Lord Have Mercy: Part 1

As Mary Poppins sang, “ Let’s start at the very beginning”  

When I visited Mercy House to see what the rooms were like, the room they showed me bore no resemblance to the room I was assigned.  

The room where I was to spend the six weeks of my treatment was somewhat akin to a a prison cell.  It was a large room.  It had two twin beds with a small nightstand between, two chairs and a small refrigerator.  There was a very small sink next to the bathroom which contained a toilet and shower.  Above the sink is a tiny mirror that only allows one to see their face, that is if you stand on tip toe.  Everything is grey in color except the sink and toilet which are white.  There is a large window which faces a plain wall and if you looked out to the very far left you could see a small patch of the sky.  There was a small lamp and a harsh overhead light.  A single picture on the wall. The word dreary comes to mind.

My home for six weeks.  As I mentioned, it bore very little resemblance to the room they had shown me the week before.  But, it was clean.  It was quite large and it was, most importantly, temporary.  

Have you ever noticed that temporary gets us through?  I myself, can do almost anything for a short period of time and as I like to do in most situations, I vowed to make the best of the circumstances I found myself in.

So, I settled in.  The bed had a brand new mattress and was comfortable.  See, it was getting better already. The closet was a walk in with room to hang about 3 garments. Hilarious!  Were they kidding?  It was very odd.

A short way down the hall was the chapel.  It stood in sharp contrast to my room.  It was floored and walled in light salmon colored marble and the windows on one side were depictions of the stations of the cross while the other side was a modern stained glass affair.  The ceiling was at least 2 stories high.  There was a lot of gold leaf. I addition were the obligatory statues of Mary and Joseph as well as Jesus on a crucifix.  You could not miss that it was a Catholic chapel.

Yet it was silent and I found peace within its walls.  So, I spend a little time there each day.  It was a peaceful and wonderful place for mediation.  So I practiced my own spirituality within its walls.

When I had spent the week in the hospital following my steroid induced illness, there was a nun, Sister Mary, who had come to visit me.  It was one of the few clear memories I had of my time in the hospital.  She visited once.  I know she was not a figment of my imagination as my sister met her as well.  I have spent a lot of my time trying to locate her.  She left an impression on me.  

She was at least my age and was a bit shy.  She had not wanted to bother me or intrude.  I had asked her to pray for me and the transformation was remarkable.  Her voice changed, she stood tall and was, dare I say it, jubilant that I had asked.  She giggled and said she was delighted to pray. She prayed a stunning prayer in a clear strong voice.

But perhaps she had been an ethereal being because I cannot locate her.  My sister and I have searched for her and I had asked one of the ministers about her and was given a phone number, but we cannot find her.

Who we did meet was Sister Elisabeth.  She too is a Vietnamese nun.  We have come in contact with her many times and have become well acquainted.  She came to our room to visit with me and my sister.  

The first synchronicity was that I live in Carthage, Missouri. not only that, I live catty cornered to a Vietnamese Catholic Church, where sister Elizabeth comes every year for what are known as Marion Days.  Our town adds 100,000 people to our 15,000 population during this festival.  Each year we have people camping in our yard and even had a lay minister and his wife stayed in our spare bedroom during this time.  She was delighted to find out I lived across the street from this several acre property.  She invited me to go to the chapel there as many people had been healed.  I plan to go as soon as I am released.  Apparently the chapel is open 24/7.  She told me to tell the people there that I know her.  She is well acquainted with everyone there.  No one needs worry that I will embrace Catholicism.  But with all the synchronicity I have encountered I feel I should check it out.

When sister Elizabeth visited our room,  She had such an odd look when she came in.  She sat and talked for a few minutes and then she said to me, “Do you know that this room is the nun’s quarters at Mercy House?”  She told me she had spent a lot of time visiting sisters who had stayed here while receiving treatment in the hospital. She kept looking at me so strangely as if she was trying to figure out why I had been assigned this room.

I don’t believe in accidents. I have had this space for a purpose.  Having no outer decoration to look at, I have for the time I have been in this room, had to turn within.  The walls have acted as my mind screen.  There were no distractions and I often found myself in the chambers of my mind.  Really, the only place where healing can occur.  It is so very easy to practice Translation® when there are no distractions.  So I had.  My “nuns quarters” had become my sanctuary. The simplicity of the quarters had allowed me to practice without distraction.  

I think sister Elizabeth had sensed that I was there for a reason.  I could feel it in the way she kept looking at me and trying to understand why I was in the nuns quarters.  Apparently that is not a usual occurrence.  Imagine that…

All the time I have spent in the chambers of my mind have had interesting results.  First, both of my doctors are astounded (I do not use that word casually) that I have had very few side effects from the radiation and the chemo drugs I have taken with the radiation.  Yet the daily X-ray they take in my positioning has shown the tumor has clearly been reducing in size from the treatment.  Both my doctors are grinning about my results.  

This is hardly the only experience I have had in these last weeks.  I have more to share and I shall over the next several weeks.  Every day has been a journey of awareness that I want to share for those who are interested.  What a long strange trip it has been.  Aloha.