The past two nights the nursing staff in the CCU has allowed me to stay until 11:30pm. This extra hour and half with Kathy has been great for both of us. The CCU is very quiet at that hour and we get a bit of time to hang out. Kathy is very excited for the move to Kessler, so excited that she requested that the nurse put her one way speaking valve on and instructed me to take notes. What I got was a list of specific loose fitting yoga pants and matching tops that she can wear in rehab. I am to bring these tomorrow and hold them up for confirmation that they are in fact the ones that she wants to take!
I want to share an interesting story about Mala beads and a Mala bead workshop that was attended by Kathy and a couple of her friends two weeks prior to Kathy's admittance to the hospital. I do not know very much about Mala beads so I had to do some research before posting this. I have learned that Mala beads are a traditional Hindu / Buddhist tool for aiding in keeping count when reciting a mantra. The story of this particular set of Mala beads is directly from Kathy and was shared with me about four weeks ago, so if I make any mistakes I apologize in advance.
The workshop was on a weekend and took place in Westfield, NJ, so Kathy was away for most of the day. Upon returning home Kathy explained the process of the workshop to me. When they arrived they were instructed to pick 108 beads from a large selection of beads. Three of the beads were to be different (like dividers) and one of the beads, the 109th, was a bit larger and would be placed in the center. Since there were different choices in the beads, attendees were encouraged to pick beads that they felt a connection with. Once the beads were selected they were instructed in assembling the Mala beads into a string of beads. The three different beads each had a specific location in the string (I don't remember how this is determined).
Up to this point there were no details shared about the meaning behind the beads that were selected. The meaning would be the last part to the workshop. Kathy explained to me that the three beads that were different from the others represented her Body, Mind, and Spirit. As I understand it, these three beads also have deeper meaning based on which beads were chosen.
This is where the events of the workshop become compelling. The organizer of this particular workshop individually came to each person to help them understand the meaning behind the beads that they had chosen. For Kathy the Spirit bead meant that she has the spirit of someone who cares for others, the Mind bead meant that she will need to learn to let others care for her, and the Body bead meant that she would soon receive a new body. When Kathy shared this with me, we innocently thought that it meant something totally different. I soon forgot about this and was reminded by Kathy very early in the morning, Sunday March 28th. At the time we were both a little freaked out about this. However, since that time this particular set of beads has never left Kathy's side.
I was reminded of this tonight when I visited with her and saw the beads sitting on the table next to her bed. Whether or not these beads were meant to be used in reciting mantras is debatable. However, the connectedness of all things we see, touch, think and feel is not debatable. Somewhere in this there is a deeper meaning that we have yet to discover.
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