Life can get busy – chaotic even.
And amidst the chaos, it can be easy to miss the small moments of wonder that are truly life-giving.
Here’s a story from Rachel Remen, MD about a doctor who had his eyes opened in a powerful way. In fact, he says that experience freed him from the cynicism, depression, and frustration he’d been carrying for years.
Take a look – it’s under 5 minutes.
Doctors aren’t the only ones who can miss these holy moments, it’s therapists, teachers, and parents – it’s all of us.
Now I’d like to hear from you. When have you had an experience like this one? Please share a story or leave a comment below.
A divine gift from you to us…the moment of the doctor’s realizing that he/she was the first human face the baby was experiencing went straight to my heart …How beautiful!
Thank you for sharing this inspiring story! I’m a big fan of Dr. Remen and had the opportunity to hear her speak once. We need to share more stories about our humanity and, of course, the importance of noticing the “Holy moments” all around us. And babies are holy!
Every chance I get to ‘talk’ with a baby, I make a point to say “Welcome to the world”. Each one is a gift, an angel straight from our common Creator.
I do a music program and tutor children in need. I once worked with a 12-year-old who could not read first grade books. She didn’t learn to play music at all. When we arranged that I would take her to concerts or other events, she wouldn’t be home when I came to pick her up. A string quartet donated CDs, and I almost didn’t give her one. I felt that I had failed her.
She wrote a thank you letter for the CD going on and on about her favorite movement, and listening when she did her hard homework and her household chores.
But she stopped coming to music classes, and she damaged her instrument.
That year she learned to read. It might have been a coincidence, but I don’t think it was.
I so appreciate hearing this story. Yes, holy moments are always there. The one that most recently comes to mind for me is seeing a butterfly calmly flying in the midst of a rainy blustery day while i was driving. It was not a moment with a human being; however it was a moment with a sentient being. I give thanks for it. Such moments are indeed “heart opening” and i remember taking a cleansing breath.
Recently my significant other of 12 years was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. We live in a rural town with no cancer expertise to speak of and have to travel to Phoenix (Mayo Hospital) for treatment. We had an alpaca ranch, which while he was being transported to Phoenix I was frantically clearing out. I knew that no matter the outcome, we couldn’t come back to this lifestyle for many reasons. Neither of us had undergone this type of traumatic turn of events in our lives so we grabbed on and kept on with what we knew to do.
After his first bout with chemo and while he was recovering from it in the hospital, I had pretty much rearranged our ‘outside’ life to accommodate our ‘inside’ life. I was refusing to look back because some things I had to do were with much deep regret and I could not afford myself the time to cry or do remorse. However, one day as he was dosing in the hospital bed I looked over at him and an amazing sense of peace came over me. Going from panic to peace deserves questioning and I began to reassess where this may have come from.
I realized in that moment that I had successfully passed the course on being in the present, having honed in on only what we could control in my focus, I was now experiencing the expanse of time and the ability to be grateful amidst the chaos outside the present. I was officially in the ‘eye of the hurricane’. I realized how vast that moment was in my days ahead and when I was able to ‘go there’ it was as if I were in a place without pressure, without fear or skepticism, a place where I could lay down the picnic blanket and lie on it looking up and building clouds in the sky for as long as I would allow myself. It was meditational, as I could strategize without the pressures of “what if?”, and ultimately, in all that space I knew I wasn’t alone in my efforts to keep things in perspective.
Several years ago, I was working with an 18 year old woman from Somalia who had just had her first child. She had come to this country with her husband, who was working on his Ph.D. At the University of Chicago. She didn’t speak any English and was missing her mother and family back home very much.
Her husband had purchased an international cell phone package for the family in Somalia, but was unable to spend the day with his wife. He was coming to the hospital that evening.
Throughout my shift, she alternated between tears and withdrawal. Because of the language barrier, I used the language line to perform assessments, educate her about her body’s needs post partum and about how to care for and feed her infant. Fortunately, I had the same translator throughout my shift. As the day went on, her distress grew. I asked the translator(who was a native Samoli) if there was anything i could do to comfort her and he told me about the traditions he was aware of in her part of the country. Mothers, and the community at large, play a significant role in welcoming a new child into their community. It is your mother who teaches you to care for your infant and who takes care of the new mother. It is the community that welcomes the child, literally singing the baby into the world.
