Learning as Self-Care With 3 Stories Featuring Maria Talamantez and Sister Athenasius
As we grow up and experience adolescence, or adulthood, many of us leave our religious beliefs behind. Or maybe we never had a childhood religion to leave behind. This can create the experience of having no beliefs at all.
Mother sent me as a young child to local Vacation Bible Schools every summer. That meant I spent a week each with Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Baptists, and the Church of Christers when I was quite young. The Catholics didn’t have Vacation Bible School and I never quite understood why.
I absorbed different things taught by different Christian Sunday School teachers in an unsophisticated format intended for preschool and elementary school children.
Elementary school influenced my religious beliefs, but not how you might think. This was the American Bible Belt in the early 1950’s. In the classroom each morning, right after reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, a student recited a prayer.
For some of my classmates, this experience may not have been so bad. For others, it was excruciating.
Standing in front of the class is hard on a lot of little kids. Standing in front of the class and reciting a prayer can be excruciating, especially if they don’t really know a prayer. It was hardest on the Catholics because they began and ended each session with the sign of the cross.
My memory always brings up Maria Talamantez when I recall the morning prayer. Standing at the head of the class, Maria appeared embarrassed, flustered, frightened. And, while she struggled with the Sign of the Cross and the Our Father, I was over at my desk praying quietly and fervently to God and Jesus and anyone else I could think of just thanking them that my name hadn’t been called that morning.
Meanwhile, Maria prayed as fast as she could and so quietly that she couldn’t be heard by most of us in the room. I don’t think the teacher cared, really. She was simply filling a slot required every morning and looked forward to escaping into a math exercise or reading a story.
For me, this was a time of pure torture. And I was so grateful that I was an Episcopalian because I didn’t use the Sign of the Cross. And the Episcopalian Lord’s Prayer seemed shorter and faster than Maria’s Roman Catholic version.
This is part of my journey into adulthood.
Both adolescents and adults spend time thinking and rethinking things they read, heard, and believed as children.
To dismiss these experiences as part of the move into adulthood is a gross oversimplification.
Abandoning our childhood beliefs can be difficult. It’s challenging to move beyond the childhood religious stories we either grew up with or didn’t experience at all.
As a pre-adolescent, I attended a Catholic School in my middle-school years. (The Sisters didn’t call it middle school.) Sister Athanasius had a whole list of books we weren’t supposed to read. And, since I wasn’t from a Catholic family, Sister suspected every book she saw me carry.
Several years later, as a student at St. Mary’s University, I found all of those books she was looking for in my book bag. They were in the university library, sitting on those shelves for the students. Amazing! Forbidden fruit in middle school became the main course in college.
Later in life, my best Reiki therapy and Reflexology students admitted to me that they were struggling with their meaning-of-life path.
Now, as an octogenarian, I find myself smitten with Mother Mary and the birth of Jesus Christ.
If you find yourself at a moment in time where you are taking a look at your life, now can be a good opportunity to explore your childhood teachings. They may be holding you back from focusing on things you otherwise might be interested in.
This place in time opens an opportunity for self-care.
As an adult, you can slow down, seek the solitude, and listen to the silence. Allow your intuition and life experiences to guide you along your path.
The answers you seek may not come immediately but they are there. As you journey on your path, you may encounter changes to your lifestyle which help you connect with your own truth.
You can develop an understanding of your own experience.
Thanks for reading this article. Please share it with your friends and family and forward it to your preferred social media network.
You can find out more at www.thurmangreco.com.
Want more information on self-care? Check out some older articles on this blog.
You may also enjoy my YOUTUBE shows: “Let’s Live with Thurman Greco”
Thanks again!
Thurman Greco
www.thurmangreco.com
Subscribe today!
Visit the website and see what books might interest you. The first edition of “But for Gabriel” is available as an eBook.
Finally, include a Reiki therapy or reflexology session this week.
Healer’s Handbook – Wellness for All
This book is filled with all the wellness information I would have loved to have had when I was a young mother with two active, curious children.
I would love to have shared this information with my two daughters when they started their families. Time turned this book into a resource for my grandchildren and great-grandchildren to use as they go through life.
This book is your ticket to your healing adventures. After all, wherever you go, if you are healing yourself or caring for someone else, you are on a journey.
The information took me decades to discover and organize. I’ve presented it in practical and uncomplicated ways so you can use it in today’s hectic world.
This healing information has stood the test of time. Medical training isn’t necessary to read and understand the words on these pages.
Information in this book does not diagnose or treat a disease. I do not prescribe medications or treatments of any kind. “A Healer’s Handbook – Wellness for All” is not a substitute for an X-ray or MRI.
This book adds a spiritual layer of personal care to every situation in your healing life. The goal is to enlighten and empower you with information and insight you can use on your healing journey.
If I’m successful, you will read things and then discuss them with your healthcare provider, your family, and other persons of importance in your life.
I hope you’ll see how these suggestions and this information fit into your core values.
For thousands of years, reflexologists (for example) have successfully treated these health issues from common ailments to complex diseases. Because I’m a reflexologist, you’ll find references to this modality on many pages.
That doesn’t mean you need to be a reflexologist to use this knowledge.
It’s there to adapt to to your needs. If you know nothing about reflexology, you can still benefit from its philosophy about health and healing.
Reflexology teaches: Your body is different every day.
My healing practice teaches: You are not just a physical body. Your components are made up of physical, mental, emotional, and spirital aspects.
Your health changes continually.
If you are twenty years old, the information you read in this book will interest you in one way.
After fifty years, you’ll be focused on your health in different ways.
Children in your life will point you in yet another direction.
Use the information you find on these pages to see your health and its maintenance through the added dimension of a spiritual event or situation. Doing this, you will enhance your well-being.
Part 1 of this book focuses on your health, healing, and wellness. Good habits can be tough to start. Most of us don’t pay attention to what we should be doing until its obvious.
This book gives you a boost to care for yourself and those important to you before problems develop or get serious. The first part of this book answers and explains many questions.
You may find several listings repeated in many places. Their impact has multiple implications.
Part 2 focuses on the spirituality of your body systems. It’s much easier to care for yourself or someone else when you know how your body parts interact with one another.
Essential Foods are listed in each body system they support.
Personal care information is included.
Part 3 is your toolbox. Information listed here lists ailments and their remedies alphabetically. Each entry begins with spiritual qualities unique to the disease you are investigating.
I’ve listed essential oils for easy reference. Each health issue listed has practical information specific to that disease.
There are no one-size-fits-all solutions in this book.
Thank you for reading this article. Please post it on your favorite social media network.
Please share this post with your friends.
You can order this book now.
just off the press, this book is available for %15.00 each plus $5. shipping. It is not yet on the website.
To purchase this book, please contact me at thurmangreco@gmail.com and let me know your mailing address so I can ship it out to you.
You can send me a check for the book or easily pay for it with paypal.
thurmangreco@gmail.com
Thurmangreco.com
Thurman Greco –
