Sharing gratitude to be alive. Multiple musings from simple to complex w/ people, family, music, poetry, pet love, scenic nature, spirituality, health, motivation, & more. Also, find the book at ahouseinsideofme.com and in print, on Kindle, and iBook titled A House Inside of Me: Poetry by Marian Elsie Blake (2013) by Mary Blake Huer
Pip: Gratitude Squared has been quietly doing something unusual — writing about hope, healing, and what it actually means to wait for something you can't yet see.
Mara: That's the territory today: what distinguishes hope from joy and peace, and how healing engages the soul differently than it does the body. Let's start with hope itself — what it is, where it comes from, and why it asks more of us than we might expect.
Hope, Joy, and Peace — What Sets Hope Apart
Mara: The question this segment opens with is deceptively simple: what makes hope different from joy and peace, and why does that difference matter when someone is afraid?
Pip: The post "Hope, Joy, and Peace" draws on a piece by Shauna W. to frame the answer, and the quote lands squarely: "no one hopes for what they already have. It's the time between realizing what we need, and our receiving of it, that we must confidently expect. Hope sits between."
Mara: So the upshot is that joy and peace are available now — in a sunset, a piece of music, a calm moment — but hope is structurally future-facing. It requires waiting, and that waiting is the point, not a flaw.
Pip: Which explains why the post argues that when fear is immediate, joy and peace are the tools you reach for first. Hope follows — it's the deeper current running underneath. That's not a small distinction when someone is genuinely frightened.
Mara: "Grateful for Hope" extends this by treating hope as its own kind of practice. It describes hope as positivity, optimism, possibility — and notes that it can attach to something small, like passing a test, or something deeply spiritual through prayer and meditation.
Pip: Hope is a four-letter word doing a lot of heavy lifting.
Mara: And both posts arrive at the same place: hope requires patience, but when it arrives, the post says, "hope overflows." That's the reward for the waiting. The healing segment takes that idea somewhere more urgent.
When Healing Reaches the Soul
Pip: This segment sits at the intersection of serious illness and spiritual life — specifically, the question of what medicine can and cannot promise, and where assurance actually comes from.
Mara: "How Does The Actual Healing Process Interact With the Body Versus How it Engages With the Soul?" puts it directly: "Healing outcomes when engaged through the SOUL are based on ASSURANCE, and FAITH."
Pip: That's a real distinction. Doctors, by training and by regulation, offer probabilities — "probably," "we hope," "we never know." The post documents asking for certainty and being told it isn't available. Assurance, it turns out, lives somewhere else entirely.
Mara: What makes this concrete is the moment with the hymn "Blessed Assurance" — hearing it on the radio and recognizing that the soul offers what western medicine structurally cannot. The post notes the writer asked their doctor to record this in the official medical file, and the doctor agreed.
Pip: That detail is doing a lot of quiet work. It isn't a rejection of medicine — it's a parallel track.
Mara: Exactly, and "Arousing Joyful Hope: Footbridges to Healing" makes that parallel visible in physical space. The City of Hope campus in Orange County is described as a holistic model — drumming classes, a Pacific Symphony Fourth of July event, a survivorship blue carpet walk where staff lined the walkway ringing bells and applauding patients.
Pip: The post draws a pointed comparison: Disneyland makes you happy for a day. The City of Hope keeps you joyfully alive for many.
Mara: Both posts land in the same place the hope segment did — gratitude as something practiced outward, toward others, even from inside difficulty.
Pip: Hope that waits, healing that reaches the soul — these aren't abstract ideas in this material. They're being lived.
Mara: And that's what makes them worth returning to. More from Gratitude Squared next time.
Pip: There's a site out there asking what gratitude actually is, where it comes from, and whether you can lose it over a lemon of a motor home — and the answer, it turns out, is yes, but you get it back.
Mara: That's Gratitude Squared, and today we're moving through the personal practice of building a grateful life, the emotional weight gratitude carries, how music channels it, and how one writer is architecting a whole project around it.
Pip: Let's start with the practice itself — what it means to actually live inside gratitude day to day.
Finding the Source of Gratitude
Mara: The post "Our Gratitude Stream" opens with a set of foundational questions: where does gratitude come from, can anyone find it, and is it rooted in giving or receiving?
Pip: And the answer the post lands on is surprisingly personal — it traces the whole thing back to one woman. The writer reflects on gratitude described as a "moral virtue" and then writes: "my mother was very instrumental in molding me, my character, my outlook on life, and my belief system, and for her teachings I am very grateful."
Mara: That lineage becomes the frame for everything else. The mother, Marian Elsie Blake, wrote over a hundred poems found after her passing on napkins, in drawers, in pockets — and her son published them in a collection called A House Inside of Me in 2013.
Pip: So the gratitude stream is literally inherited — a well, as the post puts it, you can return to whenever you need it.
Mara: "Self Study: How Do I Find Gratitude?" extends that inquiry outward. It draws on researcher Robert Emmons, who describes gratitude as an affirmation of goodness whose sources lie outside ourselves. The post asks whether materialism, entitlement, or a failure to bond with others blocks the path to that goodness.
Pip: Finding gratitude, it argues, takes real work — longer-lasting than happiness, but not automatic.
Mara: "Gratitude Is A Teacher To Moderate Desire" gets honest about that difficulty. After a year of anticipation, a brand-new motor home turned out to be a lemon and had to be returned. The post sits with the grief of that — focusing on what you don't have rather than what you do.
Pip: The recovery comes through Cyndi Rooney's idea that gratitude and desire aren't opposites. You can be thankful and still want more. The post lands on: "gratitude teaches us, sometimes, what is enough" — but not as a reason to stop striving.
Mara: "Staying in a State of Gratitude Is Not Easy" turns that tension into a practical list. Notice every good thing around you. Thank people for their services. Begin and end your day with gratitude. The writer frames it from personal stakes — having been given seven to nine months to live years earlier, every ordinary day registers as a gift.
Pip: The image of rippling waves appears here: each small positive act radiates outward, touching people you may never know you reached.