When her husband arrived with the phone that would connect them to home, her face lit up! He made the call and put the phone on speaker so we could all listen to her community singing the baby home. That was my holy moment.
Over 20 years ago I was in holiday in France with my 2 young children, expecting another wanted baby with a man who had since left me – and I had a miscarriage. I was admitted to hospital for an emergency procedure, scared and sad. I was trying to follow instructions in a language that was not my first, with staff who were competent but distant, and it was the anaesthetist, standing by my head, who help my gaze with true compassion when I said J’ai puer’. He helped me lose consciousness with a little less fear producing a holy moment I have never forgotten and remember with gratitude.
Late one late December day, I squeezed in an appointment for an elderly man, Joseph, and his wife Mary. They were having difficulty with his diabetes. When they came with their school age grandson.. They introduced him as Hay-sus, the Hispanic pronunciation for Jesus. I went hoe that Christmas eve with a lot to think about.
Thank you Ruth and Dr. Remen for this beautiful story, especially on the occasion of Christmas Day. So heartwarming. As I read the comments some stories brought tears to my eyes & I remembered one poignant day at the hospital with my mother who had contracted pneumonia, and had advanced Alzheimer’s. My eldest sister, Jocelyne (who lives overseas) had flown in to visit after New Year’s day – she hadn’t seen Mum for about eight years. Mum didn’t know who any of us were anymore (she called her husband Papa, me, her daughter, Madam, etc.). When we told her who Jocelyne was, she didn’t seem interested & obviously didn’t recognize her. We all sat around her bed although she ignored us. A few hours later, she sat up and signaled for Jocelyne to come & sit close to her (Although she spoke 6 languages, Mum had lost the ability to speak in coherent sentences). She took Jocelyne’s hands & moved her face very close to Jocelyne’s and stared deep into her eyes. It was as if she were looking for something deep inside them. She then smiled & nodded her head, pressed Jocelyne’s hands tightly and gave her a big hug. My father & I just looked at each other stunned. Mum passed away the next day at 6.00 am.
Thank you for what you do, Ruth. I’ve learned so much from you. Merry Christmas and best wishes for a wonderful New Year.
Aline
Closed Captioning really awful, unintelligible, and pretty useless.
Here’s a related share about the eyes and connection…
The Dr. had showed up as a Doctor, never once as a human being! Now, this man’s got it!
Gave me goose bumps!
From where I stand I’m seeing things differently.
What I see is that the doctor took away for himself a vital and never to be repeated bonding moment between mother and baby. (Though of course he didnt think about it like that.)
The first awakening look should be between mother and child.
I dont know what others feel about this, but thats how it strikes me.
river
I also saw some of that, but I didn’t like to say. That special moment was not his to have – he could have witnessed it instead. But we can know he meant well, just was rather out of touch with his own emotions and awareness.
Thanks for responding to my response.
It was a profound, tender and iirredeamable moment when my baby first looked into my eyes.
I think one issue is that the doctor didnt even cast a mental glance over this issue which indicates that he was unaware of it, and therefore not sensitive to it. That I think is what troubled me.
I loved reading the Leboyer book on natural childbirth back then, hmm, I dont think I even have my original copy.
Happy new year too.
river
This newly born infant chose to open her eyes at that moment; the doctor had no control over that. And from the account, with the him still suctioning and holding her below the placenta, she was only seconds old. From my years of experience as an L&D nurse, most babies keep their eyes shut initially, from the sudden lights, the temperature change, the handling, and the noise. It is most often the mother who sees those little eyes open first after the baby is dried, swaddled, and snuggling safely in arms. This doctor didn’t force this moment or steal it from the mother – there were two people involved, and the little one chose to look, in that instant, on her own volition. I am sure the baby saved even greater recognition for her mother – and father – when she engaged their eyes, because her parents probably also spoke to her and cooed to her in that moment, thus confirming to her that she was home, with familiar voices she already knew from hearing them from inside the womb. She might have given the doctor a gift, but I’m nearly positive she saved the jackpot for her parents.
