Fully Human
Why was Mary Magdalene so inspiring to me? I was never religious, not even spiritual, although I did have an early Catholic indoctrination by my grandmother, with whom I spent the best times of my childhood. As an adult, the appreciation of the beauty of religious art and architecture, and spiritual tools like prayer, have always remained with me.
When I read and learned about Mary Magdalene, I saw the story of a woman who had been a leader but had been turned into a prostitute by those who feared her wisdom. A story we are still trying to overcome. The stories of the Magdalene captured my heart and imagination.
As time passed, I continued reading and learning, and expanding my interests into the spiritual ideas that came out of the books and stories of Mary Magdalene. Because my journey, like that of many other artists, started with the experience of illness and healing, the desire to remain healthy led my interest.
The story of the Magdalene is about transformation through aligning the body, mind, soul and Spirit in order to become “fully human.” This is true healing.
I was physically healed with the help of advanced medicine, and I worked hard to remain healthy after the intense treatments. From the beginning, I perceived that the most damaging things to my body were not food or the external, but sadness and frustration in my mind.
But those are inevitable in our lives, so how can we go through them without harming ourselves?
I really think I remained healed because I made the decision to change my life by following my heart, and recapturing my soul. I gave myself fully to realizing my dreams and goals, and my soul became joyous.
Initially, I thought the fear would always remain. However, over time, it subsided, and the experience of illness became a distant memory. At times, the fear may return briefly, but I have learned to trust my body. Lately, because I have been dealing with great stress in life and work, I fell into the dream again and now I’m working to repair the damage. Still, I trust my body to restore itself and remain healthy while my soul catches up.
After 25 years, two complementary tools have endured in my process for remaining healthy: creativity and correct thinking. This last one is not easy and I don’t always succeed at it. But I keep going, trying to stay conscious and not beating myself up too much whenever I lose my mind again or find my soul has stayed behind while the rest of me was rushing and stressing.
It is in those moments that I must make an effort and remember: all my parts come together, and I become one, fully human, in the creative act.
It is the same for all of us. The medium is not important.
Comments