Thursday - April 18, 2024

SCRIPTURE Ezekiel 38:7 Be prepared and prepare yourself and all your companies that are assembled about you, and be a guard for them. WORDS OF HOPE Sometimes we don’t get to prepare. A fatal diagnosis leads to the death of a loved one six weeks later. A truck careens through a red light, crashing into a neighbor’s car, sending them to months of rehab before they can walk again. The company downsizes right before Christmas, laying off dozens, including yourself. But often enough the opportunity to prepare comes from a holy place and brings outsized blessings. At the end of a contemplative prayer session in early January, a vision of a wholistic pre-and post-surgical spiritual practice took shape for the total knee replacement which lay before me in March. As soon as the details were clear, I began to incorporate elements of the practice into daily life. Particularly deep and anchoring was the pre-dawn centering prayer practice—and time for “chatting” with God. Both the deep quiet and close, conversational prayer have drawn me into the oceanic Love and Grace of the Divine. Attending to the physical dimensions of life was also crucial. I was already walking daily to immerse myself in beauty and to strengthen my legs, but I also knew that the inflammatory response to sugar, which I loved, was not “a friend” to a healing body. Though I had often curbed sweets, something about placing this quest in a wholistic spiritual practice led to greater obedience, and I added other healthy eating habits too—more omega threes, fruits and vegetables, for example. My mental and emotional life needed some tuning up as well. I was led to discern the health of my interactions with others. It wasn’t that I lived in the land of “positivity.” My conversations with others were true and deep, but sometimes relationships can become toxic, and that energy is anything but healing. Once an email from someone threatened to draw me into a long replaying of a former colleague’s abuse. But I heard it for what it was, rejected the invitation, and kept my equanimity intact. Excessive rumination and worry also got bumped out of the brain space, and my inner critic took a vacation to the Bahamas. Listening for departures from the practice was important so I could rebound as quickly as possible. As you may imagine, even with a solid practice, as surgery approached, anxiety increased (though not soaring to intense heights). I turned to a couple of women who are “tender mothers” for me and asked them if they would be standby supports to whom I could turn if I needed. Throughout the months, everything was wrapped in a cloak of prayer. Now, it’s important to say that my preparation practice, as any other spiritual practice, doesn’t have to be anyone else’s. Each of us can create a process that suits and supports us. For example, one woman I met in the hospital liked the idea and said that time spent with her grandchildren—the delight of her life—would be essential for her. Just recently I found a website that suggests doing guided meditation for best surgical outcomes. https://healingworksfoundation.org/guided-imagery/guided-meditations-to-promote-successful-surgery/ Shaping our own practice, we become co-creators with the divine. PRAYER Risen Christ, you have said that you go ahead of us to prepare a place for us. May your holy presence guide and direct all the practices of our lives. Amen. DEVOTION AUTHOR Dr. Pat Saxon