Mara: The emotional weight behind all of this leads naturally into the next territory — what gratitude feels like when the stakes are highest.
When Gratitude Meets Fear
Mara: "Managing The Emotionality Of Gratitude" opens after a health scare — the writer had faced breast, ovarian, and peritoneal cancers in 2017, and a recent lung nodule scare brought all of it back. The post is direct about what gratitude looks like from that vantage point.
Pip: The line that carries the most weight is this one: "the gratitude that is derived from the experience of cancer provides the generosity of time. Use this time wisely to move into gratitude."
Mara: What that means in practice is that a slower illness, unlike a sudden one, gives you space to reorient — to get affairs in order, to say goodbye, to move deliberately toward peace rather than being overtaken by fear.
Pip: "Sacred Gratitude: Social-Cultural Meanings" picks up the depth question from a different angle — arguing that the deepest gratitude is transcendent, shaped by parents, teachers, and mentors, and carries social and cultural responsibility far beyond a momentary pleasant feeling.
Mara: Both posts point toward the same conclusion: gratitude at its most serious is something you build over a lifetime, not something that arrives on its own. That building can happen through unexpected channels — including music.
A Song as a Vehicle for Hope
Pip: The post "Gratitude for Power, Hope, and Optimism in a Song" was written while watching coverage of Russia's attack on Ukraine — specifically the images of people singing together in the streets.
Mara: The post reaches for a biological explanation. USC's Margaret Schaper is quoted directly: "Singing is the cheapest therapy you can find." The argument is that singing has evolutionary and biological roots — it creates solidarity, releases emotional pain, and bonds people across otherwise impossible distances.
Pip: Communal song as grief infrastructure — that's not a small claim.
Mara: The post frames it as a specific form of gratitude: being grateful for the human capacity to sing at all, for the fact that voice and brain and emotion converged in a way unique to us. And that it's free. That thread — gratitude as something shareable and freely given — runs directly into the project itself.
The Architecture of Gratitude Squared
Mara: "Guide to Gratitude" is a one-year retrospective on the site itself. After 174 posts, 6,759 views, and 128 followers across 64 countries, the post reflects on what the project has actually built.
Pip: The writer chose the name gratitudesquared because, as the post puts it, "gratitude is multiplied when shared and experienced" — and the site's reach across 64 countries is the proof of concept.
Mara: The organizational logic behind it is explained in the earlier post "Organizational Model for Gratitudesquared.com Site," which introduced the three-tier framework: gratitude zero for surface-level pleasure, gratitude lite for reflective moments, and gratitude ultra for the deeper academic and emotional inquiry.
Pip: The site is deliberately non-linear — built for different learning styles, different entry points, different needs. As the Guide to Gratitude post puts it: "gratitude is deep and wide."
Mara: What holds all of this together is the idea that gratitude isn't a destination — it's a practice you return to, especially when it's hardest.
Pip: A moral inheritance, a cancer diagnosis, a failed motor home, a song in a war zone — it turns out gratitude has a surprisingly wide range of on-ramps.
Pip: Gratitude Squared has been quietly building something unusual — a framework for thinking about illness that starts not with disease, but with everything your body is getting right this very second.
Mara: That’s exactly the territory we’re covering today — from the biology of repair and what happens when misfires persist, to what it means to keep living inside uncertainty, and how the series lands on something that looks a lot like hope.
Pip: Let’s start with the biology itself — the misfires, the repair crews, and the question of what fear actually does to us.
Biological Repair And Misfires
Mara: The central argument across this series is that disease is the exception, not the norm — and that understanding that distinction changes how a patient feels, not just what they know.
Pip: And the series opens with a reframe that earns its ambition: “Disease is memorable because health is so abundant. A misfire matters only because your biological success is so overwhelmingly common.”
Mara: That’s the spine of the whole project. The introductory post on intermittent biological misfires defines the concept directly — your body makes small biological errors constantly, and most are repaired automatically. Disease develops only when some escape that repair and accumulate.
Pip: So the word “misfire” is doing real work. It’s not softening the science — it’s relocating where the story begins.
Mara: Right. The introduction is explicit that this is a companion metaphor, not a replacement for clinical language. The point is that calling cells “misfires” acknowledges malfunction without implying the whole person is broken.
Pip: Which is a meaningful distinction when the alternative vocabulary includes “enemy,” “invader,” and “battle.”
Mara: Parts Three and Four move into the mechanics — DNA repair, immune surveillance, protein assembly, quality control systems working in parallel. When those internal crews are overwhelmed, medicine steps in. The framing there is direct: “Medicine is not fighting the body. Medicine is helping the body.”
Mara: Part Five pushes the framework further by introducing time as the main character. Aging, genetics, inflammation, environment — none of these act independently. They interact continuously, and persistence of a misfire is the result of that ongoing interaction, not a verdict on the body’s failure.
Pip: The body doesn’t reset. It adapts. Which is either reassuring or a little humbling, depending on the day.
Mara: The practical upshot is that the three-pillar model built across the series — repair, time, accumulation — gives patients a way to ask “how does a living system carry its history?” instead of “why did my body betray me?”
Pip: That’s a question worth sitting with before we get to what living inside that uncertainty actually looks like.
Healing, Trust, And Living Systems
Mara: Part Six takes the framework into lived experience — specifically, what happens when the repair crews, both biological and medical, are working on an entire living system under stress, not a single isolated problem.
Pip: The post is candid that this gets complicated fast. A sepsis episode during ongoing chemotherapy meant the treatment itself had become part of the biology every physician had to weigh.
Mara: The conclusion drawn from that is precise: “Living systems keep repairing, adapting, healing, and sometimes surprising us. Healing is a process inside of uncertainty.”
Mara: Part Seven, the series finale, closes on a gardening metaphor — immune cells as gardeners pulling weeds, sleep as nighttime cultivation, medicine as tools. The invitation is to ask not “why aren’t you perfect?” but “what does my body need today?”
Pip: Wonder and uncertainty, it turns out, can occupy the same space. That’s the series’ quietest and most durable claim.
