Following on from the last post, Michael Tamura – the healer in Mount Shasta – has sent me this reply, which I thought would make a great Guest Post in its own right.

Michael is a wise soul. Every time we communicate, I learn something immensely valuable from him. As I have done with his writing below. I value his friendship and kindness, and his reminders! I am reminded, in his post below, of what I should do, who I should be – or rather, who I am… Thank you Michael…

*****

Hello, Bill! 

Finally, I have a chance to comment on your wonderful “Mower to Mending” story….or, perhaps, it was the “Shoulder to Spirt” story! As always, you have a most delightful way with words and pictures to tell a story – even a painful one.  I don’t think I’ve ever read one of your blog posts that didn’t bring a smile on my face. 

That, of course, is one of the signs of a real healer, isn’t it? One who consistently brings joy and happiness to those around him or her. In fact, did you know that the word ‘miracle’ has as its root a word that means, “makes one smile”? And a miracle, no matter what kind, is always a healing, isn’t it?  When we are able to have the miracle, we are healed.  

As your friend, Susan Morris, says above in her comments, I was merely the facilitator for your healing.  You becoming receptive to the miracle, in other words, being able to validate Spirit, is what healed you. 

Why hadn’t you healed your shoulder before I sat down in front of you in your motel room in Mount Shasta?  Well, before that, you were more intent on getting the things you needed to do done rather than letting a nuisance of a painful shoulder keep you from that.  You didn’t want to resort to going for medical treatment since you knew that often the treatment can be worse than the problem. 

You also knew that given the correct conditions, the body would get well on its own.  But, you were still divided because you had a lot of important work to do on your plate and you didn’t want to “waste” any time or attention on yourself.  

Ah! What makes us decide that what we have to do is more important than tending to ourselves?  In a sense, it’s time and resources, isn’t it?  We decide that we have a certain amount of time and a certain amount of resources to accomplish a certain thing or a certain number of things during that time and we assume that we can’t have both accomplishing them as well as tending to ourselves. 

No, we assume, as the saying goes, “We can’t have our cake and eat it, too.”  Or, we only have this much time in – or this much money and other resources with – which to accomplish one of these two goals.  

I used to tell my teaching students that I meditate every morning to start off my day, but on the days when I know I’m going to have to get a lot more done, I meditate twice as much.  Most of them had a hard time understanding this because they were beholden to time constraints.  Most of them ended up running around like a chicken without a head on their insanely busy days because they not only didn’t have time to meditate twice as long but they believed they didn’t even have time to meditate at all – because they had to get so much done.  A few may have even thought I had a few loose screws in my head.

One day, however, I was redeemed.  I was doing a bit of research on the Protestant Reformation and, naturally, I came across some quotes from Martin Luther.  The one that stuck out was about him saying to people repeatedly, “I start every day on my knees [in prayer and meditation] for one hour, but on those days when my plate is especially full, I stay on my knees for two hours.”  Hahaha!  I found an ally.

I knew that Martin Luther knew what I discovered: Everything Goes Better With Meditation and Prayer!  Hahaha… (That would be the commercial jingle.)  We can live life with more grace when we spend extra time and attention on going within to Spirit especially when times are more challenging or when we need to get important things done. 

I’ve learned that when I take the extra time for going within, even the intense day goes more calmly as well as I end up getting more done.  I’ve also learned that when I didn’t do this, I not only had a much more frustrating day, but I also couldn’t get all that I thought I needed to do done anyway.

We experience miracles only when we make space for them in our busy lives.  I’m a healer only because I give people permission to have them.  You are the same way with other people, but with yourself sometimes you fail to give that same permission.  All of us who are givers and healers tend to have that problem.  We often believe that it is more noble to give to others and take away from ourselves. Yet, when we do that, we are actually being arrogant, not noble. 

After all, God gives to each and every one of us unceasingly.  Who are we to refuse that in favor of others?  In truth, the more we refuse healing for ourselves, the less we are able to give healing to others for healing is one, limitless, eternal and whole.  We cannot divide healing and only give healing to those who we deem worthy or needing it more.  The very nature of healing is restoring that which is divided back into wholeness.  We can’t do that by seeing division, but only by seeing the undivided.

What I did when I gave you that healing was to see more of your true undivided light that you are rather than confirming where you thought you were divided within yourself.  All that I spoke of to you was to bring that awareness to you. 

For example, what I said about your son and your relationship to him was to restore your vision of division within yourself about him to more wholeness.  When we are “stuck” or in doubt or in some form of conflict about someone or something, we are divided within ourselves.  We experience as certainty and clarity and lovingness our increasing wholeness – or healing.  

True intuition comes from having certainty in Divinity, in the limitless, timeless, undividedness of Spirit.  Meditation begins with us remembering ourselves that we are spirit.  Prayer begins as we remember God in everything we experience.  With the practice of meditation and prayer, we hone our certainty in the Divine through direct experience and we begin to live a truly intuitive life.  Our path then becomes one of healing and experiencing the wholeness that is Life, that is Truth, that is Divine Love.

I am ever grateful to see your light shining in this world.

With love and laughter,
Michael