I was sitting in church today (yeah! freaked me out too! but my friends’ daughter’s first communion was an irresistible draw) pondering how much of a germ incubator the church was—didn’t the vice president say not to congregate in enclosed spaces?--when I recalled having asked my mom (as a child, in church—get the connection?) why our town’s doctor never got sick; there he was, every Sunday, sitting in the same place. And my mom whispered (because we were in church), “He washes his hands a lot. See how white they are?” thus beginning my lifelong habit of—thank god not compulsive, but certainly vigilant—hand-washing.
Anyway. He did wash his hands between patients--my best friend asked him. But I don’t think my mom completely nailed it. In retrospect, I bet it was also the doctor’s sense of personal immunity, his sense of responsibility for, and imagined immunological superiority to, the sick public. What I’m saying is, I believe it was his state of mind.
During times when I haven't gotten enough sleep, and haven't eaten much, or at all, because I thought I was falling in...love...or working on an amazing project...I didn't come down with a cold. I was in radiant GOOD health, despite the no-eating, no-sleeping. But during the times in my life when I didn't get enough sleep or eat well because I was overworking (granted, not often), or experiencing frustrating travel delays, I came down with a cold. At some point I read statistics that support my experience: people who are falling in love have enhanced immunity. You can break all the other rules, because: you’re falling in love! If you are inclined to research, look it up! With my yogic perspective I now know that I can create my own inner state; there doesn't have to be an external object of my affection.
So in this time of fear—an epidemic! Google it!—what if…yes, another "what if"…but WHAT IF we decided, as individuals and as a collective One Love, to super-enhance our immune systems by Living in Love, living fearlessly? By expanding into a greater sense of ourselves as the Divine Creators that we all are. Let’s enhance our immune systems, definitely. Do an intestinal cleanse. Take a probiotic. Let’s enhance our physical immune systems, but let’s also enhance our BELIEF that we are immune, that we don’t need to succumb to fear, that we are FREE people, empowered people, not potential victims.
So. Communion: people are lining up, and I can't help but think, “These folks sure don’t seem to be afraid of swine flu!” as hundreds of people sip wine out of the same cup, the chalice being wiped "clean" by a cloth that is surely becoming germier by the minute. And I imagined that for God’s people, taking communion outweighed any fear of epidemics. It was a Saturday morning celebration OF communion, so you could hardly sit this one out—I mean, I did, but not due to germs. However I feel about Communion, I’ve gotta love that their FAITH in a Divine Presence outweighed fear of an epidemic, and I do like to imagine that it’s that kind of inner faith that is what we are meant to summon during this time of panic, that the point of Swine Flu is to urge us to WAKE UP! Wake up to the idea that we are not potential victims. Wake up to the Divine Presence.
Can we?
Some people get sick, and some don’t. I have reason to believe that people who Live in Love, people who are not afraid of INVISIBLE threats, people who have a heightened sense of responsibility to humankind, will thrive. A clean and healthy digestive tract is more effective than a controversial, hurriedly mass-produced vaccine. And clean and healthy thoughts are more effective for immunity than toxic, mass-disseminated, fear-based ones.
Some people get sick, and some don’t. I have reason to believe that people who Live in Love, people who are not afraid of INVISIBLE threats, people who have a heightened sense of responsibility to humankind, will thrive. A clean and healthy digestive tract is more effective than a controversial, hurriedly mass-produced vaccine. And clean and healthy thoughts are more effective for immunity than toxic, mass-disseminated, fear-based ones.
