Connections and Catalysts

Yesterday I went to see a massage therapist, a highly recommended nerve specialist. I have been having trouble with my right hand. My thumb is swollen and sore, and one finger doesn’t bend completely because of an old sprain. I am no longer able to grip things well and have broken a few dishes because I can’t grip them. Neither my chiropractor nor my acupuncturist have been able to help. So when my acupuncturist recommended Tammy, I was more than willing to see her.

My expectation was that Tammy would spend the entire session working on my hand. Imagine my surprise when she began to scan my body for other blockages. She began working on my hips, my neck, and my sternum, explaining that the lymph system was sluggish, and the sciatic nerve was blocked. “But what does that have to do with my hand?” I asked. She explained, “Everything in your body is connected. If something is blocked, then what I do with your hand won’t hold.”

Everything began to click as I lay on that massage table. Of course, everything in our bodies is connected, but most of the time I think that each thing going on inside of me is a separate and distinct ailment.

And so it is with the world. We are all connected. Our actions, our attitudes, our very existence are connected to everyone else. The diminishment of one contributes to the diminishment of us all. The loss of one is a loss to all. Conversely, if we raise our own vibrations, we raise the vibrations of all.

These last months have been hard on everyone. There is so much unnecessary loss, so much grief, so much anger, so much isolation and frustration. In the last couple of weeks, as a woman living in Texas, I have been equally saddened and enraged by the actions of our leaders. I weep for women who have lost control over their own bodies. I am fearful that many people will lose the ability to vote. As I see what is happening politically in my state and others, I am deeply afraid that our way of life will be destroyed by gaslighting and lies about what we have seen with our own eyes.

Spiritual teachers around the world are telling us that in these times the best we can do is send out love into our own corners of the world. We must keep our own vibrations high. We must heal our own wounds, and make sure that we continue to do our own Soul work. We must radiate Love – Love with a capital L.

That all sounds a bit Pollyannish. It doesn’t seem enough to send out Love, and it feels like I must deny my negative feelings in order to be that loving presence in the world. However, if I think about the idea that everything is connected, I am realizing that I don’t have to deny the emotions that come up when I see the harm that is being perpetrated in the world. Rather, it is my obligation to let those feelings flow through me, to use those feelings of grief, sadness, and even anger to push me into loving actions, to cause me to love more deeply and more strongly.  These negative emotions are just as much a part of me as the love. They are all connected, and they make a difference in how I show up in the world. It is how I use these emotions that can either make a positive or negative difference in the world.

Rather than deny what I am feeling, I will use my feelings as a catalyst to action, as a catalyst to create more love, to raise my vibrations to higher levels of love and gratitude. I will channel my negative feelings into calls for change. And because we are all connected, my vibrations can make a difference. I believe that this is what I am called to do in these tumultuous times.

Barbara Garland
September, 2021