Super Hero Therapy

Yesterday, as I pondered my health challenges with trepidation knowing that the temporary relief from the steroid injections I received on 1/25/16 will wear off in a matter of weeks but that I have made significant improvement since adding the hemp oil and that I just need to give my body time to see how much of it will heal, I thought...

...I need an angel.

Immediately an image of Groot came to mind. He stood tall with his right arm-limb in the air boldly bellowing, "FEAR NOT CAROL!"

And I laughed out loud!

Chuckling, I thought, Well Carol, whatever helps.
Groot is the perfect super-hero angel for me.
He's a tree type being.
Trees have limbs.
Groot has the ability to grow vine-like branching networks, similar to my body's networks in its nervous system.

As I continued chuckling with the mental image of my Groot angel-super-hero, he took on a more specific form for my specific situation. His head was in the form of the bud of a certain type plant. His 'angel' wings were shaped like the leaves of the same certain plant and were spread down and around the circumference of his trunk. My Groot-angel is a giant cannabis plant!

And that caused me more chuckles!

This morning as I pondered, with amusement, my current super-hero therapy, I thought, I've never used super heroes as therapy until Mark Watney in The Martian.

Momentary pause.

And then the next thought. Yes you have; you once believed a literal Jesus would appear in the sky and call you heavenward away from this very-mortal world, and you'd have a supernatural body, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, and later a new heaven and earth would appear where there are no more sorrows...

I intend no offense to believers by stating that, for me, that past belief now falls in the category of myth and super-heroes. That's simply where I am currently in regard to that past belief. If it ends up true, I'm fine with that. As long as it happens from a Christian Univeralist interpretation of the Bible.

Btw, I realize Mark Watney isn't a super hero; he's a human in a science fiction story. But he's a hero for me.

~*~

On Thursday, January 29, 2015, I prayed to a tree. A Fraser Fir that resides along the mountainside on the south side of Massie Gap at Grayson Highlands State Park in Virginia.

My prayer was simple, "Heal my limbs."

As I whispered those three words, the sole human standing on the snow-frosted mountainside with the cold winter wind kissing my cheeks, gazing up at that tall, strong, graceful Evergreen, more words immediately followed. "You have limbs. Strong. Durable. Limbs. Heal my limbs."

And I felt that that deep green, grandfatherly Fir heard me.

Since then Trees have become my living witnesses and cheerleaders and teachers.

Heroes indeed.

***

That same Thursday, before I arrived at Massie Gap and before I prayed to Grandfather Fir, I stopped in at Wayne Henderson's luthier shop. His shop and home are at the foot of the mountain, about 6 miles from Grayson Highlands. That visit too was magical and a story for another time.