Healing Container of Love
Monday, February 13th, 2012
“For one human being to love another: that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation.” -Rilke
Imagine if we began our relationships with the vow, “I take you as my burden, to have and to hold from this day forward.” Call me jaded, but I think if people understood that committing to love someone over time is agreeing to the most enriching burden you will ever carry, we would leave each other less. We would enter the challenge of relating with our eyes open and be prepared for the serious heavy lifting that love takes. We would not get married expecting it to be a long-term romantic getaway. We would know that our relationships are the most loving chance we have to grow up.
I have written more than 120 articles about touch but have just recently learned its powerful healing effect firsthand. The last several days, I have been wracked with a painful pinched nerve in my upper back that has exhausted me. My best healing practices haven’t been working and the amount of energy that managing the pain has taken up has left me bereft. Last night, even sleep evaded me. The only thing that has provided any relief at all has been the warmth and pressure of my husband’s healing hands.
“The master was unmoved. To all their objections he would say, ‘You have yet to understand that the shortest distance between a human being and Truth is a story.” -Anthony de Mello
