THE SCALPEL AND THE SOUL

Author: Allan J. Hamilton, M.D., FACS            Published in 2009

THE SCALPEL AND THE SOUL——- Encounters with Surgery, the Supernatural, and the Healing POWER OF HOPE

Extract: P211-213

       So being a patient has taught me to wait. With my whole heart. Endlessly. With no other purpose than to experience waiting. Completely. In its entirety. I can cast myself into patience on a geological scale. I begin to hear the first murmurings of the Universe’s voice. It is truly that of a mother calling out, beckoning to me. The voice is gentle. Sweet. Like music but beyond it. I must hush the beating of my own heart so I can hear the music coming from the stars. And then I do. The softly whisper, “You are our child” At last, they answer: “Yes”. They sing, “You are our beloved. Truly. And forever.”

………. Every major surgery or illness is filled with moments of potential and even actual spiritual transformation. Health-related crisis produce windows of vulnerability and susceptibility. They call into question everything we’ve achieved, pursued, or dreamt. A serious illness engenders a crisis of overwhelming doubt. But it can also become an opportunity for us: a chance for revelation, maybe unlike any other experience of our lives. The hospital can become a place of individual epiphany where both attention and intention can shift in an unsettling way. When life slams us off course, jars us off balance, become most susceptible to the greatest changes from within. When the air is knocked out of us, we grasp the meaning of breathing………