Mara: What stays with me is that the framework keeps expanding to meet real experience — it says “Come with me.” You don’t have to face uncertainty alone.
Pip: Biology inside time, with a repair crew and a garden metaphor. Before we finish, I keep thinking about one sentence from this series. “Wonder begins when we finally see where we are.” Maybe that’s the real invitation here. Not to ignore illness. Not to pretend uncertainty disappears. But to see that even in uncertainty, your body is still repairing… still adapting… still trying.
Mara: Perhaps that’s where hope begins – not in certainty, but in understanding.
Pip: Thanks for joining us for this journey through Biological Misfires and Hidden Healing. The author notes: “When I began this journey through illness, I thought I was learning about disease. Instead, I found myself learning about life.” It is so fascinating……..Until next time… keep looking forward with wonder.
As you traveled through these six conversations, what question has been quietly growing within you?
Can I still trust my own body?
What is really happening within my body?
How do I live with uncertainty?
An experienced Gardener knows:
Growth happens when nothing is visible.
Every garden has weeds.
It’s important to spend more time cultivating than worrying.
This knowledge is similar in biology.
Gardeners do not expect perfection:
Flowers bloom and fade.
Branches break.
Bugs arrive.
Weeds appear overnight.
Yet every spring, gardeners begin again.
Our bodies are not so different from a garden.
DNA repair is pruning.
Immune cells are gardeners pulling weeds.
Stem cells are new seedlings.
Scars become new pathways.
Sleep becomes nighttime cultivation.
Exercise becomes tending.
Nutrition becomes soil.
Medicine becomes tools.
Our metaphors begin organizing our conversation.
Not explaining. Organizing.
They organize the way we think.
Once we see biology differently, we begin living differently.
Another metaphor might be a lighthouse! Think of the beauty from the light shining in the distance, guiding you to safety, security, perhaps to your home. The lighthouse provides orientation for us. This is a remarkable vision from which we continue our discussion on hope and health.
People facing illness desperately want resolution. It may not always be possible. Orientation is.
This framework offers something more immediately attainable.
Orientation.
Knowing where you are.
Knowing what your body is attempting.
Knowing who the repair crews are, coming to help you.
Knowing that uncertainty does not mean abandonment.
That is a profound distinction.
You are probably reading this now because you are experiencing uncertainty at this time in your life.
So, I ask one favor of you. When you are finished reading, I invite you to come with me into our gardens as you continue your life. Within these six blogs we have discussed possibilities for your reflection:
The biology is important.
The science is important.
The repair crews are important.
But underneath all of these blogs in the series is my quieter message:
You don’t have to face uncertainty alone.
These conversations within will accompany you through one of the hardest experiences of your lives without pretending to have all the answers, if you are willing to walk alongside me.
Choices
There are differences between owning a garden… and loving one.
Many people stand in their garden saying,
Why aren’t you perfect?
Gardeners don’t.
They ask,
What does this plant need today?
That question changes everything.
Similarly, the body is not an enemy. Sometimes we need to ask what does my body need today?
It is entrusted to us. There are many variations but it is really a miracle and functions constantly even though you are not often aware of such. When your body has a misfire, you also may choose what you wish to do next to protect and facilitate your overall health.
Always remember that you typically have choices in life that move you toward healing.
During my years as a rehabilitation professional, I learned that healing is rarely a straight line. Sometimes the greatest victories were measured in inches…
or one more spoken word…
or one spoon lifted independently… To someone else, it was only a spoon.
To us, it was independence returning.
or one smile after months of discouragement.
Gardeners understand this.
Tiny growth matters. Tiny accomplishments matter.
Revisiting Biology in the New Framework
Our discussions have assisted you in considering that biology is doing what you may never have seen before.
Consider that you are now visualizing misfires, and the work by various repair crews healing your body. As a part of something unimaginably larger than yourself,
Wonder begins when we finally see where we are.
Not just geographically.
Biologically.
Emotionally.
Spiritually.
In the universe.
Expanding Your Choices in the Presence of Illness
I hope you are now considering the expansion of choices you might have now that you have learned more about your biology.
You, as the reader decides:
Will I continue living in fear?
Will I become more curious?
Will I ask different questions?
Will I become an active participant?
The responsibility shifts now, very naturally to you.
Humanistic Biology
The vision of biology described within this framework includes – repair crews to fix misfires, accumulation of changes, and partnerships with medicine. Our multi-condition model of lived biology has layers:
Normal repair
Persistent misfires
Long-term adaptation
High-intensity medical intervention
Biological Misfires and Hidden Healing
As I recovered during the past decade, I remember thinking: I had no idea my body was accomplishing so much without my awareness. I purposefully began to focus on what was around me and within me. I thought about the words AWE, NOVEL, and WONDER.
I listed a few relevant statements as I recovered and continued to live:
Most biological misfires are repaired silently.
Our bodies employ remarkable repair crews every day.
Medicine joins and becomes an extension of the body’s own repair crew.
Fear is natural, but it does not have to guide our decisions.
You are encouraged to move away from an initial fear response to one that is more hopeful.
Remember: Living is your end goal.
Discovering Hope in Your Garden Within
When I began this journey through illness, I thought I was learning about disease. Instead, I found myself learning about life.
I discovered repair crews I never knew existed.
I discovered resilience that had been quietly working long before I noticed it.
Most of all, I discovered that wonder can exist in the same place as uncertainty. That is the journey I hoped to share with you.
Listen to the message: Come With Me…
This is an invitation to continue living, your best life!
The garden is a companion image in which you have control over the flowers you plant and tend. The choice to plant wonder is yours, just as it is in your garden,
I hope you find peace and joy in your journey toward healing.
We have seen that the body is remarkably successful at repair, and that medicine often extends that success.
Yet one question remains.
Why do some biological misfires persist while others disappear?
This question shifts our attention from discrete events to a focus on time itself.
The Biology of Time
Biology is often described as a series of events: a change occurs, a repair begins, a system responds. But this view is incomplete. The body is not a snapshot in time. It is a continuous, living process unfolding across years, decades, and a lifetime.
When we begin to ask why some misfires persist, we enter the biology of time.
