“Death is but crossing the world, as friends do the seas;
they may live apart, and yet remain in one another still.”
~ inspired by William Penn

 

Frankly, the phrase “s/he’s a healer” gets tossed around far too lightly for my tastes these days … It seems that almost every “New Age guru” out there is making claims about how he or she can bring us “lasting happiness” or “lasting health” or “lasting peace”; all in a world where nothing lasts — nothing at all — ever.

That having been said, there are a few people who seem to have “The Gift of Healing”; people who seem able to transcend the illusory boundaries of science, if not able to extend the mirage-like limits of circumstance to bring Peace to those in great pain.

I think Todd was one of those people …
As much as I dislike using the term, I think Todd was a HEALER.

 

His more obvious healing talents were material ones.  First of all, he was a gifted massage therapist. I’ve received a number of massages over the years, and rarely did I encounter anyone who had what Todd had — the ability to seek & find & soothe & free a body’s deeply hidden wounds … He had what some like to call “the Touch”.

 

Todd also possessed a vast wealth of knowledge related to healing the body via herbs and healthy sustenance — a wealth of knowledge that he shared with others (sometimes quite vehemently) every chance he got.  He was huge advocate of “power foods” — especially those that cleanse the blood (ginger, cilantro & garlic were three of his favorites), and was a vocal champion of everything organic and Earth-friendly … As one of our mutual friends put it, “Todd was green before it was cool to be green”.

Indeed, almost every time we were blessed to spend time together, he would get around to making me one or more of his “Power Smoothies”.  It was always great fun watching him dance his “mad scientist” routine with a blender and whatever herbs & fruits & vegetables were available.  Sometimes I would ask to know the identity and healing properties of a particular ingredient, but most of the time I just trusted him and drank up when he was done. They didn’t always taste fantastic (in fact, I seem to remember him getting great pleasure from watching me suffer through drinking his more unpleasant-tasting concoctions), and yet they did always leaving me feeling really Good & Strong after ingesting them.

 

Of course, as is often the case with any true Healer, Todd’s real gifts were often not quite so obvious, and there is an interesting story that wonderfully illustrates this point …

 

My folks used to have a dog named Homer (pictured below), a cocker-spaniel who was as tall on Heart as he was short on brains. At some point in the late 1990′s it became clear that Homer wasn’t doing so well, and my Mom took him to the vet, where he was diagnosed with cancer. The tumor was apparently pretty big and he wasn’t supposed to live much longer.

It would have been fine to simply love on Homer and help him be as comfortable as possible until he passed (after all, death is not a bad thing, per se), and yet Todd decided to do something different … Todd healed Homer.

 

Now it’s not exactly clear how this occurred, and I think Todd even stated that it was Homer who did the actual Healing (a profound humility that is common to all true Healers), and what is clear is that Todd sat with Homer for days & days on end; feeding him raw Pau D’arco root, petting him gently, talking with him — just Loving on him. Not the wispy “luv ya, buddy — hope you’re doing ok” love that most folks give whenever someone else is in pain. Todd, a true empathy at heart, really Cared that Homer was in pain, and he really, really, really wanted that pain to stop.  And he kept at it — Loving on Homer day after day after day … until the tumor simply went away.

I don’t know how many “bonus years” Homer got from that act of Love … It doesn’t really matter.  And it doesn’t really matter whether or not any of us possess a similar “Gift of Healing”. What I take with me from this memory is the knowledge that Love — real LOVE; the kind of Love where you open up completely & unreservedly to another being in their time of need — always brings Peace …

… and sometimes even brings a Healing.

 

“Death is the dropping of the flower, that the fruit may swell.” ~ Henry Ward Beecher

 

“Death can come at any moment. You could die this afternoon; you could die tomorrow morning; you could die on your way to work; you could die in your sleep. Most of us try to avoid the sense that death can come at any time, but its timing is unknown to us. Can we live each day as if it were our last? Can we relate to one another as if there were no tomorrow?” ~ Joan Halifax

 

Filed under: A Tribute to Todd by Scaughdt