"You are way too attached to material items,"
our daughter tells me, emphatically.
Well, yes! Of course! I treasure mementos of lost loved ones, or reminders of superheroes (my toys), or happy characters who make me smile (Tigger!).
Token gestures are even better when they include actual tokens of affection, not just some floral bouquet that will be dead in a week, but something like the rock from Brazil my sister included with a little "care package." You can read more about that here:
....may we all "feel the love" and know there is goodness all around us, no matter how many shadows the dark things might cast.
Gifts. Gestures. "You're in our thoughts and prayers."
Do our prayers make any difference? Does a listening God or guardian angels hear us and intercede on our behalf? Most of the time, no, I feel no such connection and see no signs of Divine Intervention. Other people, though, radiating joy, love, and peace, and telling us ("spread the good news") how they have known the presence of God in their lives. How many people report cancers going into remission, broken hearts mended, despair vanquished, and hope restored? Is it placebo effect, the power of positive thinking, or proof that the prayers of others really do have efficacy?
Convents and monasteries are filled with people quietly praying (a full time job!), praying for people they have never seen, knowing they will never get to know what impact their prayers may have.
"What good does it do to pray,"
scoffers say. (And yes, I often feel that way, myself.)
Is praying out loud, and in groups, better than praying alone, in silence, and hoping it's true that God knows our every thought?
Maybe it's only telepathy. Maybe it's... magic! Maybe it really is the Holy Spirit, aka Comforter. As a hermit, a recluse, I have a lot of mindless chores to do, so I fill those hours praying and listening and waiting/hoping to see if any God is sending me messages.... always, I'm praying for someone, somewhere.
"For those in most need of they mercy," whoever that may be.
Lately it's been my sister who's fighting cancer.
--No, I don't wear a pebble in my shoe to remind me. (No need for that!)
For Kelly!
Every weed I pull, every branch I prune.
For Kelly. I pray for her to win this fight for her life.
I often wear this Vilsek hoodie because she had worn it, and she gave it to me because she had extras:
Does this hoodie "connect" us?
Psychometry is one of the many types of psychic ability where a person can read or sense an object’s history by touching it. By reading the energy of an item or object, you can sense emotions, sounds, smells, tastes, and even see images that are a part of that object’s history and its previous owner.
I'm not a psychic. I don't identify as one, anway. But, but, but: if psychics need an object connected with a missing person to "see" the person, if there's any sort of activity at the molecular or atomic level that taps the field of electromagnetic activity and connects us somehow, hey, I'm open. (You hear that, God? I am so impressionable, eager, open, and willing to be IMPRESSED, touched, inspired by you!)
Psychometry is perfect for beginner psychics looking to strengthen their intuitive gifts because it involves holding a physical item. When you hold an actual object, you have a sense of security - just like utilizing training wheels on a bicycle....
.... Common traits of psychometrists include:
-- After they pick up an old, used item, they feel like they should wash their hands
-- They feel anxious in spaces that are cluttered due to the excess energy being emanated
-- They don’t wear used jewelry or clothes
-- They feel a weird energy upon entering antique stores
See also WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW PSYCHOMETRY?
Psychometry can allow some to have the ability to recognize what the individual looked like, what they did, or how they died. Emotions explicitly are most immovably “recorded” in the article, like some kind of messages from the World Above, celestial messages that could also be linked to your guardian angel.
I am not in that category,
not one who can "sense" other people's experiences, emotions, or manner of death by touching something they had touched, worn, employed, or enjoyed.
But I am, indeed, "attached" to material objects that mean something to me, mostly because someone before me had used and loved this object, or this garment.
I'd love to see and touch this blue trench coat again, the one my sister wore on her first trip to Germany in 1977. Kelly brought home a cuckoo clock and a beer stein, and these are things I will ever love and associate with Sister #3.
Kelly, 1977, from Sister' #5's photo album
Don't even get me started
on her beloved, oft-worn, much-maligned 'dead animal' coat.
How I'd love to see her have it back again! Her daughters hated it and persuaded her to donate it. I even penned a short story (mostly fiction!) about it in my early days at Steemit.
I know, I know. The coat would not have magical powers
to restore Kelly to her the good health she enjoyed back in the days she sported her coat. The coat is gone, gone from her life. At least one of her daughters regrets having urged her to get rid of it.
