The Healing and Intimate Power of Touch

Image Credit: Zoe

Touch is a powerful connection of communication.

I was reminded of this message about the power of touch when I watched a show on TV last week, where the character, a well-renowned surgeon, had already self-diagnosed himself when he came into the emergency room. He requested a specific doctor who was one of his former med students. One of the things this surgeon taught his students was to be aware of when patients are nearing the end of their life or when many have received a weighty diagnosis and never forget to administer compassion and the human touch. During times like these, people are afraid and feel alone. He told them to hold the patient’s hand in order to comfort them and assure them that they were not alone.

Image Credit: RODNAE Productions

While I understand that doctors have many patients to see, it’s always a good practice to be sensitive and have good bedside manners, by not speaking too clinically but relaying the patient’s condition to them and their families with an ounce of empathy and compassion. I remember having to remind my mother’s doctor of her frosty attitude when mom was having her leg amputated. I took her aside and asked that she up her ante on her compassion quotient and lessen her brash, no-nonsense, hands-off clinical approach when discussing mom’s surgery in front of her because that was my mother, not an animal. I didn’t get into analyzing this doctor’s attitude with her, I simply asked her to be mindful of the way she spoke about my mother’s condition in front of her and us. Maybe that was this doctor’s approach to avoid getting too close to her patients. But, during the rest of my mother’s stay in the hospital, I didn’t have to worry about her doctor’s rigidity after that.

The power of touch, that compassionate and empathetic physical gesture, is something we yearn for when we feel broken and dismayed. Hospitals aren’t the only places to administer such sensitivity and humanness.

Never underestimate the healing power of a gentle touch or a soothing, reassuring tone in your voice. Whether giving someone a hug or holding their hand as they deal with a difficult situation, approach your nonverbal gesticulation with heartfelt kindness. You never know when you will need an empathetic, loving, and caring touch.

Hiatus: We Interrupt our Regularly Scheduled Program

Image Credit: Helena Lopes

Many of us are hitting the pause button for the next several days to take a hiatus from our regularly scheduled writing posts. Now, while this does not mean we have stopped writing by hibernating completely from our writing, art, crafting, or photography, we are simply stepping away to regroup, revamp, and revive.

As we pause from posting, we are taking a moment to heal from the hurts that herald open wounds of pain and focus on restoring our health and well-being. That is important to do year-round, and you don’t need an excuse to do it. So, whatever your reasons are for taking a brief or extended hiatus, relax from the stress, release those signs and chokehold of toxicity, and relate to that inner peace that surpasses all understanding.

HALT – HIATUS – HURL HINDRANCES – HEAL…

your overall health depends on it! 🥳

The Reality of a Dreamer’s Heart

Image Credit: geralt

        You know, sometimes I wonder if things I thought mattered don’t matter anymore. Things like nostalgia don’t matter to many, and as a disposable society, we waste and want more. Things like decency and respect seem to have fallen by the wayside. Things like justice, compassion, hope, love, and morals seems to evaporate faster than a dewdrop in 100-degree temperatures. And so these things seem.

        Yet, on the other hand, I see promise and hope. I see a return to things that didn’t seem important, but after missing them, they are embraced like an old friend. I see things that fell by the wayside are once again picked back up and rescued because chaos and confusion are too great a price to pay. I suppose I am in the boat with John Lennon when he sang, “You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you will join us, and the world will live as one.” And on that same boat, I find a seat next to Michael Jackson as he echoed, “Heal the world, make it a better place, for you, and for me, and the entire human race.”

        These are some tall orders to fill, but we have the ingredients to fill them with. Reality says to me quite clearly that if we believe in the reality within our heart, then all things are possible. This is why I hold on to the threads of hope.

Are We Willing to Heal the World? 🌎

Image Credit: CristianIS

I believe more people than not want to see peace on earth and goodwill towards all men. I believe more people than not want to see justice and humanity abound everywhere. I think more people embrace love and humility than those who are arrogant, divisive, and hateful.

Yet, I often wonder why the few who are narcissistic, diabolical, and treacherous are the ones with the loudest voices, authoritarians who are small in numbers but the scariest we flee from or fall into their death-clenching grips. Are we finding ourselves all too often losing who we are in fear amid the turmoil? Does it feel like history is repeating itself but not in a good way? Can we be brave and fight back?

Can We Heal the World?

What is our sense of common purpose
to stand and watch the world burn
in a cantankerous inferno
and not put out the fires, dousing them with cool water
the reaction to our errors, like an open wound
watching the Goliath’s pouncing on the David’s
dividing people and countries like a deck of cards
or scattered pieces on a board game
will we simply watch the fiasco unfold,
or will we take a stand and help to heal the world?

© Kym Gordon Moore

Recorded in 1991 on his album “Dangerous,” Michael Jackson included this song, “Heal the World.” I invite you to watch this heartwarming video.

Heart of Stone

Who doth stand in the reflection of a broken heart

as pain steals the warmth of a love so deep

I sob in the midst of emptiness sinking fast

woundedness sculpted by stone, so cold and so steep

I crack, I crumble, I rise up in a river of victory

strengthened by peace mending weakness in a major feat

I am exposed holding my heart in the cup of my hand

where it heals as happiness creates an eternal beat.

-Kym Gordon Moore

Rising From the Ashes of 9/11

As we remember the events of September 11, 2001, I hope that as a nation of resilient people, we are stronger, wiser and more unified than we have been. Monumental disasters always test the human spirit and although we don’t forget, we move forward with courage, important lessons that we learned and hope for a brighter tomorrow.

In light of the extremist ramblings from a few citizens in this country, as well as around the world, we must remember that the events that took place on 9/11 didn’t kill us, but made us stronger. We must be mindful not to clump everyone from a particular race, religion, creed, culture or socioeconomic status in one category, due to these particular extremists, because that will continue to be the kindling that reignites the inferno. Other horrific terroristic attacks that took place on our soil, by our own citizens, brought us together to the table of peace as we transcended the brutality. The 1995 Oklahoma City Bombings, the 1921 Black Wall Street Massacre, the countless nationwide school and college shootings, or the daily criminal elements preying on the innocent, are just a few.

“The LORD said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.” Genesis 4:10-11 (New International Version)

We will always find that diabolical element in all sectors of our local, national and global communities, but that doesn’t mean that the people of those communities embrace the extremists among their own. We must understand that many of these masterminds of evil may not be caught, yet their deeds will catch up with them. We must also realize that if we were to assassinate the leaders of radicalism, there are still the “seeds” they planted, continuing to germinate and spread like a weed that we have to contend with. But let us not walk around in fear or as prisoners of our emotions. Neither let us get trigger-happy, nor crucify the innocent as a form of retaliation, because it will only make matters worse. In order to be healed, we must understand with our hearts.

So on this day, we won’t cast aside the importance or side-effects of our memories. But, let us not get trapped in the abyss of hatred, bitterness and depression in spite of our hurt and woundedness. We won’t forget those lives that were lost, or the people never found, because just like the twin towers, they will always be landmarks in our hearts. Although we wish we could, we can’t go back and rewrite the past, but we will celebrate our gift of life, freedom, equality and hopefully wisdom! We strive for world peace, but we must first start with charity in our own homes, communities, municipalities, schools, businesses and worship institutions, before it can resonate internationally.

“Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.”       -Colossians 3:13-15 (King James Version)