of unconsciousness in the world and the food we feed our children that basically "drugs them".  Sugar is such a killer and such a big pacifier for our children.  We both talked about how terribly cruel it is that we feed school kids hot dogs and pizza and call it food.  She shared that one mother had sent  her children to school with from home and the school fined her ten dollars siting that the food was not acceptable by their standards and fed her children Graham crackers.  This young girl feels to me to be the backbone of change in our planet because she cares deeply about what is going on around her almost as much if not more than  herself.  It is amazing to me that someone so young wants to make a difference and what I think is that it does start with one person and that she is that person.  Every time the world has undergone a change it has started with one courageous person who stands for a better life for everyone.  I truly wish we would stop feeding our children food that is likely leading to cancer or diabetes and that the government and leaders of all types would talk about what common foods are really doing to kill our kids.  

I want to leave you all with something  I read today in a book: Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life by Wayne Dyer.  "If you spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live." I really want to advocate for this because what I am knowing more and more is that I don't have to force things or make so much effort to live.  All we really have to do is show up and all this scheduling and planning are better off left to chance.  It may not be able to subscribe to this all of the time but we can certainly do so some of the time.  Here at OHI that is the way it feels to me.  I am not worrying so much about what to do next but just letting it all flow.  I am not worried about the little pain I might experience any longer than I need to.  I am not worried about making a good impression and not invested in my ego.  I am humbled by the fact that I am alive and that I can still do and be and breathe.  Things are working without my having to control it or be in control.  Really control is simply and almost completely over rated.  We really don't have a lot of control about anything or that much.  We live in this fantasy that we do, but when it comes right down to it we are all going to the same destination and none of us will be here forever.  Why not live it up in the moment and live connected and alive without a constant schedule?