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Thursday, March 3, 2016. I have found another essay written by Prentice Mulford 127 years ago in his book – Thoughts Are Things (mentioned in my recent post)– that I like very much.
Mulford wrote hundreds of essays. He would have made a terrific blogger in today’s world! However, his words written on paper have survived into this future while I doubt many bloggers will be able to have that happen to their words. We write in an invisible world, one that I suspect Mulford certainly was guessing about during his lifetime.
I find it delightful to take some of Mulford’s words off of paper and place them here in this post today. I think this would make him chuckle. He appears to have been that kind of practical man! Here he reminds us of the organic nature of being alive, and of the value of the seasons whose processes we cannot escape, even if we should want to.
And most of all in this chapter Mulford reminds us to be GENTLE and KIND to ourselves! Sounds like self-care and self-soothing to me!
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From Muldord’s chapter, The Healing and Renewing Force of Spring —
“Your body is acted on in its growth and changes by the same laws and elements which govern the growth and enter into all other organized bodies, such as trees, plants, birds, and animals.
“In the early spring of every year, there comes and acts on this planet a force from the sun which affects all organized forms of life – trees, birds, animals, and, above all, man. Man’s being the highest, most complicated, and most powerful mental organism on the planet, absorbs the most of this power and will absorb far more in the future, and to far greater advantage than at present, as he learns to place himself in the best states to receive it.
“This force causes the increased movement and circulation of sap in the trees, which commences as soon as the sun of the new year acts on them. The sap is a new life to the tree, from which later comes its buds, blossoms, and fruitage. The inflowing of this unseen sun-force gives the tree power to draw new supplies of nourishing elements through its roots from the earth. It gives it power also to cast off any dead leaves remaining of the last year’s crop which have hung on during the winter, as you may see in forests of oak or hickory.
“This force acts also in the later winter and earlier spring months on animals and birds, especially if in their wild or natural state, causing them to shed their last year’s coats of fur or feathers. But this casting off of old visible matter is but a relatively small part of the change going on within them. There is also a casting out or shedding of old invisible matter throughout the bird or animal’s entire body. It goes off through the pores or other passages in various forms, some visible, others invisible, and is succeeded by new elements within, as the new fur, hair or feather is grown without.
“Your body is governed by the same law. During the later winter and earlier spring months, you are “moulting.” You are casting off old, dead matter, and taking in new, providing you give this force opportunity to act on you to the best advantage, by ceasing to be active either with mind or body when they call for rest, as do birds and animals during their moulting period, or process of casting off the old elements and receiving the new.
“The Indian called February and March the “weak months,” recognizing, as he did, being a closer observer of nature than we, the tendency to sluggishness and inactivity in animal and man, which always prevails when this power is recuperating, and renewing any organized body.
“The most perfect crystallizations out of mineral element come of the solution kept most free from agitation. Your body is governed by the same law in this spring renewing and recrystallizations of it elements. To receive thee fullest benefit of the healing and renewing element of spring, you should rest whenever you feel like resting, whether it be the middle of the day or the middle of the night. If you keep the body or mind at work against their inclination – if you force your muscles to exertion through mere strength or will – if you work with either mind or body to the verge of utter exhaustion, not knowing how depleted you are of strength until your work is over, as thousands on thousands do and are compelled to do, through our unnatural system of life and the arbitrary demands of “business,” you prevent this healing and recuperative power from acting to its fullest extent on the body. You prevent the new element, which is renewing the tree and causing the buds to swell, from assimilating with your body. You hold on to worn-out element which should be cast off as the oak has cast all its dead leaves before the winter is over; you carry, then, this dead element, a “dead weight,” about with you, instead of the new and upward rising life….
“If you will but entertain this idea of spring’s renewing force respectfully, though you cannot believe it thoroughly at first, you will receive much help by such respectful entertainment; for if you do not kick a live truth out of your mind when it first presents itself, it will take root and live there, and prove itself by doing you good.
“In the kingdom of nature, we find periods of rest constantly alternating with periods of activity. Trees rest during the winter. The circulation of sap is sluggish. There is no creation of leaf, blossom or fruit. Wild birds and animals after the summer breeding season, do little save eat and sleep. Some animals and reptiles sleep during the entire winter. Even soil must rest to bring the best crop…. When man recognizes the fact that he cannot use his body year after year, from the budding strength of youth to the age of forty or fifty under such a full, unceasing pressure of nerve or will power without great injury, and when he does recognize the fact that through placing himself oftener in restful and receptive states, as do tree, bird, and animal in their natural state, he will then, through receiving far more of this element, enjoy a far greater health of body, elasticity of muscle, vigor and brilliancy of mind. He would also have other senses and powers awakened within him, whose existence is still doubted by most people.
“Possibly you say, “But how can I carry on my business and earn my bread if I so lay my body up for nature’s repairs?” We answer, “The laws of man’s business are not the laws of nature. If nature says ‘Rest,’ and man says ‘Work,’ and will work or must work, man always gets the worst of it.
“If you are in conditions of life where at present it is impossible to give yourself needed rest and you feel thoroughly the need of such rest, you may rely upon it that your persistent desire, your prayer, your imperious demand that you shall have opportunity to receive and profit by nature’s restoring forces, will bring you in some way the opportunity to so profit by them. When any need is thoroughly felt, the thought and desire coming of such feeling is itself a prayer – a force which will bring you help and take you out of injurious surroundings and modes of life. We repeat this assertion often. It needs frequent repetition. It is the mainspring of all growth and advance into a happier and more healthful life….” (Thoughts Are Things, pages 87-95)
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Story Without Words: How Did Child Abuse Break My Mother?
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Tags: adult attachment disorders, adult reactive attachment disorder, anxiety disorders,borderline mother, borderline personality disorder, brain development, child abuse,depression,derealization, disorganized disoriented insecure attachment disorder,dissociation,dissociative identity disorder, empathy, infant abuse, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD),protective factors, PTSD, resiliency, resiliency factors, risk factors, shame
Stop the Storm 