YOU ARE INVITED to participate in the annual "Heart of Wholeness" Healing & Teaching weekend.  This event is sponsored by the Order of St. Luke (OSL) and will be hosted at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Vancouver, WA the weekend of Feb. 8-10, 2013.  This year, we are excited to announce an international speaker from New Zealand, Rev. Derek Lightbourne, will be our keynoter.  The focus of his talks will be on the healing scripture of Luke, entitled "Immersed in Luke" and encourages attendees to bring a Bible for deeper learning.  There are seven excellent workshops offered on a variety of topics, including one by our own Mary's Hope team (Rev. Diane Moore and Sherry Niermann) who will offer a workshop on "Inner Healing for Soul Wounds". 

Click HERE for more information and to download a registration form. 

Questions about the weekend?  Contact OSL Convener, Saran Warne at warne@comcast.net or phone (360)258-0134.

What You Resist, Persists.

DeNile is a very tempting place: palm trees, sphinxes, pyramids...and sometimes on our healing journey, it is appropriate to stay there for short periods of time...to rest, rally our energies, and gear up for another round of what Sherry calls, "the hardest work we'll ever do." But staying in denial guarantees that we won't get off the hamster wheel of pain that comes from unresolved childhood abuse or trauma. 

            I recent spoke at length to someone who is living with an inoperable brain tumor. Five years ago, when she first was diagnosed, and when the treatment goal was to remove the tumor, a respected counselor encouraged her to refuse to give the tumor any right to be in her body--pretend it's not there, imagine it gone, don't interact with it.

            On some level, I understand this. I've read accounts of children who are fighting leukemia, using visual imaging of their chemo drugs racing through their bloodstream as in a video game, prepared to zap the cancer cells.

            I've read a book called Your Body Believes Every Word You Say by Barbara Hoberman Levine. I have personally experienced the power of the spoken word on the body: when I used to say, (facetiously, I thought) "I was put on this earth to keep doctors and pharmacists in business", my body believed me and was chronically sick at least eight months of the year. When I changed that litany to, "I am a healthy person", did my spiritual healing work, treated my body with respect and appropriate medical intervention, the chronic illness disappeared.

            My friend's brain tumor is slow-growing and non-lethal, and it has been decided that the removal of it is not the best course to follow. So, she has been living out of the conflict of pretending that something very real--something that causes her very real and disruptive headaches and double vision--doesn't exist.

            Isn't that what survivors often deal with until we come to a place where we are ready to do the work around our childhood abuse and trauma?

            I received a call from someone this week who shared with me her story of childhood sexual abuse. It was eerily similar to my story. The conversation brought me back to my first admission that I had been sexually abused as a child, and thanks to the wisdom of Diane and Sherry, to whom I had entrusted that painful secret, I knew what to say to this woman: "I hate that that happened to you. It wasn't your fault. It wasn't ok. There is hope for healing. Take this to your therapist." Later, as I was processing her pain--and mine--Sherry reminded me that this was really a great Christmas gift, for it meant that this woman was ready to do her work, and get out from under the conflict of pretending what had happened, hadn't.

            Back to my brain tumor friend. As we talked, I was inspired to suggest that perhaps, since the treatment goal was now to learn to live with the tumor, rather than remove it, she might find it helpful to acknowledge the tumor, give her (the tumor) a name, welcome her, give her a voice, and live in a way that honors her wisdom instead of vilifying her. I'm no oncologist, but it seemed to me that this tumor is a very real part of my friend's life, and pretending it isn't, could only add negative energy to the whole situation.

            She looked surprised at first....then, slowly, shared the 'pretend it's not there' advice she had received....and then said, "Your idea feels much more right."

            I asked what the tumor's name might be, and, after some thought, she said, "Iris, because she is wrapped around my optic nerve." We explored different things she could do to give Iris a voice-left/right hand journalling conversations between her and Iris, drawing with big fat crayons, sitting in silence and listening. As we talked, I doodled a picture of her brain with Iris in it--and unthinkingly drew Iris as a heart. My friend's countenance changed before my eyes, as she savored the possibility of a cease-fire between her and her brain tumor.

            A very wise therapist is wont to say, "What you resist, persists." As we look forward towards a new year, I am encouraged, and I encourage you, to discover what you might be resisting in your spiritual healing journey. What areas of denial might be holding you on the hamster wheel of pain? What might you be willing to bring out of the darkness and into the light of truth, acceptance, hope and transformation? Do you dare to name it, claim it, un-shame it and be free?

            That is our hope for you in the coming year.

 Elaine Oxenbury