TOUCHING

Have you touched anyone today? A few weeks ago, I started to think that I'd like to write an article entitled "Touching". At that time, I had no idea how to go about it, but the title kept parading in my mind. That same week, a friend of mind called me to let me know about a great event that had just happened to her and her family.

Her mother had been hospitalized for some time with very advanced Alzheimer's. She was blind, had lost her speech and was paralized. After her usual weekend visit to her mother, my friend decided to start collecting stories and write her mother's memoirs. She emailed and made phone calls all over the country to her sister, other relatives and friends. She asked them to remember real life events, and with their help she was able to write a few episodes. Then, she went and visited her mother.

What do you do when you visit someone who can neither see, nor talk and is paralyzed? I guess you hold their hand. This is what my friend did. But, this time, as she held her mother's hand, she noticed her mother was touching hers, and was beginning to speak. Her mother, then, made an effort to raise my friend's hand and kissed it. What a surprise. What do you call this event? A miracle?

To me there are at least two kinds of touching: physical, such as holding hands, and non-physical which I call beyond space and time. In this case, the non-physical happened before the physical touch. When my friend started to collect the stories she had no idea what she was going to do with them. She did not consider herself a writer and or a miracle worker. But in the end we are all writers and miracle workers: when the time comes, and the will, and the love, and the necessity.

So what happened during those moments when she was writing her mother's memoirs? What was communicated and how? We do not know. That is the reason why the study of modern science has been very important to me. It has helped me to accept the idea that there is a communication beyond space and time, also known as nonlocal, which is always going on but is, of course, invisible. We are all involved in this communication, because we are the ones that trigger the button, so to speak. Without "us" to trigger this button, so that action is activated beyond space and time, there would be no universe. Our understanding of that communication has to be very limited. We are not on earth to understand all there is. We are here to activate "the button" in accordance with our needs within the illusion of space and time.

Communication beyond space and time is always happening but the individuals involved have to be ready for its manifestation. At the moment my friend started to think about writing her mother's memoirs, something "touched" their minds, and opened up a pandora box which I call forgiveness.

But not everyone is ready to forgive. As a matter of fact, I know professionals who have lost clients because they told them that they needed to forgive. Most people do not want to forgive. They associate forgiveness with "sin". I associate it with mistakes. Since we are all human, we all make mistakes. Now is the time for correction. As a catholic, I used to think that to forgive I'd have to go and face the person that had offended me, and or vice versa. However, after many years of inner search I've learned that to forgive is to remember that we are not separate - love follows. But that can only be done beyond space and time, because our memory is very limited. Somebody in my friend's family had forgotten love: the writing of the memoirs contributed to the remembrance. But who "arranges" all of these encounters? Who told my friend to go and collect episodes of her mother's life? There has to be a channel: what modern science calls an Intelligence, a Liaison, so to sp! eak that tries to unify all things. And what a powerful Intelligence! We all have the potential to help each other, and trigger the button that activates that Intelligence,which many people call God.

Sometimes, when I'm not at my best, I remember that my life has been beautifully orchestrated, and so is yours! You may not realize it now. But wait, for it is just a question of time. Every event comes from a oneness and everything on earth is a symbol of that oneness.

Have you ever seen the famous ballet "Sleeping Beauty"? People go to Lincoln Center, and or to the Bolshoi to see something extraordinary that lasts about 3 hours, and yet comes from a simple, short story of about 1.000 words. And from that simple, short story a mind expanded and wrote beautiful music, and another mind expanded and created a beautiful ballet, and another mind learned how to dance. I think my friend did the same when she wrote her mother's memoirs. One of the stories somehow helped her mother achieve a monumental change in her mental and physical condition to the point that she started moving her hands, talking and may be, even, appreciating life again. Is my friend a miracle worker? Yes, so are you. Do not let words impress you or put you off. Do not allow people to do that to you either. If someone tells you God does not exist, or that there is no such thing as beyond space and time communication, that is where that person is at that stage in his/her lif! e.

There may be several kinds of touching, but we are not touching alone. Jesus, for instance, while he was on earth he "touched" many, and healed many too. Some was absent healing. Today, He is not here, and yet many claimed to be healed by Him. I'm not saying that my friend is Jesus. I'm trying to say that the process is the same. Somehow, we get in touch with a thought system that we all share, and that thought can help us heal. All of us can heal even if one does not believe in God or in an Intelligence, etc. How many non-believers have been healed? They can always say, "Well, it was that medication." In the end, words do not matter. What matters is that the mission was accomplished. We all have a mission while we are here on earth, and that is to remember what we've forgotten.

To forgive, then, we do not have to face anyone but ourselves, because we've all forgotten who we really are. To remember is a monumental task. We cannot do this by ourselves, we need a Helper. That Helper is within all of us (what we call that Helper, it does not matter). That is why when we touch someone we do not touch alone, and we are really touching ourselves - forgiveness is reciprocal. Noone is separate. Forgiveness has to be done beyond space and time, in a realm that we cannot understand in our limited thought system, and very short memory. All we can do is accept this path as a possibility for healing, and hope for the best.

Have you touched anyone today? If you have, remember you also touched yourself.

Article written by Odete Martins Bigote
Copyright 2001
Article available for publication. Please contact author.