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A Couple More Thoughts on Spirituality and Disability

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“Pain Passes. Love lasts a lifetime.” (anonymous)

Quite often during my lifetime with a socially-obvious disability from polio, I DSC04588 thotshave lived as a human optical illusion.  Visually, I unintentionally convey a false impression to those who first see me. I am not always what I seem to be.

How many times have you seen strangers look at you with great pity in their eyes?  Or say things like, “You poor dear, it must be horrible to be confined to a wheelchair.”  How many times have you encountered misguided religious zealots in shopping malls who want to convert you and heal you on the spot because they assume you are weak and pathetic? Once, an old drunk stumbled up to me on the street. Singling me out, he handed me 35 cents in nickles and pennies and said, “here girl, you need this more than me,” then staggered away. I was 14 and with a bunch of suddenly dumbstruck teenage friends. So much for fitting in.

Ouch! That kind of stuff is painful.  Heavy sigh…guess I’ll never be good at making great first impressions.

I believe that those crazy encounters are generated by well-meaning, but sorely limited people, who see life mostly on a physical plane. They are the self-called realists who connect disability to discontent and human deficiency. They are the people who don’t really know us.

But what is it, exactly, that they don’t get?

Plenty!

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Personal Reflection Number One…

They don’t get that as we polio survivors grow older and wiser (see The Wise Elder Report above) with our disability, most of us have built strong social support networks. As Maya Angelou said, we have learned that “love saves us.” We enjoy life. We tap into being optimistic and have grown into greater, deeper self-acceptance. We have learned to use our assertiveness skills to our advantage and are well-educated. Finally, we are often spiritually tuned into powerful unseen dimensions because, thankfully, our disability has taken us there. And, for me, that last point is huge.

I believe that each of us has deep inside, a divine spark. It is a glimmer of God, a radiance and purity that longs to be affirmed. It is also a glimmer of God that affirms us and keeps us strong when we tap into it.

“Pain passes.  Love lasts a lifetime…”    I say, (stomp! stomp!) forgive and forget the pain, the false assumptions, the heartbreak, the goofy statements. Dwell in the love!  It works better!

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Personal Reflection Number Two...

But how do we tap into our spirituality? There are so many avenues. For starters, here are three simple ways I’ve used to connect with my spiritual self:

1. Meditate. Meditation is a mental exercise designed to bring about a heightened level of spiritual awareness and trigger a spiritual or religious experience.

Living alone and being semi-retired, I have extra time these days to sit quietly and meditate in the morning, which I love. Polio has relentlessly requested that I become more sedentary than ever, which I fought at first, but have found has at least one hidden advantage. I can relax and take time to focus on the positive–in the here and now. When I focus on the life force inside me, I find the experience to be renewing and calming. It also fills my brain with delightful and surprising new insights and ideas. So, the experience I am describing is–being still, and then calling upon God to be with me in the present moment. The experience soon turns into a two-way prayer.

Intrigued? Ready to learn more about this ancient practice now embraced as good for people of all ages in our nerve-racked culture? There are lots of good books out there on meditating. Check out this Amazon link: books on meditation Anyone have a favorite reference on meditation to recommend to others? 

2. Stay home or get together at a friend’s place and watch inspiring programs on television like the Super Soul Sunday shows that Oprah presents on her OWN TV channel, Sunday mornings. A wide range of fascinating guest speakers discuss matters of the soul with Oprah Winfrey. These guided conversations can be fun to tape and watch throughout the week, as well. She also has an appealing Facebook page you might want to check out.

3. Join kindred spirits at your chosen house of worship. For me, my spirituality and my religion are great equalizers. At church we are more than our physical bodies; we have a spirit to share and we share the Holy Spirit. Many of us need that social connection and that spirit connection to get through everyday life.

When I was a younger woman living with polio, I had several personal experiences with my church friends that were transforming. I call them “feeling the presence of God” or “Holy Spirit moments.”  Like the time I was sitting in my girlfriend’s big country kitchen with her. It was Christmas time and we were anxiously struggling to resolve some big life issue. Christmas carols softly filled the room with angelic melodies. The aroma of cinnamon potpourri simmering on the nearby stove calmed our senses. Her Christmas tree sparkled from the next room.  Suddenly she looked across the room and softly affirmed, “God is here with us.” Surprised, I stopped chattering. She was right. I felt engulfed by a mysterious sweet and calm presence. And in that moment we both knew everything we communally worried about that day would be okay. And it was.

And those are just a few ways to connect with our wonderful spirit within–with a vigorous, compassionate love–that certainly surpasses all pain.

sunn rAfter working my way to the ending of this post, all I can conclude at this moment is, “in the grand scheme of things, who cares that much about first impressions anyway!?”  

Being underestimated can actually be fun at times. It has given me many convenient chances to surprise–even stun people–in all kinds of positive ways.

And woohoo!    

That is rewarding–for everybody.