Kate,
Thank you for your full and compassionate response.
Lovely self discovery of connection, innocence and gratitude.
Thanks for sharing it.
Thank you Ruth. very moving. Earlier today I had posted something on Leo Babuta’s Sea change forums. I was thinking about christmas day tomorrow and I wrote that I was going to try and look at all my loved ones as if for the first time. I didn’t want to waste the precious time I have with them. I also said I wished to look at all people with eyes of compassion. Thich Nhat Hanh in his morning verse on waking.
“Waking up this morning I smile
24 brand new hours are before me
I vow to live each moment fully
And to look at all beings with eyes of compassion”
your video reinforces my intention to just be with my family tomorrow
Wendy
Hi, Actually newly born infants can focus very well at a distance of about 12 inches. I have had the honor of meeting many newly born infants in my work as a nurse. Many are very quiet and alert shortly after birth and very attentive to the sounds and sights and touches as they absorb the newness all around them. It is a privilege to be there, in the background, during these special times as parents and newly born little souls start this new chapter of their lives.
Hi again, My comments were partly in response to a post further down the page. Thanks you for sharing this lovely story.
You have a better perspective – “a privilege to be there in the background”….. its the mother and child who really should make first eye contact.
Jo.
How can we judge whether this moment belonged to someone or the other? All we know is that it was a moment transformation for the doctor. His experience of his life’s work is forever changed to take note of his connection with his patients. We are all here to help one another. This precious infant got right to work!
The man had an invaluable awakening. Talking about it embeds it in him and increases the likelihood that he will be open to it not only with a newborn, but with an accident victim in his emergency room.
But, I am startled at how much emphasis has been placed on visual connection when discussing whether the initial visual moment was the mother’s to have! For months a mother carries her child, breathes for her or him, pumps blood, grows the body, touches and caresses the unborn, especially when the movements start. The bonding is kinesthetic and completely biological. That underlying physical touch bond continues after the baby is born and extends to other care givers. The importance of the visual reads to me like a focus from an adult perspective. It is an adult concept that the eyes, and a look between people carries something special. During childbirth of my second daughter I had a doula present. I did not look into her eyes, but I felt her presence next to me the whole time. Our mutual presence filled the room and gave that space an anchoring that made it possible for me to huff and puff, feel myself deeply, and give birth.
As a Feldenkrais practitioner of close to 30 years, I find that connection to self and other can be present and recognized in silence, with eyes closed, in conversation and with eyes open. But, it takes two to meet. It is easier with an infant. They have not yet developed inhibitions and certainly have neither developed nor lost a sense of self just yet. But the notions that there is something magical about that first look and it should be between mother and child, diminishes the fully embodied connection that exists between her and the child.
Olena
So many Holy Instants! Thank you Ruth, Remen, All! Truly Blessed, Truly Grateful! We attempt to understand behaviorally what will bring these about, yet in my experience, they are not something of judgment/right/wrong behavior – nothing so static, but Grace, Presence, expressions of Spirit/Our True Self – Now and Eternal moments of remembering/connecting with Who we are in non-duality. I have experienced these moments, and they are the most important in my life, where I have experienced profound Peace and Love. Blessings All!
I was away from home taking care of my then 7 year old nephew. We were doing some grocery shopping at a large market that had a cafe area.
There was a young women in the cafe sitting at a high counter on a tall barista stool. She turned and looked over at me –our eyes met, not a word was exchanged but time slowed as I left my grocery cart and walked over to her as her eyes closed, and she passed out and fell backward into my waiting arms–I asked fellow diners to help me lower her to the ground and called for some medical help as she was having a seizure. Had she fallen–she would have injured herself as when she fell back toward me she was essentially dead weight.
Afterwards, once she had recovered, I found my nephew brightly looking at me asking,-“How did you know?” I couldn’t say how I knew–I just did. Your doctor’s story brought back that holy moment memory. Thanks.
This story has touched me deeply. At this time in my life I find myself celebrating many holy moments. I spontaneously rejoice “thank you, thank you God, Divine One, for this blessing”….I actually, physically jump with joy! Age certainly has its challenges but it also has its wisdom, realizations that energize me in so many ways. I am grateful…thank you for this story. It is a case of one person realizing his meaningful contribution to human kind.