Several well-known forces influence how biology changes over time. These include: aging, inherited genetics, environmental exposures, inflammation, changes in immune function, and random biological variation.
These influences are not separate explanations competing with one another. None of these influences act independently. They interact continuously throughout life. There is interaction, not isolation.
The supporting actors are aging, inflammation, genetics, and so forth, but the main character is TIME.
Everything happens because of time: cells divide, DNA changes, proteins wear, immune systems mature, repair continues, medicine adapts, and healing continues. Time is the constant, not aging. This is a subtle but important distinction for understanding the persistence of misfires.
Biology is not a snapshot. It is a continuous process.
Aging is often the most visible of these influences, but it is not the only one. Genetic makeup provides a biological starting point, but not a fixed outcome. Environmental exposures accumulate gradually. Inflammation may persist beyond its initial trigger. The immune system changes across the lifespan. And chance events, though unpredictable, are part of every biological system.
Together, these forces shape how effectively the body maintains repair.
It is important not to think of these influences as failures of biology. They are part of biology itself. The body is always responding, always adjusting, always repairing. But it is also always living through time.
And time leaves traces.
This is where the idea of persistence becomes clearer.
Some biological misfires resolve quickly. Others take longer. And some persist, not because the body has stopped working, but because biology is a dynamic system influenced continuously by multiple interacting forces.
Persistence, in this sense, is not separate from repair. It exists within the same process.
We can begin to think of this as accumulation over time. Small biological changes may build gradually, not as a sign of failure, but as the natural outcome of a system that has been active without pause since the beginning of life.
The body does not reset. It adapts.
From this perspective, persistence is not simply something that goes wrong. It is something that unfolds. Biology is not static, and neither is repair. Both continue across time, shaped by history, environment, and internal change.
Even when a misfire remains, the story is rarely finished.
Understanding persistence in this way is important. As we continue to seek deeper knowledge, a quiet realization emerges, i.e., an understanding of persistence moves us to expanding our metaphor. We no longer think just about the repair crew, we think about resilience.
The Biology of Resilience
The repair crew explains how biology responds. Resilience explains why life continues.
What happens after years of repair? Resilience!
Time changes biology, but resilience persists alongside it.
The universal idea is that our biology does not exist apart from our lives. Chronic stress, disrupted sleep, grief, fear, caregiving, aging—these all become part of the biological environment in which repair is taking place. That idea is well supported by science, and it doesn’t require focusing on any particular conflict or tragedy.
Every person’s biology has a history.
Not just a genome.
A history.
Years of infections.
Years of healing.
Years of joy.
Years of loss.
Years of sleep.
Years of stress.
Years of adaptation.
Every cell carries part of that story.
Before I became ill, I was always busy and rarely slowed down enough to notice the small things. Now, through my illness, I have time to reflect, and read, and to encourage people to slow down and notice the extraordinary work our bodies are doing every moment.
Let me help you see your biology with more wonder and less fear.
This promise to you is universal. While we start with biology, we invite gratitude. Through gratitude a patient may integrate ideas and beliefs relevant to their own cultural and spiritual understanding. My blog site gratitudesquared.com includes a discussion relevant to “from where does my gratitude come?” Resilience definitely partners with biology.
A Humanistic Biology: Understanding Accumulation Over Time
Accumulation over time is what is happening to our cells every minute. These biological changes should not make us fearful. We should not feel as though we’re being blamed, or taking blame for what has happened to us. Our history influences our biology, but it does not define our worth, nor does it mean we caused our illness. Meditate on resilience itself.
In earlier postings, we noted that understanding biology must be paired with a philosophy of health. Focusing on biological processes is a discrete action; focusing on the human experience is an expansive action, a continuous reflection.
As we focus on persistence in Part Five, we expand our framework to a humanistic biology. That is:
Not biology stripped of emotion.
Not emotion replacing biology.
But biology presented in a way that honors human experience.
My professional background has included decades advocating for persons with disabilities. These individuals, whose voices were often overlooked, merited assistance that kept each person at the center of any discussion, not just a focus on their physical diagnosis or communication needs, but a genuine person-centered plan.
Expanding our framework from a companion metaphor to beyond. Is a natural extension because it causes one to examine how human beings experience vulnerability.
How do we preserve the dignity of this person while understanding their reality?
Viewing biology and health from a humanistic perspective is not an imbalance. Rather:
Some see it as an opportunity for spiritual growth.
Some trust physicians completely.
Some trust elders.
Some trust traditional healers.
Some trust no one.
Our challenge, then, is not merely to explain biology. It is to offer a framework that can be meaningful across many of different worldviews. I have participated in focus groups to examine how each of our lived experiences impact our perceptions of health care. Although beyond the scope of these brief postings, I wanted to simply inject that the proposed framework, and newly defined vocabulary introduced does not compete with people’s deepest beliefs. Using the metaphor of a “repair crew” does not tell someone what to believe about God, destiny, or purpose. Contrarily, this framework simply says:
Your body is working for you.
It’s an invitation to pay attention.
That’s a statement almost anyone can appreciate, regardless of culture or religion.
It is written with the intents to be biologically grounded and philosophically generous.
When I was first confronted with cancer, having advocated for Persons With Disabilities through the United Nations, I searched for answers from around the globe:
I searched for humanity’s answers about illness.
That was my instinct as a scholar for decades. I had spent a lifetime listening before concluding. That was my training through qualitative research methods.
A Humanistic Biology Framework lets me see my biological misfires and the persistence thereof with more wonder and less fear. Advocating for others gifted me with various insights regarding the many ways people make meaning of illness. The vision of biology I describe – the repair systems, the accumulation of changes, the partnership with medicine-provides common ground.
My career, unknown to me at the time, provided a lifetime of learning about humanity. As I unfold these propositions about biology and health, I continue to live within my own model. Most importantly, my lived experiences continue to become more complex than some parts of my model. As I continue to be a survivor, you will note the model keeps expanding to include new experiences.
