We are more connected than we believe

I sent a telepathic message to Oprah through my Facebook Status to please do some better shows before her last season is over and…she answered!

Wednesday’s episode, “Do you Believe in Miracles,” may seem a little out there, but I was inspired. Millions are flocking to a tiny Brazilian village to be healed by a farmer with no medical training and little education. Is he performing miracles? She got firsthand accounts from skeptics and believers.

(I thought Oprah was also looking especially pretty in peach). 

Dr. Jeff Rediger is a psychiatrist who traveled to the Casa seven years ago as a skeptic.  He has since said the trip “turned his life upside down.” I thought his summary was considerably meaningful.

He said, “In short, we all matter far more than we typically have a clue about. And love is what is real.We tend to believe in what we can see and touch and believe that the world as it appears to be is the real world. On the basis of my experience, I’ve come to believe that reality is both revealed and concealed by the world we see with our eyes and that none of us are who we appear to be.”

Dr. Rediger went on to say, “…There is something unrepeatable and good about who we are.There is something mysterious about being human. I believe that our suffering comes in some way from not ‘getting it’ about the dignity and goodness of what our individual life means. And I believe that we also often may feel alone, but we’re not alone in any way like we believe we are. I think we are more connected than we believe. I feel like there’s a dignity and goodness to what we bring into the world and the point of our lives somehow is to begin to ‘get it’ about that.”

And that, my friends, is why I do THIS.

This blog, this writing, this sharing–all for the sake of connecting and spreading the goodness in the world.

Hearing people say my words are meaningful and inspiring and helpful is a miracle.

My miracle.

A line from the old Beck song, “Loser,” always stands out in my mind: “You can’t write if you can’t relate.”

In writing, I am trying to relate to anyone and everyone in an effort to feel connected to the universe. I think that feeling connected and loved is a large part of finding happiness which explains why people love social networking sites like Facebook. Since starting this quest of writing, sharing and connecting on a daily basis through this blog I have never been happier.

Finally, Dr. Rediger’s best summary of what he learned from his experience:

“Perhaps the real heart within us is not just a pump,” he says. “Perhaps the real heart within us is about love and faith. Perhaps the physical body is not who we really are. Perhaps we are these invisible souls walking around, and the body is just an instrument or metaphor for something we are trying to learn.”

Coming from a doctor, I find this quite refreshing.

This post wouldn’t be complete without a little pop culture. In last Thursday’s Grey’s Anatomy episode, “Something’s Gotta Give,”  Meredith ended with one of her sometimes cheesy, sometimes wise voice overs. I thought this one was particularly insightful:

“Every pressurized system needs a relief valve. There has to be a way to reduce the stress; the tension before it becomes too much to bear. There has to be a way to find relief, because if the pressure doesn’t find a way out it’ll make one. It will explode. It’s the pressure we put on ourselves that’s the hardest to bear. The pressure to be better than we are. The pressure to be better than we think we can be. It never, ever lets up. It just builds and builds and builds.”

My relief valve is writing, sharing, connecting, loving, helping.

Without it the anxiety, the pressure, the quest for perfection, become too much.

(The pressure to be better than we are. The pressure to be better than we think we can be.)

What is your relief valve?

What are you doing to stop the pressure?

What is your miracle?