Truly a precious and sacred moment for a baby to be welcomed into life in this way. I am grateful too. Thank you Ruth and Rachael for sharing this.
What a wonderful and inspirational message. This was refreshing in a world where political correctness seems to be a barrier to sharing one’s faith. This avenue shows that this can be done in a manner that leaves it open for all to hear.
Thank you for this, Ruth and Rachel. What a beautiful, meaningful and poignant reminder what life is all about. Feeling the heart opening and tears flowing here, too. 🙂
Lovely! Thank you, Ruth!
Thank you very much!
I was “Chosen” to do the admission of a patient from the local jail..I found my patient huddled with his back to me, lying in a plywood plank attached to a wall, he was covered with a grey wool blanket…I told him I was a nurse and would be helping get him moved to a hospice with a soft bed and more nurses…he lifted his head and blue eyes pierced mine..it was a moment..
…..as I reached to touch his forehead with my hand , it was very warm..I told the guard beside me, “This gentleman needs some water” He stared blankly at me like I was speaking another language..I repeated this request more firmly and gave him “the look” all 6 of my children knew well…he left briefly and returned with the water…
The words of Christ saying “I thirst” were given new meaning and I was blessed.
very moved y this, thank you
Sometimes (maybe most of the time), we forget how simple it is, MJ — thank you for this reminder….
I am a 76 year old retired Social Worker. I am currently in the service of my church. My wife and I work as mental health advisors in the north east USA and Canada for the LDS Church. We help with young missionaries, most of whom are 18 and 19 year old men and women away from home for the first time. In all the years I served as a child protective service worker and supervisor, school counselor, and private practice, I did my job. Here in the “mission field” I have received a spiritual connection that what I have been doing all these years has really helped. To meet with these really dedicated young people and have them look into your eyes and say thank you makes all those years serving become important.
My first “holy moment” or spiritual awakening, came in a most unexpected way. I was a patient at the now defunct hospital, Letterman General at the former Army base in San Francisco. I was recovering from a hysterectomy. It was in the mid 1970’s..
My husband was an Army Doctor stationed at Letterman. We had six children. He had fallen in love with the mother of one of his patients . He had filed for divorce from me. It never occurred to me divorce was even a possibility. We were Catholic! I was a time of deep emotional devistation, unbearable sadness, and excruciating sense of aloneness . Not only had he hired an attorney and filled for divorce, He checked in with the nursing staff but refused to visit me.
One night I was walking my body with its attached IV. I came to the nursing station and stopped. I heard the soft moaning coming from the room across the hall opposite the nursing station. I asked what was
going on? I was told there was a woman dying. She had no family. She too was alone.
I found myself pulled towards this woman, a total stranger, asking if I could visit her?
From the moment I entered that dark room with the dying woman hooked up to all the medical monitoring machines, I forgot my own emotional devastation. I was one with this stranger, in love, in service knowing exactly what to do and say. Time stood still. I remember looking up to see a group of doctors coming into the room. I remember hearing the words. “..Isn’t that beautiful?” Later on I realized this was what it mean’t to be with someone 100%.
I found myself holding her hand and talking . I remember talking about the seasons. I carried her on a journey through her life . I found myself giving her permission to accept what she could not change, the courage to let go and let God do God’s work .
The moment she did, was when I experienced the most profound feeling…her life force leaving her body and a feeling of her last breath of life coming through me. It was tangible. it was the moment that solidified within me the reality that we are more than just a body. It was a moment of profound understanding. It changed my life. I did not fully understand the totality at the time. I do know it was a gift of love given without expectation of return that led me on an amazing spiritual journey which continues to unfold to this day in the year 2015!
.
Wow,. Thank uuuu
Your story touched me deeply at a time it was much needed…
Thank you, from my heart and soul…
Thank you for sharing this, Carol. You did an amazing thing. You were meant to be there, I believe, to help her move on, her last memory that of another loving soul in presence with her. <3
Thank you for sharing… You have been my teacher today
Thank you Carol,
I am so happy that you shared this story…it’s almost seems that all that dark had to happen in order for the light to appear
I work for autism throug the DIR model to help parents connect, relate and communicate. I feel very happy when I see their gleam of their eyes between children and caregivers while they play. Also happens when I’m present and I let each moment last is magical that connection.