Throughout this series I have tried to develop a way of speaking about illness that reduces threat without sacrificing scientific truth. I have tried to balance scientific precision with accessibility. I hope these essays invite curiosity without sacrificing accuracy, and offer compassion without abandoning evidence. Because I have a dually of life experiences, as a cancer survivor as well as a teacher-scholar, researcher, I wish to balance the essays:
I want to be both emotionally rich, but scientifically loose for the lay person who might find scientific writings boring and uninteresting or not applicable to them; as well as scientifically precise, and meeting the highest standard as I know it, but emotionally cold. I strive to hold the attention of anyone who may find themselves a new patient who is afraid of a recent diagnosis.
Overall, some misfires persist while others disappear because biology unfolds through time, and various influences accumulate. This is our anchor concept.
In Part Five we have shifted from a static to a dynamic biology.
Persistence is part of how biology unfolds, not simply a failure of repair. Biology is remarkably successful, and medicine often extends that success.
An understanding of how the accumulation of misfires persists is more easily understood when we place biology inside time. The forces of aging, genetics, and so forth are continuously living and adapting. Understanding persistence in this way shifts the questions from blame to observation, and from fear to curiosity.
Here we have built a conceptual model with three pillars:
Repair
Time
Accumulation
This is the basic expanded framework, our architecture. Everything else (emotions, fear, gratitude, medicine) sits on top of this structure.
Parting Thoughts
Persistence becomes understandable when we place biology inside time.
What persists is not simply a failure—it is the result of ongoing interaction over time.
Small influences may accumulate, not because the body is failing, but because it is continuously living and adapting.
Instead of asking, “Why did my body betray me?” we can begin to ask, “How does a living system carry its history through time while continuing to repair itself?”
This is not a question of blame. It is a question of observation.
Observing opens the door to a different kind of understanding—one that holds both realism and respect for the extraordinary work the body continues to do, even under changing conditions.
Persistence does not mean failure. It means biology is still in motion.
Conceptual Model for the series thus far:
Part 1 Language changes perception.
Part 2 Repair is normal.
Part 3 Medicine joins biology.
Part 4 Repair is probabilistic rather than perfect.
Part 5 Time explains persistence.
Part 6 Human beings are never reducible to their biology.
As we end our discussion for Part 5, I look forward to the next section, Living Without Blame (Part Six). Human Beings are never reduced to their biology. Part Six will include descriptions from personal journeys. Until then, I hope you may view your life with wonder and find peace.
Practical suggestion:
If you’re joining this series for the first time, you may enjoy beginning with Part One, where we introduce the idea of “intermittent biological misfires,” and/or listens to the Podcast listed below.
Every second of every day, countless repair crews work quietly throughout your body.
DNA is copied.
Proteins are built.
Damaged cells are repaired.
The immune system searches for abnormal cells.
Most of this happens without our ever noticing.
Occasionally, however, a biological misfire escapes detection. That is when medicine is asked to join the repair crew.
The Complexity of Life
The complexity of life continues to be one of the great wonders of medical research. Thankfully, life’s secrets do not need to be fully understood for life to emerge, flourish, and often endure without our fully understanding how it all works.
The wonder of life inspires curiosity and has fostered extraordinary scientific research.
The numerous medical strategies for assisting in healing are too vast to summarize within this brief report. However, a few examples of normal cellular processes that repair and protect our bodies are identified within to explain our knowledge of the function of cell mechanisms; this is only a small part of human biology, in reality.
The reader should appreciate, there are an abundant number of biological mechanisms, i.e., the circulatory system, neurological system, endocrine, hormonal, skeletal and so forth. Think of all of the specialists you must select from when you go to a doctor. Our bodies are really still built beyond our comprehension!
Various Cell Mechanisms
Overall, our cells divide, DNA copies, proteins build, and systems work in harmony within our bodies. At each and every level noted, our bodies are built to repair and protect all cells through quality control systems and immune surveillance.
Thousands and thousands of papers are available explaining the cell. Scientific literatures, journals, conferences, funded research projects, and professional societies focus regularly on cell research, and hold meetings to communicate their increasingly new knowledge of such each year.
One remarkable example is the the Human Protein Atlas, an international research project that maps proteins within human cells (https://www.proteinatlas.org/humanproteome/subcellular ) . Given the 200 or so types of cancer this project assists in identifying, with great specificity, the probable antigens which may be utilized to treat a particular cancer through modification of T cells, (CAR-T therapies) (Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cell) which seek out, attack, and destroy the cancer cells that carry the target protein.
Think of CAR-T therapy as retraining the body’s own immune soldiers. Doctors remove a patient’s T cells, teach them to recognize cancer cells by giving them a new “GPS system,” grow millions of these enhanced cells, and return them to the bloodstream, where they hunt down and attack cancer. It is one of the most promising examples of precision medicine because the treatment is custom-made for each individual patient (TC).
When I was first diagnosed, I discovered this Project and could follow their research on basically a Table on one page. Now their tracking of all of the proteins within cells covers multiple Tables and many pages of reporting from scientists and practitioners around the world.
Personally I am still searching for those proteins within my cell that they may identify so that I may utilize such in my own understanding. Over the years I have had genetic testing, genomic testing, and molecular testing. I am frustrated each and every time my reports mark my biological tissues as “indeterminate” or “unknown”. I often ask for additional biopsies so that current research practices may describe my particular biological misfires more precisely. If researchers someday identify the key biological target within my own cells, perhaps another repair crew will be able to join those already working to keep me healthy.
Our Repair Crews
Simply stated our repair crews, within our bodies consist of: DNA repair, protein building, immune surveillance, disease detection, and quality control systems.These repair systems fix the errors found, or remove the affected cells, disrupt the affected pathways, re-wire or create new or alternative pathways, and so forth through the remarkable accuracy and resilience of the human body.
These processes for repair and protection correct most of those intermittent biological misfires. However, sometimes the misfires escape detection. Sometimes defective cells are not found and continue to live and divide and cause various diseases within the body. Consider:
Misfires occur.
Repair crews usually succeed.
Sometimes they fail.
Medicine helps.
