Our Lady Mary....The Wise Woman
I found myself contemplating gratitude this entire week, the first week of a new year.
My mother has completed the sixth week in her first, (and hopefully the only one necessary), series of cancer treatments. It’s gotten more challenging for her. The radiation has made her esophagus particularly sore and she’s had difficulty eating.
But the end of the treatment is a light just ahead. As soon as the harshness of the treatment subsides, a patient usually begins to feel much better.
I am thankful the end of this treatment is near and for the hope that such aggressive treatment offers in terms of extending her life.
I’m thankful too for my own health, for a new job, for health care benefits that my new job offers me that will actually materialize after a reasonable waiting period, and also for the yoga classes that are sponsored by my employer.
In my yoga practice, I have dedicated my breath to my mother; I breathe in cleansing oxygen and exhale that which no longer serves me.
(I visualize inhaling energy and then exhaling the shattered bits of cancer cells.)
The Wise Woman resides in the sixth chakra, the brow of the head. It’s easy to image just the intellectual aspect. But wisdom also seems to have an effortless quality.
The picture in the prayer card is Gustav Klimpt’s painting, Pallas Athena. I’ve always loved this vision of Athena; she has a detached serenity.
Detachment is the operative word. There is so much I cannot control. Wisdom is being thankful for what I have, but also to continually cultivate that quality of not being too attached to outcomes.
So, this week I offer you a message… consider the wisdom in detached gratitude.