Happy Holidays and thank you for such a touch history.
Sorry for errors I’m from Colombia SA working in USA. My native language is Spanish.
Every time I, as a Lightworker, have the opportunity to help a client see into their own Soul and Remember Who They Really Are, it is a holy moment.
Thank you so much for this transcendent video. I wept . . . It reminded me of a moment in my own therapy where I was so grateful. I am a person who has experienced torture and was working with my extraordinary LCSW, Ellen Hamilton. She used many modalities to help high-end deprogramming cases like mine, including art therapy, mindfulness practice, and cranial-sacral work. We were recovering one of the worst moments (i.e. helping me reconnect and attach emotion to the event). At the moment I connected with the memory of the event, I felt only a huge surge of gratitude, because my heart was filled with a bright sense of sunshine and peace. I remember being so grateful that I felt no hate or resentment against the people who had taken their pain out on me, only compassion. I realized they had been more hurt and scared than I was. Then I realized, my counselor was weeping, and I was very grateful for her tears, because I was not able to cry at that time. Her response helped me realize the enormity of my healing. This morning, I am grateful for being able to weep upon hearing about this doctor’s eye-opening, connecting moment. Because often when asked to speak publically about my incredible healing journey, I will say, “I don’t believe in “evil. I have never looked into the eyes of an infant and had those eyes tell me, I want to hurt my child or hold up a connivance store. We come into this word pretty pure. And, we are all responsible for what happens afterward. The way we treat our children is the root cause of most of societal joys, and its ills – which makes most of our world’s ills preventable.” This truth gives me great hope. Thank you for all you do. Peaceful holidays!
Stuck in stopped traffic on the bridge, I am sobbing….
You know that way in a car sometimes when your peripheral vision pulls you to a movement off to the side?
I am drawn inexplicably to the man in the car to my left. He is sobbing too.
It was December 8th, 1980, and both of us, our radios blasting the song Imagine.
I had maybe 15 years on him but we were twin siblings in the long moment of teary eye contact that happened.
I am very thankful to the Universe for I was able to find in my life that divine moment of feeling the deep coonection to others -without judgement or criticism- mostly & more intensly in my clinical work. It took me many years to make it part of me, & I find it the fundamental turning point in anybody’s life; the biggest gift that we can receive in our human lives.
Fortunate for me & training others to go into everything with eyes wide open, I have experienced this too many times to count, even with my work in Hospice since 1988. Honing my skill set with participating in these brief & extended offerings through National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine has been of most benefit for me & others I refer to do the same. Thanks to you all, the comments greatly enhance the experience.
I was second inline at a Walmart checkout, and this lovely, dark haired woman was trying to connect with the cashier, as she paid for her items. For some reason, the cashier appeared to be snubbing this woman. And the woman looked at her kindly, waiting to connect. I ‘stepped in’ and wished my fellow shopper a Merry Christmas, to let her know I was aware of the moment, and I wanted to extend my wishes.
As I checked out, I tried to evaluate what the cashier was going through, and why she had snubbed the other woman. I have been snubbed by cashiers, and one never knows what triggers these moments. Could even be the cashier was reeling from a rude customer who came before us…
It turned out to be a significant moment for me. I saw the humanity in both women, but especially in the dark haired woman, who was so present, so willing to connect, and so accepting of whatever the situation held.
As I counseled an elderly inmate (lifer), I had a sudden glimpse through his eyes, of the young child in him that was horribly abused so many years before. In that instance of mutual recognition – he knew that I “saw” him – our lives were never the same. I gained access to the hearts of the population I was serving, as well as my own, through that one gift of recognition.
Thank you for sharing this. It brought tears to my eyes.