As for my own status, one might say that my necessary repair crew has yet to be discovered. I am maintaining the status quo without a change in status. While I wish I may learn more about my own system, I do believe that through a variety of personal choices I do have a repair crew operating within my own biological system. I must have, or I would be deceased by now.
Finding Persistent Misfires
These intermittent biological misfires are a normal part of living. Our bodies are built with tremendous redundancy. Most misfires are evidentially detected and silently corrected. A few persist. Very rarely. A few defective cells may exist within our bodies and accumulate. These are not a failure-this is the complexity of life. My own life is one example.
Medical science has developed numerous noninvasive strategies to search for misfires through blood tests, x-rays, ultrasounds, MRI, CT scans, PET scans, robotic surgeries, and interventional radiologies. Such are utilized regularly to find misfires, diagnose such, and begin medical treatments.
Biology Versus Emotion
Our biological systems are amazing, silently working throughout our busy lives. They are mostly ignored until a routine annual exam, an accident, or illness emerges. We go to our doctors as we are instructed to do and then, often as a surprise, we discover A MISFIRE!
Your emotional response to the discovery of the misfire is my focus within these papers. As they say, LIFE HAPPENS. It is what you do in life that matters.
It is how one responds to the unexpected, or surprise event in life that is my interest and motivation in speaking with you.
As I noted in Part Two, what I am observing during my life is that many of our responses to health problems, in particular to a diagnosis of cancer, for example, is the response of FEAR.
Fear is a natural response, but it does not have to become your guide.
Fear can narrow our thinking and make it more difficult to weigh our options carefully. You might use the analogy “frozen in fear”.
If your doctor discovers that your “misfires” are persisting, then that means that your natural repair mechanisms, or your “repair crew” can not handle the job at that moment.
NOTE: this does not mean that the misfire does not have a solution. It simply means that your body’s natural systems are overrun. Your body needs external assistance.
Finding Joy Through Medicine
Medical scientific research has uncovered numerous clinical practices to help you at this point. These discoveries are amazing. Medical science is beyond your greatest expectation I would imagine.
The available clinical practices are simply too numerous to describe, and increasing every day for your benefit. If we use our child analogy I referred to earlier, medicine today is like going to a candy store for the child. There are many choices.
This status of the medical professions today should not make you feel fearful, on the contrary, you should feel joyful!
Modern medicine now offers treatments, and often multiple treatment options, for an extraordinary number of diseases that once had few or no effective therapies. I see and hear about all of the wonders of our current medical practices. Please feel free to share your own experiences with me, as well as others.
As I conclude this particular paper, I wish for you nothing but the best outcomes! I do hope that my suggestions are helpful for you.
This world of ours is a world of wonders. Look up. Look around. Be grateful for your life.
Be happy and calm your emotions. Use music. Use art. Read. Share your medical journey with the patients you meet in the waiting rooms. Journal your joy. Explore the world around you. Do not let fear make your decisions for you, as you begin an amazing medical trip from illness back to health.
In gratitude, and hoping for your peace of mind.
# gratitude ultra
Note: In the next section (five) we will focus on various factors such as aging and chance that may also influence your biological findings in addition to cell misfires. As you begin to think ahead with me ask yourself: Why do some misfires persist while others disappear?
Building Our Vocabulary: Can you define or explain each of the terms?
Intermittent biological misfires
Repair crews
Persistent misfires
Silent repairs
What I Hope You Remember
Most biological misfires are repaired silently.
Our bodies employ remarkable repair crews every day.
Sometimes a misfire persists despite those repairs.
Medicine often becomes an extension of the body’s own repair crew.
Fear is natural, but it does not have to guide our decisions.
When I introduced the Misfires series I emphasized our biology and our emotional health. Biological pathology and human experience are not identical.
Healing requires attention to both.
Perhaps our journey now takes an unexpected turn: understanding emotion through biology.
Today I want to talk with you about health. Specifically, I will focus on your emotions as you focus on your health.
While we focus on emotion, will you trust me enough to take a momentary journey towards “awe”? You may ask, “Mary, where are you taking me?” “What does awe and wonder have to do with biological misfires?” What does wonder and amazement have to do with my emotions and my health?
Please think along with me for a brief second. In my opinion, before we can understand a biological misfire, we must first understand the miracle of your biology. Disease is memorable because health is so abundant.
A misfire matters only because your biological success is so overwhelmingly common. We spend enormous energy thinking about disease, yet we rarely notice the trillions of successful biological events occurring every second that make life possible.
Biology works.
Quietly ….
Shhhhhhh.
Listen
It is working for you even now.
Health Surrounds You All The Time
Health is the quiet success of life occurring within us every moment.
A miracle…..
When you are diagnosed with a disease (a term I don’t particularly like), your emotions typically race towards shock and fear. I’m unsure how fear emerges with the diagnosis, but it typically does. I have a sense that our fear is linked to our probably impending concern that we might die.
Within this essay, one of my goals is to encourage you to move away from your “fear reaction” to a response that is more hopeful, maybe even joyful, towards a reaction that is one of wonder.
Wonder
Gratitude
Perspective
Hope
Less fear
Consider if you move very slowly, and mindfully toward a feeling of gratitude, hope, and eventually less fear, when possible. May your emotions immediately trigger a mindset that encompasses a focus on health and positivity regarding all of the various developments in science that have emerged in recent years.
I want to argue that if you receive a diagnosis of a disease or an illness from your doctor, your response will be less emotional if you move your mind away from the immediate trigger of the fear response.
How Do I Change My Fear Response?
How may I change my initial emotional reaction to the diagnosis you ask? Well, that is the basic thesis within this blog.
I want to help you change your emotions when you receive your diagnosis. My recommendations are derived from my own 10 or so years of living with cancer, and from numerous ongoing conversations with patients whom I have met over the years.
As a researcher at heart, I ask many questions to everyone around me, and I analyze their replies. What follows are my conclusions regarding the miracles which are all around us.
I am not writing a cancer series.
This is not a biology series.
It is not even a philosophy series.
I want to take you along with me on a guided emotional journey.
