Loving Care

This is a short essay on the topic of the nature of healing, of caring, of well being and something which has made me think. It has made me think of many things, including how it might come about that so many people feel unloved in a deep and profound sense; it has made me think of energy healing and many other things beside. First of all, I need to show you this picture:

This is a baby orang utang, perhaps a year old, perhaps a little older.

It is very sick.

It had an adverse reaction to a medication and its systems began to shut down in response.

The monkey is fighting for its little life in this photograph.

Unlike human children, orang utang babies are always held and carried. They are sensitive creatures who will respond to being left with non-understanding and with panic and this is known to the human staff who care for them.

So unlike human babies who get put into cots on their backs when they're sick, this little monkey has a carer who holds it in his arms and sits with it - not for an hour or so, but for hours upon hours upon hours.

This is not an exercise to pacify the monkey baby enough so it can be left as soon as possible.

This is a non-negotiable necessity without which the monkey baby's chances of survival drop like a brick.

I love this photograph.

The carer in question is a man, and a tough looking one at that. I am glad that's he is a man because if this was a woman, we could dismiss the whole interaction so easily as being just one of those hormonal, hard wired "mothering" things we can ignore as unimportant ...

That he is a real man is the first striking impression, and the next is the sincerity in which this "caring" is taking place.

This is not a "stiff upper lipped pat on the back" for the little monkey, or an uncomfortable "well it has to be done so let's get it over with" contact.

He is loving and protecting it and not just that, he is also cheering the healing on much like an entire football stadium of fans would cheer their team and will them on to win.

There are so many obvious and positive benefits happening here for our baby monkey.

The carer is keeping it warm, so that's one thing the injured system doesn't have to worry about now and can use this energy to power further repairs.

He is keeping it safe, so the levels of stress or fear of predators and the environment in general that the monkey would experience if it was left on its own are simply absent - freeing yet more energy towards the healing processes.

His beating heart is providing a steady pulse - a time keeping device that is more than comfort, something for the monkey to orientate to, and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Imagine for a moment, if you would, that you could actually *see* the energy systems of both the gentleman and the little monkey in his arms.

Isn't it extraordinary?

So many things are happening here, and not just for the sick monkey, one might add.

Personally, I don't remember ever having been held like that.

Personally, I wish I had and some part of me wants to be held and cared for like that, right now.

It's just not the same, having a sick person of any age lying on their backs in a hospital bad and holding their hand once in a while, or fluffing their pillows, is it.

I wonder what research would reveal about recovery and healing in general if someone came along and held you like that, just for an hour or two. Actually, and to be honest, I don't wonder. I know already what such a study would reveal, and so does anyone else who has any sense at all.

I added a picture "spot the sick baby" above which I found on the web. Technology is all good and well but sometimes I just wish from the bottom of my heart that a deeper knowledge would arise within folk to temper it. An older knowledge, profound in its power to change lives and to heal.

And for those amongst us who know about EmoTrance, here is the image one more time.

Where do you feel it in your body?

Soften, and flow ...

•  Carer/monkey images from "Monkey World", Animal Planet

• The little monkey survived its illness.

• Article by SFX April 2007.

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