Smoking
More Healing Tales
Grace came to me in March of 1998, a soft-spoken, middle-aged woman with an honest face, hobbling doggedly along. The doctor had told Grace that she had a little tear in her knee and, if it did not heal, she would need surgery. She had had surgery on the other knee in 1996. I saw no reason why, with the help of Grace, we should not heal a small tear in a knee. Why should Grace have this tear? We were not asking for an infinite amount of healing, just enough to help with a small tear. Was this not a reasonable request?
Her pain troubled her mainly when she rose from sitting - it was not bad when she had been walking awhile. During our first session, we played with a transition between standing and walking - the game was to move, but not to go anywhere. Give yourself something different that is not standing and is not walking.
Then the game was to pretend that she was a little girl holding a balloon going to a birthday party in a park, and to be happy and walking in a happy, silly way - but nobody thinks it looks bad. It's a nice silly. "I feel that you're going to find a new way to walk and I don't know what it will be and you don't know what it will be, but the little girl is very wise and knows much more than either one of us, and will help you find a new way to walk." At some point, Grace was walking entirely differently. "Grace, you're going to have a whole new walk!"
During a follow-up session on a Sunday a few weeks later, Grace said that she did not have pain in her knee any more when she rose from sitting to walking. There had been pain since 1996 and now, for the last two weeks, there was no pain.
Grace's other knee that had had surgery was now fine, but right after that surgery, her left knee started to hurt. She felt she had overcompensated on that side. Well, what a wonderful, sympathetic knee she had! It could take on what was going on in the other knee. It was ABLE to do what the other knee could do. And now, the other knee was fine. It had been hurt, but now it was all better. And this knee knew how to take on what was going on in the other knee.
As I performed Therapeutic Touch on Grace, inducing a relaxed, comfortable state open to healing suggestions, I asked her to pretend that her right knee, the one that no longer hurt, was the big sister, and the little sister, the left knee, LOVED her big sister, and looked up to her, and watched her VERY CAREFULLY, and learned to do what she did.
The big sister stole six BIG cookies, and so did the little sister. They both got stomachaches. The big sister saw this and realized that she was a role model for her little sister. She started doing healthier things. Next time she only stole ONE cookie, and didn't get sick. She began eating better food, and the little sister watched and learned.
The big sister was a wonderful seamstress. She made dresses and repaired things with little rips or tears, and the little sister wanted to do this to. To learn to make a beautiful dress! To learn to repair a tear that would spoil a beautiful dress! She watched, and slowly began to learn.
We came to an end and Grace lay down to absorb the session. In the days to come, she diligently did homework, playing the game with the two sister knees. One Saturday, Grace was walking along and her knee-pain was so bad, it made her cry, and she was a stoic woman who had learned to hold in her tears and not complain. After this, the pain in her knee went away and did not return. Years passed and she walked fine and did not need surgery.