My Prince’s Gift: “Touch someone.”
~typed anticipating the tears will start soon~ This particular “gift” from Prince I got very early in the day.
It’s brought up a lot for me; in many ways, more so than any other gift from Prince.
This lesson isn’t just about physical touch; it includes mental, emotional, and spiritual touch. Did you know that as a general rule, that as healers and humans, we “receive” energy from others through our left hand; we “send” energy through our right? I don’t know if it’s the same if you’re left-handed; I do believe it is, though.
While the custom of shaking hands supposedly originated from showing the other they were safe; the gun hand wasn’t occupied … if you think of hand-shaking in terms of energy, we are sharing and sending energy to the other when we shake hands. I’m sure that we also take in energy even though we’re using our right hands.
I’ve been told by a number of people, many healers I have the highest respect for, that I have incredibly “healing hands”. Since people I know and have touched have told me this as well; and ~grins~ it wasn’t just some guy line, I believe it. I hadn’t thought of this until now; it’s likely why I’m somewhat particular who I physically touch for any extended period of time. It’s also likely why I’m drawn to touch people and other living beings; plus likely why I’m encouraged by some beings to touch them. Such as Prince has been doing more and more.
~takes a long slow deep breath~ It’s intriguing how Prince has been hungering for my physical touch. My sense now is that the energy exchange between he and is helping to awaken some other element of my healing abilities. He certainly has lived weeks and weeks longer than best estimates due to the combination of the anemia on top of the stomach cancer which had spread at least to lymph nodes.
Prince didn’t always want to be touched. It took a long time for him to be comfortable with it, even from the other dogs. My original “Dachshund Mafia” were all related, and definitely were snugglers as pack animals can be. Prince used to come visit from Benny’s (www.Dachshund-Rescue.org) for me to work on his socialization skills. We started with an hour or so, at first. Over time, he would stay longer amounts of time, which came to include overnight stays. For months, when he came to visit, we’d sleep on the wonderful chaise I had as my cats would stay in my bedroom when he came to visit. As they died off, Prince started sleeping in the big bed with me, and whoever joined up from the Dachshund Mafia.
I still remember it was October after he had been coming over for almost two years, or thereabouts, when one night Prince finally got that “bedtime hands mean loving hands”. Prior to that time, I had to watch how I touched Prince while in bed, or I might get a warning and/or warning bite. Tears come to my eyes every time I recall this experience as I can still recall how wounded he was.
I can still feel how his body relaxed and softened under my touch. Who knows what his experiences were before he came to rescue. Karen often reminds me that when it comes to humans, “hurt people, hurt people”. I imagine that can be true of animals as well. Not that most mean to hurt others; it’s just the strategy they’ve developed to provide safety for themselves.
In the past two-plus months, I’ve spent countless and increasing hours stroking Prince. Lately, it’s begun to remind me of how I longed for gentle connecting touch as a child. I spend the first two months of my time in an orphanage, where there were two nuns taking care of 45 or so infants. Not a lot of touch in my early months.
My mom and long-term family friends have shared how I often would push mom or people away when I didn’t want touch. Perhaps it’s like Prince, I was scared to come to expect it, or not be able to control when someone touched me. It was pointed out to me that Prince seems to be like this, as well. He wants me to support him … in the way he wants to be supported, that includes touched when he wants it.
Awwww, as I’m typing this, he rolled over on his back, than his other side and is stretching out. The touching Prince seems to crave reminds me of how I adored it when my mom would rub my temples when I was sick and/or upset. It wasn’t something she did often, which perhaps made it more of a treat. Yet why do we, or why do I only have to have physical loving healing touch as a treat, instead of as part of my every day life?
Hmmm, perhaps that’s the crux of today’s lesson for me. I hereby affirm that I will have a life, soon, in which I give and receive loving healing touch with beings I enjoy connecting with. This takes into account that more than likely, we’ll be bringing in another Dachshund as a companion for Missy after Blaze dies, as she will have lost four Dachshund family members in likely less than a year.
A few more points on “touch someone”. We can also touch others mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. To me, the best relationships, and this applies to any living beings, include all elements: physical, mental, emotional, and especially spiritual.
Who has had the experience of doing something small for someone else, and discovering how we’ve affected another being so far beyond what we would have thought would be appropriate? We never know when we’ll touch someone else, and in what way.
Sometimes the best way we can touch someone is to practice “tough love”; and let someone be on their own path, especially if their path is inconsistent with respecting ourselves. What’s often interesting is to see the “ripple effect” of our actions, combined with our words.
We can “touch someone” by standing for ourselves, and acting as a beacon to others to do the same, for themselves. I have a number of friends who have long-term chronic illnesses and/or injuries which leave them often homebound. I’ve watched a dynamic with myself, when ill, with how people stop reaching out, stop asking how you are, likely because they feel powerless when they hear you’re still not feeling well. It’s also likely we are wrestling with our own fears and judgments of feeling as if our bodies are betraying us; highly likely this results in us isolating or withdrawing as well as pushing people away.
We don’t want to be alone; yet likely wrestle with our fears and demons. I know of a number of friends who are all alone, and wonder if anyone cares about them, or would miss them if they were gone. Here’s my challenge to whoever is inspired to participate .. find a way to “touch someone” in a way that pushes a bit beyond your own comfort zone. Share your own fears. Perhaps you have a friend who is homebound.
Make a commitment to reach out regularly. If you feel uncomfortable asking how they are and hearing what seems to be the same thing, over and over; reach out and “touch” that person mentally and/or emotionally and share what’s coming up for you. For me, one element of my spiritual shifts is music.
While writing this post, I listened again to the playlist I posted in a Note previously which I created when I was grieving the news that Prince had stomach cancer, and was going to die years sooner than I hoped I’d lose him. The one song I really resonated with today is “Do What You Have To Do” by Sarah MacLachlan; lyrics here. These lyrics stand out tonight: “I don’t know how to let you go every moment marked with apparitions of your soul I’m ever swiftly moving trying to escape this desire the yearning to be near you I do what I have to do”.0
I told Prince he is free to go when it’s right for him, even though I will be sad. Yet, for now, it’s clear he is not done touching my soul. <3 <3