Just today, Dec. 23, 2015, I was in session with a 24 y.o. young man. He told me about the trauma he experienced during his childhood from his alcoholic father. After he shared his story, I softened my eyes and we made eye contact. All I said was “I am so very sorry for your sadness about your father”. His eyes teared up, and he said, “No one has ever said that to me before.” At that point our eyes were locked and my eyes also filled with tears. This was truly a holy moment.
I was in the country of Jordan studying Arabic. I decided to visit the National Mosque in Amman. I got there just as they were starting prayer, so I needed to wait outside umtil they were done as I am not Muslim. There is a park there, so I wandered around the park. I noted a fairly large group of young girls and a few women and a few others. After wandering around for awhile, I sat down to eat my lunch. A couple of older women were nearby. I’m sure they were wondering why an American was in their park. A couple with a baby walked by. They nodded and said hello. A few minutes later they walked back they walked back and said hello again. Finally the two older women approached me and we began to chat. They were from Syria. From Homs (which Bashir Al-Assad had leveled). We joined the larger group abd they gathered around. My Arabic was not good enough to understand clearly why they were there specifically. But I noted it was mostly girls 12 or younger with one young woman of about early 20’s with very sad eyes and a couple of women maybe in their 30’s and the older women I had met earlier. The young girls wanted my picture with them. I think I was a novelty to them. The middle aged women asked if I liked Assa, to which I answered a strong ‘No!’
We chatted for a few minutes. The older women stood back as the young girls clustered around. Finally the Mosque was open again. The young woman with the sad eyes helped me fix my headscarf (a way of being polite when visiting a mosque is to wear a scarf. And I began to walk toward the Mosque entrance. I noticed two women in full-on burkas (the covered in black, only eyes showing). Usually it is not appropriate to approach conservative women. But there was something about the way they were standing, a feeling I had. So I went over and offered my hand. They both shook my hand warmly with both of theirs. We did not speak. But that was a special and holy moment for me. There was connection. There had been such warmth from the Syrians and then the burka’d women. Women who were likely alone because their men had been killed. They accepted me warmly and with kindness. This was a holy moment for me. I will never forget it.
Dr. Remen is female… Article uses masculine pronouns…
Sorry… Was confused
The newborn infant doesn’t “see” and cannot look into the doctor’s eyes. The doctor was seeing himself, his true self, for the first time.
Michele – newborns do see, their best focal distance is 14″ … the approximate distance to gaze into the eyes of someone cradling them in their arms. They will turn preferentially to their parents voice in the delivery room – Read Dr. Berry Brazelton. I had great fun and joy demonstrating this to parents, especially young fathers, right after birth.
Yes, Holy moments. Holy instants. They come, gratuitously, from outside of us.
And if we are present, really present,
we can not only take them in,
but we can return and extend such moments to others.
Thank you for the inspiration.
Thanks for the truly fitting the occasion account of the doctor.
I think of an event of about 35 years ago, when a was on a glacier-tour, tight to a rope, with others. We had split into two small groups, as we were crossing a glacier in snow-storm. Our guide suggested, that we move forward without the others being in sight. I decidedly said, that I preferred waiting for them to be in contact with us. Something in my voice must have convinced him and so we waited. I still feel thankful for that moment of respect for me and all the others. (And after we all had reached the mountain-hut, and after eating up we had and could find there, we still had to leave two days later in storm – and we all made it.)
I believe I can relate to this experience many times in my career. I was an emergency room nurse in a very busy urban trauma center for 25 years before switching to Vascular Interventional Radiology.
The first and maybe the most profound experience I ever had was a time early in my career. A gentleman had come in to the ER with chest pain. I went through the routine actions of my job
, placing him on a monitor, nasal oxygen, doing and keg and drawing bloods and placing IV accesss. We chatted as I worked, I assessed his pain scale and he seemed stable.
He abruptly went into a dangerous heart rhythm and our team mobilized.
What was initially a calm controlled situation became chaotic and threatening. While the team was methodical, one of the measures was to place a central line in his neck which requires covering his face.
I was at the bedside talking to Hamas he deteriorated. From underneath the sterile field that had coveted him came his hand and he found mine without worlds.
I immediately felt his fear and despite a very aggressive effort, He died. Holding my hand.
It was a feeling I could explain to no one in the moment.
