Tim Rowe

Posts Tagged ‘Support’

I rarely write anything of a personal nature on this blog, but 2011 was a very important year for me.

Just before Xmas 2010 I received an email from someone who wanted to learn to meditate as they had been diagnosed as terminally ill and wanted something to help with the distress brought on by this.

She had found me on a website where I advertise my services, which I had only had 2 or 3 responses from that had lead to any fruitful interaction.

When I went to see her (she also happened to live only half a mile away from here) I was able to not only teach her to meditate but to employ a couple of trauma reduction techniques I had used over the years in order to take the ‘sting’ out of the moment of diagnosis.

This woman (who I’ll call ‘Jane’) also mentioned that she was ‘not the spiritual one, but my husband is’. I was introduced to ‘Tom’ – a Glaswegian with whom I found I had several things in common: we had both been, or were currently, songwriters – and we were both massive Steely Dan fans.

We also both found The Gospel of Thomas to be personally meaningful.

The couple mentioned that although they had lived in the area for several years, they hardly knew anyone – partly because they hadn’t met anyone of a like mind.

I mentioned that my wife and I used to host support groups based on Universal Principles and would they be interested in participating? They said that they certainly would.

I mentioned the idea to an Osteopath friend of mine ‘Cathy’, who also seemed keen on the idea as was her partner, ‘John’- who joined the group a little later on. He was shortly followed by an Astrologer friend of ours, ‘Lucy’.

We started meeting on a weekly basis and, over the months many synchronistic events occurred – too numerous to mention here.

One day, I had a phone call from Cathy, saying that her daughter had committed suicide.

The next few months were, as you can imagine, very intense. Jane’s condition was rapidly worsening, and both Cath and John were dealing with the grief – not only around the death of their daughter, but the awful circumstances that had come to light which preceded that event.

The group continued to meet on a weekly basis – even later in the year when Jane went into a local Hospice for a while.

I think that everyone, including myself, was forced into a postion of surrender – because of the utter powerlessness they felt around the whole situation. Any traces of ‘fix it’ tendencies that remained among the healers among us were soon extinguished as we surrendered each moment to What Is.

I think I learned two main lessons: One is that all the healing teachniques I had learned over the years were rendered useless and palled by comparison to Presence. Simply Being. The other was a deep sense of humility: there were times when I was sitting around Jane’s bed when I felt that I was sitting at the feet of the Buddha, and that were are all indeed both students and teachers.

Although people percieved me as the leader of the group, it took me many months to actually accept that role, and to reassess what I think ‘leadership’ means.

Jane passed on a few days before Xmas. And although there was a sense of loss, there was also one of relief and release. A few of the group, including myself had brief ‘visits’ from Jane, reassuring us that all was indeed well.

2012 is going to be the beginning of a new chapter – not only for myself, but for the world – particularly from the end of May.

I rarely give advice, but on this occasion I will: Go within regularly – contact your Soul in whichever way works for you. Surround yourself with true friends and companions and commune with them on a regular basis. Be flexible, and travel light.