Over the next several posts, I want to tell you the story of my personal journey and life-changing encounters with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). First, a disclaimer: I hope that I have made it clear that just as there is no such thing as the “right” life journey for everyone, neither is there a single, prescribed path for recovery.
Furthermore, it is my personal and professional observation that healing is a kind of movement through ascending levels of consciousness – each upward step increasing our perceptions of what is possible, not only physically but also spiritually, and naturally incorporating what is needed by that particular individual at that particular time.
Where there is flow and movement, there is opportunity for change.
There are many forces at play in the healing process, but two emotions are constantly surfacing: fear and love. Confronted with change, fear is reflexively defensive, but love is open and accepting. Fear of the possibility of loss makes us hold more tightly onto what we possess. A rigid hostility to any change underlies a fragile sense of security. “Better the devil you know than the one you don’t.”
Love on the other hand, is light and expansive. It’s an expression of our trust in the ultimate goodness of the world and of our sense of all things having their place in the universe. Love makes life feel like a continuum and a soul’s journey in the body feel as part of a greater whole. I’ll have a little more to say about such journeying, in my next post, before we can discuss my own journey.