You see in the emergency room we function on adrenaline, fast acting interventions that are generally detached from the being we are treating. It allows us to think and act without fear or much emotion.
This moment was different. I connected to this human being in a most intimate way.
I held it holy and I am an atheist.
I have since found myself connecting in that way often and very unexpectedly.
The most powerful gift I gained was the power of touch. Often very little words.
As I near the chance to officially retire in the next 4 years, I’ve contemplated a new career I find most fulfilling, hospice and end of life care.
Sorry for the typos, I never proof read keg is keg and Hamas should read him as he
Autocorrect bah. Keg is ekg!!
As you grow forward into a new life season. I hope you ask or question where your gift arrives from. Can you develope it? Will it transform new heights? Not all who die will exit in fear. Some will exit in joy fullness, ready. My gift is similar to yours. It has evolved much deeper. In the beginning it was a bit confusing, even satay. Yet, I was curious, and I now know from where the knowing arrives from. My prayer for you is to experience the gift from the touch of peace, contentment, arrival, beginning. So you may gain understanding into the next level. There is more to come. Be open, ready to receive.
I was blessed to have two beautiful home births with both my children. I am aware of my good fortune as sometimes child birth can be dangerous and and fraught but for me it went well, even with the hours of anguished pain of labour. When I pushed down and my baby began to emerge, the heart longing increased. I had longed to see my child for nine slow months, even longer if you count the time hoping to conceive – and at last I could reach down and pull my baby into my arms and look at the face I had yearned to know and already grown to love. And both of my children looked at me, and I said ‘hello little one’ and they gazed right back and I met a soul, a being, whom I had carried for nine months and now would help to grow and learn and see the world. I was aware that it was the most incredibly spiritual moment. That doctor hadn’t even carried that child in his womb, nor worked in agonising pain to bring her out in labour, so I wanted to point out that his moment is small compared to the intensity of feeling of the mother – the real hero of this story.
I wonder why you have to diminish such a beautiful experience or compare it to anything else? Mindfulness lets us rejoice when another experiences something profound for themselves.
Thank you, Ruth, for this wonderful account (by Rachel Naomi Remen) of a truly magical real-life event.
I pray you, your team & all the people you interview have a wonderful Christmas + a very happy celebration for New Year’s Eve + a brilliant year ahead.
I’m very grateful for all you & your team, at NICABM, do for all of us. I’ve received enormous benefit, understanding & insight from your programs.
Thank you Rachel and Ruth! Children remind us where we come from spiritually and and through a child we can make this connection instantly. I am so grateful that I may still work with children and that I often can experience this special connection. It keeps me motivated and emotionally alive.
A precious moment I hold close to my heart & recall vividly, is the night of my brother’s wife’s 40th celebration.
Rick walked up beside me & placed his left hand in my right hand, firmly. In the corner of my eye, I could see him swallow deeply with emotion. Our hearts & hands, our whole selves, were united with strong love – it was a breath-taking, all encompassing moment.
Later that night, Rick sang a love song to his wife, whilst he strummed on the guitar – it was his own creation & I was moved to tears of joy.
Moments like this, of PURE LOVE, need to be bottled & treasured forever.
I remember this story from the full interview with Ms. Remen. When I work with my students, it often seems helpful to remind all of us that it’s seldom that anyone is going around handing out diplomas or certificates or notifications for our accomplishments, once we’ve graduated from high school or college. All too often, it’s up to us to decide when we’ve gone from being students to apprentices to mastery; it can be easy to stay in “student mind” for longer than necessary when we pursue artistic or spiritual growth. In the long run, it’s also up to us to choose why we do the things we do. The doctor in this story sounds like he was a very competent practitioner, working in integrity, doing his best for his patients and his hospital, and possibly somewhere in there, his immediate family. But what a beautiful way to be taken deeper, and connected more intimately with life and the whole human family!
When I was 17, I asked to be shown the truth of all truths, in meditation, and had an experience of being reborn as a fresh human being affectionate and trusting to all life, like a new born child, and I knew that nothing ever could change that because it was a moment of unbreakable, timeless truth.
Thank you for all your words of wisdom and truth, let us bless the world with our pure human essence.
Charlotte