Focus on Systems, Processes, Natural, Nature-Made, Man Built/Designed
When I began to reflect upon the words and those semantics and metaphors, I focused on the word “AWE”. What is awe to me?
I had no idea my body was accomplishing all of this without my awareness. I purposefully began to focus on what was around me and within me. I thought about the single word AWE.
I first thought of awe as moving in three circles (TC). The first circle is Everyday Awe: The world is extraordinary.
A newborn baby moving their tiny fingers around my own.
An ocean wave arriving where physics predicts.
A hummingbird sampling my flowers.
The second circle is Biological Awe: The miracle is not only out there. It is also within me.
Millions of your immune cells quietly protected you while you admired the sunset.
While you were sleeping, damaged DNA was repaired, proteins were assembled, old cells were recycled, and new ones quietly took their place.
Sometimes I sit quietly and think about the extraordinary systems that surround us.
I think about an orchestra. Dozens of musicians reading different notes, entering at different moments, yet creating one piece of music.
I think about a forest. Thousands of living organisms—trees, birds, insects, fungi, streams—existing together in delicate balance.
I think about the space shuttle. Millions of individual parts designed to work together with astonishing precision.
Each fills me with awe.
Then I remember something even more extraordinary.
Every one of those systems exists outside of me.
The most remarkable system I know is the one quietly working within me.
My body.
Without asking for applause.
Without asking to be noticed.
It simply continues.
This realization takes me to the third circle.
The third circle is Philosophical awe. This captures our beautiful destination.
Rather than to think of health as the absence of disease, perhaps to begin to think about health is something much richer. Maybe health is the ongoing symphony of countless successful events within our bodies that occur so faithfully that they rarely ask for our attention.
My own body is one of the most astonishing living systems I have ever encountered. My body is among nature’s most extraordinary creations. My body is a miracle. The biology within my body is a miracle.
I should take the time to celebrate this fact more often, and not be dismayed when rarely I find an intermittent biological misfire. So I did. I changed my thinking.
How Do I Move From Fear to Joy?
My own reality is that I have learned to find joy, comfort, and gratitude in the science and medicine that might find those occasional misfires and immediately begin to correct such. When my own biology does not have necessary repair systems available at my time of need, my doctors, pathologists, nurses, and other scientists and researchers are ready and able to help me. This will be our focus in Part Three.
My 10 year journey leaves me in awe of my biology. I have become mesmerized by the medical sciences that rebuild me, when necessary. Just as nature creates the beauty of snowflakes, ocean waves, trees and forests; and people create symphonies, space shuttles, and freeways; science has evolved to assist in my healing, to locate, understand, and repair my misfires.
Medicine is not fighting the body.
Medicine is helping the body.
Modern medicine is not an enemy of nature. It is one of humanity’s greatest expressions of nature’s own desire to heal.
Why should my emotions rush towards fear? How did I modify my immediate reaction from sadness to awe? How might you reduce your own feelings of fear, blame, and despair when paired with a negative medical diagnosis? Read and re-read the examples on the remarkable human body.
I invite you to challenge my assumption that this is possible. My friends and I discuss the “fear” that accompanies the diagnosis. How does it emerge? What causes this emotion to appear and nearly dominate a patient’s ability to listen and think immediately. Where does all this fear come from? One bit of information from my own background that my be relevant here is that I have studied various cultural differences in how people view health, and make decisions. Perhaps each of our own lived experiences contribute to our reactions as tragedies emerge in life? Remember yourself as a little child. What happened when you felt sick? How did the adults around you react?
Part Two is really about your attention. I am asking you to pay attention to something you probably ignored all your life. I am asking you to:
Learn to Notice!
Every moment you have spent reading these pages, your body has quietly continued its work.
Cells have communicated.
Proteins have folded.
DNA has been repaired.
Your immune system has stood watch.
Your heart has continued its faithful rhythm.
Life has gone on inside you without asking for recognition.
Perhaps that is the greatest miracle of all.
So… Before Our Next Conversation
Keep Looking!
There is more health…
More wonder…
More hope…
Than you first imagined.
In gratitude, and hoping for your peace of mind.
#gratitudeultra
Note: In our next conversation, we’ll meet one of biology’s quiet heroes—the body’s remarkable repair systems. Every day they search for problems, repair damage, and protect us in ways we rarely notice. Understanding this “repair crew” helps explain why most biological misfires never become disease.
Every second of every day, trillions of biological events occur within your body. Almost all of them succeed so perfectly that you never notice them.
We rarely stop to appreciate these quiet miracles of life. Instead, our attention is drawn only when something goes wrong.
What if we thought about illness differently?
This question has occupied my mind for the past ten years.
My central idea is that our bodies constantly make small biological mistakes—what I call intermittent biological misfires—and most are repaired automatically. Disease develops only when some of those misfires escape repair and accumulate over time.
This concept of Intermittent Biological Misfires is scientifically grounded, and it’s also emotionally reassuring without being simplistic.
A Thought to Consider
Diseases have two parts: The biological disease; and The emotional weight carried by the disease.
They are not the same thing.
This is a profound concept.
What Does This Concept Contribute?
Let’s understand why disease occurs, and, at the same time, why I am suggesting we entertain a hypothesis that one may remove unnecessary guilt while respecting the complexity of biology. This is a meaningful distinction.
This framework grew out of my personal experiences. Ten years ago, I became seriously ill. I thought I would die. But I have not died. I am very much alive. I have watched other people die during these years and I do not want you to die. You are important to me even though we have never met. I want to share what I have uncovered with you in hopes that we may engage in a series of conversations about your health and life.
This conversation is about YOU, your health and healing. Jane Goodall’s famous quote reminded us of the importance of each person. You matter. Your presence in this world makes a difference. You have a part to play for yourself as well as for others. Are you curious about what your role is?
Typically we all move through our lives without much attention to the miracles in life we never notice, i.e., those successful cellular events occurring every second in our bodies. But sometimes those miracles do not happen. So, what happens when you become ill?
Have you ever gone to your doctor and learned that a series of cells in your own body misfired? What was your experience? Tell me what happened? Did the misfire result in a diagnosis of disease? How did you feel? Here we have an example of the biological finding mixed with the emotional response. We see the two parts of disease.