This is why I'm "too attached" to "mere things," my own dear daughter.
Yes. I've read the book Awareness by Anthony de Mello, and I understand "detachment" is a good thing. For most people.
The heart of Anthony de Mello's bestselling spiritual message is awareness. Mixing Christian spirituality, Buddhist parables, Hindu breathing exercises, and psychological insight, de Mello's words of hope come together in "Awareness" in a grand synthesis.
Do you pray?
Do you participate in "prayer chains"...?
Even though I'm a skeptic (agnostic), I pray, pray, pray. Our sister Lori, on first entering the hospital for leukemia in 1994, was on prayer chains all over the world. She lasted 27 years longer than expected!
Thanks to my husband's sister-in-law, I've got some Lay Franciscans (Catholic) praying for Kelly.
Thanks to Marilyn, whose son is an Iowa Cold Case (that's how we met), "Carol's sister Kelly" (and who know who that is) has the prayers of a Biker Church (Harley-riding Protestants).
Sssh, don't tell my sister. I'm not even supposed to know how much she's suffering and how little hope the doctors offer her. Who believes these doctors who predict so many days or months left--who say You'll never walk again--yet people walk again!
Stoics suffer alone, in silence.
I respect that, I respect my sister and her privacy, and yet I refuse to let her suffer alone and without the thoughts and prayers of others. Yes, I am a jerk.
You're not supposed to know this, so don't tell anyone, but the doctors delivered devastating news. Oh, bullsh^t. I call bullsh^t on those doctors.
I do not keep such things hidden. I take the news and run with it, daring to ask others to offer their energy, their compassion, their prayers. To those who pray habitually, hopefully, for anyone, anywhere, I humbly ask you: please picture Kelly enjoying a miraculous recovery, and praise God, the angels, Jesus, all the powers that be, all the forces for good in the universe.
Thank you for your prayers.
Thank you for your kind thoughts and wishes.
Other people enjoy miracles and unexpectedly quick recoveries. E.g., speaking of those Franciscans:
These are specific passages in the Bible that support the Catholic doctrine that the saints in Heaven pray for us. Genesis 4:10 suggests that martyrs pray against their murderers. Job 33:24-25 demonstrates that the Angels pray for conversions. The Saints pray for us
Even skeptics and atheists can have trust in "something" like angels, whatever they may be.
Angels are like muses. "They know stuff we don't. They want to help us. They're on the other side of a pane of glass, shouting to get our attention. But we can't hear them. We're too distracted by our own nonsense." The War of Art: Break Through The Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles – Steven Pressfield
Dr.Libby McGugan talks about the power of positive thinking in medicine here:
Altars, relics, icons, candles, flowers, "idols,"
to me it is not idolatry to touch material objects, or to burn sage, or to count beads on a Rosary. Me, I use my fingers; maybe that's cheating? Maybe I need the tangible, visible objects to get the attention of the Community of Saints who pray for us?
Altars are not "pagan," really; just visual reminders to pray for someone, somewhere. Sometimes it's for "whoever is in most need" and other times, it's for someone near and dear to us.
Kind thoughts, warm words, token gestures:
These are REAL, just as the invisible force of gravity is real and has impact.
I could keep tossing out photos, quotes, science links, churches, book titles, and prayer groups, but you get the idea, right?
Material Objects
are not bad things. To me they are sacred. Do I hoard too many things? Yes. Guilty.
But these things just may have inspired the word "talisman." Eh, no, not gonna define it here. But I do hope to imbue some sense of gravitas and heft to my beloved toys, rocks, Grandpa's hats, Mom's old, battered cooking utensils, and anything our sister Julie touched before her untimely demise in 1975.
Anything that has mass also has gravity. Objects with more mass have more gravity. Gravity also gets weaker with distance. So, the closer objects are to each other, the stronger their gravitational pull is.
Earth's gravitycomes from all its mass. All its mass makes a combined gravitational pull on all the mass in your body. That's what gives you weight. And if you were on a planet with less mass than Earth, you would weigh less than you do here.
My toys. My icons.
More here:
Thank you for reading,
and thank you for all your kind thoughts and positive intentions.