A few years ago, my mother had an infection on her foot and she had to have her toe amputated. She never really talked to me about it, but I’ve thought about it seriously. I’ve known several people who have had amputations and it is a difficult experience to go through. Even though I have always felt like the body is just a vessel, it is very much a part of who I am while I am alive and if a visible part of me was destroyed or taken away, I would feel a great loss.
That idea made me think about the life force all around me. Every day there are new births and deaths. It’s a miraculous ebb and flow and yet most of the time we aren’t really aware of it unless those changing lives intersect with our own. If I sit very still and close my eyes, sometimes I can for a moment feel a tiny understanding of it all, but how can I grasp the idea of billions and billions of people and feel their energy all at once? I can barely handle a few thousand at a concert.
Then I considered amputation again because we are all connected. I mean maybe I don’t know that the light has gone out half way across the world, but somehow in that universal connection in that unconscious some of us must know when a spirit passes on. I wonder if a ghost is just like a phantom pain that an amputee experiences. We long so much to know those who have passed that we still experience a little of the residual life force.
I’m not sure. I’m worried today because I have a loved one who is very sick. I don’t know what is going to happen and I’m not sure what would be the best to happen. So, I pray that God give my family and my loved one strength and for God’s will to be done. Give us peace in our hearts during this difficult time. I hope that I could glimpse that feeling of all the life here on earth and feel that love for humanity that God feels even if for just a moment.
My faith saved me. May God’s peace reside in all of our hearts.
