I volunteer at a Montreal hospital. Yesterday, in the Orthopedics ward, Diana, a young woman in a leg cast, asked to be wheeled outside for some fresh air. The real reason: wanting a cigarette. On the hospital grounds, another young woman, also in a wheelchair, spoke to her as they shared a smoke. She had jumped from her third floor apartment and ended up with multiple injuries.
This is when I discovered how Diana had broken her leg and pelvis. She, too, had tried to end it all by jumping – only from a bridge.
Both these patients are receiving psychological counseling.
But how many people in this time of job losses, debt, foreclosures and relationship breakups are increasingly overwhelmed? Too many feel they are only one step away from disaster. It’s important to ask for help, whether from others or in the form of a heart-felt prayer. How can it be wrong to ask for support, when we are part of the human family, connected to each other through our hearts?
We are heading for what many prophesized as “the end times” in December 2012. I believe this signifies a shift of consciousness and not the end of our world. It’s about our ability to choose love and peace over fear, hatred and war. Most of us now want a saner, more harmonious planet where life is revered and not destroyed.
It begins and ends with US – how we choose to feel and act towards one another. And what we focus our attention on.
May all of us who want these changes emerge into a glorious new dawn!
