“ Breathe really deep and let it out slow,” I say to my sister Jeanette as we wait in the surgery prep room. We wondered why we were told to get to the hospital two hours before surgery--she waiting in that not-so-attractive hospital gown, anxiety mounting. She crashed an all-terraine vehicle in Mexico on winter vacation. The orthopedic doctor was re-building her arm with bolts and pins a second time after the first emergency surgery when doctors spoke language she and her husband could not understand. “This is just not fun,” I said. She and her husband looked at me and I got a smile from her. “No, this is not fun,” she said.

Somehow we made the crisis easier. Family and friends held a prayer circle for the hours of surgery. It was a success. Flowers poured in. I called other relatives so they may choose to send cards and support my dear sis. In the hospital for several days, I’d bring in drinks and foods she loved. On Saturday night, my sis, her hubby and I put pillows on those hard hospital chairs and gathered around her bed with the lap top to watch movies on DVD. As the IV dripped, she slept mostly. The cocoon of love around her was almost paltibable. She said how different than the surgery in a foreign land.

For my birthday the following month, Jeanette wrote me a poem of thanks, pecking the keyboard with one hand . She wrote “You are always there when I need you. You have always been a sister to treasure. When things go wrong, and they will, it’s good to know a sister is there without fail.”

The most important take-away from this month’s column is this: Sometimes we will face crisis, personally, in family, in nation, or globally. 2005 held way too many national and global crisis. This year may have a few unknowns as well. Many years ago, I began to write out new year’s goals asking Divine guidance “Please, no crisis this year.”

The true meaning of a crisis is that normal life cannot go on. It stops routine. Getting back to routine as soon as possible after crisis is powerful. As well, it helps to call the love, with humility, of the arch angels: Raphael, Michael, Gabriel, and Uriel. Call with respect, if you belief in angels, and ask them to mitigate and heal the crisis. The technique of asking the arch angels for intervention in crisis threads through many different Christian and Judeo heritages. This ritual Joan Borysenko, MD, wrote about decades ago in her book Minding the Body: Mending the Mind.

Jeanette is healing well. It will be a long road for her but she went back to work within a week teaching her high school students. I told her after crisis, to watch for depression, especially self-pity. We visit almost daily and sure enough, she fell one day without her arm to balance and hit a low. “This will pass,” I said to her. “Look to the future and keep visualizing yourself well.” Together we create fun best we are able This month we are off for a five-day vacation with a group of friends. We are consciously creating fun; one of the key strategies of a successful life!

Life is a gift yet we each know of it’s challenges. The ability to make light of the heavy and dark times will ease the weight and grief we sometimes face here in Earth School.

Suzette Scholtes
Suzette Scholtes is founder and Director of Teacher’s Training of the Yoga Studio of Johnson County www.theyogastudio.com. She is author of many national columns and articles as well as published by New Leaf, Atlanta. She has earned over 8000 CEUs in her many studies worldwide. The school is a National Yoga Alliance Teacher’s Training School. The l2-member staff teach classic yoga and related therapeutics to help each person strengthen inner resources for ongoing health, happiness, and quality of life.