 

Onward and upward!

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What inspires you?

What might be some simple ways you have tapped into the spiritual part of yourself?

Sharing one idea here may help someone out there re-connect with the light inside themselves…

 

–Special thanks to my young friend, Catharina Rink, for sharing her recent photos (above) of Australian seascapes, as she is on an adventure and pilgrimage to discover the wonders of that vast country this year.   Currently in Melbourne.  Next stop: New Zealand!–

–Also many thanks to Catharina’s brother, Sebastian, who took the two photos of me at a favorite coffee shop while in Germany. Sebastian celebrates his 16th birthday this week! Vielen Dank, Herr Rink and alles gute zum geburtstag!–

 

P.S. If you enjoyed reading this article, you may want to subscribe–free of charge–to receive an email every 10 days or so, announcing the latest post. Just go to the right sidebar here to sign up.  Enjoy!

 

 

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A Couple of Thoughts on Spirituality and Disability

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Well, New Year’s Eve has come and gone and January rouses me into wintertime musings about life-Sun on river 22-past and present–as I begin to clarify my still-nebulous resolutions for the year ahead.

As imbibing in the spirits helped many of us ring in 2015, another kind of spirit comes into focus for me–a more important one–my spirit. Better said, my spirituality. It’s what gives me guidance and gets me through.

Spirituality: “the core part of us that gives us the power to transcend any experience at hand and seek meaning and purpose, to have faith, to love, to forgive, to pray, to meditate, to worship and see beyond the physical here and now. Spirituality is the inner force that animates human life.”

As we grow older, it seems that we have more life losses to grieve and be sad about. We are losing physical prowess, friends, lovers, family members and familiar things, like paper books, hand-written letters in the mail, even fun stuff like funny comic books, drive-in restaurants and movies.

But may we console ourselves with the simple, but profound truth that grief and happiness can gracefully exist side-by-side in our hearts.

I believe that as we grieve the very gradual loss of our physical abilities, we can increase the power of our spirits in new and exciting ways.

Personally cultivating our spirituality can not only have a positive and powerful effect on our own strength and energy, but also on the health and well-being of many people around us.

Here are a couple of personal reflections I’ve had along my spiritual way. Do either of them ring true for you?

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Personal Reflection Number One…

So many of us were told as youngsters that we had to depend on our brain to get us through life with an unusual body that was partially paralyzed. “Be smart, clever and well-educated and you will show people you can fit in.” 

But there was another important piece. Body and mind are interlaced with our spirit to make us complete. Some even say that we are all spirits on earth who just happen to have a body. And that spiritual transcendence can help us face our physical differences and challenges “with a clearer perspective, rising above the limits and pain initially imposed by the disability.”

As a person who has been living with a post-polio disability for sixty-two years now, my spirituality has helped me make sense of being unusual, physically. God works in unexpected ways, at surprising times and through unique people like you and me.

 

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Personal Reflection Number Two…

We have the power to effortlessly transfuse other souls on earth with enthusiasm and assurance. I really believe that we who have a socially- obvious disability with braces, crutches, wheelchairs, and a variety of physical differences have been put on a stage in this “theater of life.”

Like it or not, people notice us. People look at us. People even stare at us. And that has given us an automatic power to influence others in positive ways.

Being a person with a disability who genuinely emanates spiritual peace can have an amazing effect on so many people around us. How many times have you heard people say “you are such an inspiration to me?” Spiritual meditation can bring us a peaceful heart. That serenity in our eyes and in our overall countenance, surrounded by our appliances and asymmetries, automatically gives hope to those who are seeking inspiration.

Did you see the woman on Dancing with the Stars last year who came in second dancing on two prostheses? The power of her positive influence in America and around the world is huge. She has no idea.

And neither do we. We can and have been influencing the human condition on earth as we have transcended and transformed our polio-caused disability from weakness into strength.

When you think of it, there is great irony in knowing that because we have lost muscle power, we have the potential to give muscle, vitality and strength to the world and we don’t even have to say a word.

First and foremost, we simply have to be present among our fellow human beings. That’s it. Just show up. Just be there, among people. All the rest that we choose to do–like speaking, writing, listening, leading, following, praying for people, contributing through our work or our family jobs or a hundred other roles we may play—all of that is simply what we do. But what about the spirit driving all that activity? How does the divinity of our inner spirit inform our activity?

As I write this blog post, my first 2015 resolution is slowly emerging into crystal clarity.  I want to tap into my spirituality every single day this year…because I really, really, really respect and like my spirit. I will ask spirit every morning to lead me through the activities of that new day.

Okay spirit, I’m ready. What will happen? This is exciting.

 

4ec810a01e1d6PICT0016_large_medium 1Wishing you an enthusiastic year ahead.……….

 

Did any of these personal reflections on spirituality resonate with you?

Sharing your unique personal insights here might help enlighten someone who is earnestly searching for his or her own spiritual answers…

 

 

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