A story of healing and love
There was a time when my next door neighbor and I didn’t even speak to each other and went to careful lengths to avoid one another. It wasn’t always like that. When I first moved in, we got along very well. Then I got dogs. I didn’t think they’d care since they always had dogs. However, it seemed that my dogs only wanted to go to the bathroom at the exact point where our yards met – right outside the back porch she had recently added. So, each day when they sat out to eat their lunch on their back porch, they got hit with the stench of my dogs having done their business. No matter how frequently I cleaned it up, it didn’t seem to make a difference. It was a hot summer and it was nauseating to them. There were words said and it just seemed that after that, the pickiness snowballed to the point of not even speaking. I felt alienated and intimidated and resentful all at the same time.
I was just starting to do healings and I remember writing down my affirmations every day for those things I wanted for myself as if they had already happened and one of them was that “I get along well with my neighbors”. Well I didn’t really think that would happen, but I repeated the mantra every day. Then one day, I had to have one of my dear dogs put to sleep. She had several tumors and was suffering. I came home crying and devastated. As I pulled up onto my driveway, I noticed my neighbor out front. I wanted to scream at her and say something like ‘are you happy now – my dog is dead’. I felt so miserable and full of grief. But something magical happened. She asked why I was crying and came over and hugged me. She showed me love and compassion and I instantly responded for I had no other choice, no other thought. I hugged her back and we talked and she sympathized with my loss. And, as we sat and talked about so many things, she mentioned how much back and shoulder pain she was in and how she couldn’t even do her needlepoint that she loved so much anymore. She didn’t know I was a healer at the time and I was shy about it, hesitant with people who weren’t aware of holistic healing, and not fully confident in my own abilities. I asked if I might be able to help her and she allowed me in. I surrounded her with all the love and energy I had in my heart and, right there in her living room, her and I both healed each other and all resentments instantly dissolved.
We remain very close to this day. (I have since created a side yard spot off my back patio where my dogs do their business before letting them run out in the big yard so my neighbors are no longer disturbed by unpleasant smells.) I thanked God for her friendship and support and for reaching out to me and allowing herself to be vulnerable with her physical pain as I was vulnerable with my emotional pain - confirming that love heals all wounds, physical, emotional and spiritual. She now tells others of my healing abilities and passes out my cards and I am grateful to recognize the interconnectedness of all things.