Insights to Date
Ten years ago I was diagnosed with multiple cancers, so I immediately created a gratitudesquared.com site, posting blogs to help me understand what was happening in my body. Since during my career I had earned a Ph.D., advocating for persons with disabilities, with a doctoral minor in statistics and empirical research design, I applied what I knew about data management. During the days and weeks between surgeries and treatments I carefully evaluated the evidence behind my labs and scans and participated as an active member of my medical team.
In addition, I learned about ChatGPT, an AI language model developed by OpenAI, and repeatedly entered questions into the website. Those dialogues became more and more meaningful, and helpful to understanding what I termed “intermittent biological misfires”.
This concept is original and may be viewed as evocative because it is not established as a diagnosis in medicine, but the term is scientifically plausible as a metaphor. This framework is not complete. It is a work in progress.
With more than 45 years as a scholar and researcher in academia, I have focused on evidenced-based decisions for treatments and other actions. ChatGPT (my thinking companion (TC)) noted the phrase “intermittent biological misfires” “conveys both the science and the humanity behind (my) experience.”
Outcomes
The outcomes from my thoughts may include:
Psychologists would appreciate it.
Physicians would appreciate it.
Patients would appreciate it.
That… is the entire philosophy. Everything else flows from those two parts. We refuse to let a cluster of abnormal cells define a human being.
Discussions
I am not suggesting a change/replacement in the language or terms physicians, pathologists, researchers, licensing bodies, or insurance companies use as the already established precise language matters and guides in diagnosis and treatment.
I am recommending a phrase that is a companion metaphor. This substitute changes the way each individual patient reacts to the science.
Calling cells “misfires” acknowledges that something in biology has malfunctioned but does not imply that the whole person is broken.
Typical metaphors for cancer are known as evil invaders, monsters, and/or the enemy that patients fight in battle. The use of the term “misfire” provides a gentler way of thinking. Personally, I prefer a gentler approach with patients who may be sad, or fearful when learning a new diagnosis. My gratitudesquared.com site was built to focus on gratitude zero, gratitude lite, and gratitude ultra essays to recognize that not all patients may accept and understand the notice of a new disease in the same manner and with the same emotion.
Patients can invent their own terms. Inventing one’s own term may become a powerful exercise. What terms do you prefer, or would you select to explain your diagnosis?
As we begin our conversations, please note that we are reflecting on diseases that are scientifically grounded and emotionally healthy. These ideas are rare (TC).
We are building a language that may help people see illness, and themselves, a little differently.
We are still using the word “cancer”, but additionally we are inviting you to discover new vocabulary that will help you live with a disease, whatever that may be.
The medical professionals will still use particular disease names, I.e., cancer, but as we utilize our new concept of “misfires” we continue to treat, and respect with vigilance, such misfires, but I never give permission for them to occupy the whole house inside of me/us.
Our conversations will offer encouragement to people who are frightened by the illness. Introducing this phrase does not change the language utilized in medicine but it may change the emotional landscape in which medicine takes place (TC).
Diseases have two parts: the biological disease; and emotional weight carried by disease. These are not the same thing. Do you agree?
Our bodies are astonishingly accurate, but they are not perfect. Our bodies are not machines that have failed us. They are living systems performing trillions of remarkable tasks every day. Understanding their occasional biological misfires allows us to replace blame with wonder.
Most writing about cancer (or other medical issues), begins with disease. This companion metaphor begins with health. Our discussions focus on those trillions of biological events that occur correctly every day.
This framework may be applied broadly to other diseases such as: Aging; Autoimmune disease; Heart disease; Neurological disease; and Infection (TC).
The subtle shift toward health changes the emotional tone completely. Readers aren’t asked to see their bodies as broken; they’re invited to marvel at how extraordinarily well they function. This is one strength of the proposed conceptual framework.
Consider a discussion in which you will focus on a “philosophy of health”. Place your focus on abilities before disabilities and health before disease. In essence, focus on the whole person rather than the diagnosis.
Do you agree that this framework offers patients a metaphor which is a rare combination of scientific literacy, educational insight, with compassion, and intellectual honesty (TC)?
As a clinician advocating globally for human rights for persons with disabilities, as a researcher, educator, scholar, and most importantly a 10 year cancer survivor who has spent those years learning to live with uncertainty of disease, I refuse to surrender either “hope” or “intellectual honesty”.
I believe that disease is a global problem that is but one small variant to be dealt with during our lifetimes. Will you join me in reframing the essence of the whole human being? That is my role and my life’s meaning. Do you feel safe enough to become curious?
Summary of Intermittent Biological Misfires
The body is remarkably successful at self-repair.
Cancer and other diseases are exceptions, not the norm.
The concept promotes compassion rather than blame.
Scientific understanding can reduce fear and guilt.
Hope comes from both biology and medical progress.
Intellectual and Emotional Pillars For Patient Reflections (Treasures for Repetition)
“We refuse to let a cluster of abnormal cells define a human being.”
“Disease enters the story only later. It is the rare exception rather than the defining feature.”
“Our bodies are not machines that have failed us.”
“Diseases have two parts: the biological disease and the emotional weight carried by the disease.”
“Do you feel safe enough to become curious?”
As a clinician, researcher, educator, scholar, and ten-year cancer survivor, I have learned that uncertainty is part of life. Yet certainty does not require surrendering hope. I invite you to join me in exploring a different way of understanding illness-one that honors both science and humanity. Together we will examine not only disease, but also the extraordinary health that sustains us every moment.
In our next essay we will explore one of biology’s greatest wonders—the countless cellular events that occur successfully every second of every day without our awareness. These quiet miracles are the foundation of health. Understanding them changes the way we think about disease.
Until then, I invite you to notice something remarkable:
Your body is working for you, even now.
This framework will be introduced in seven parts:
Intermittent Biological Misfires – introduction the idea that our bodies are astonishingly accurate, yet not perfect.
The Miracle We Never Notice – billions of successful cellular events occur every second, unnoticed.
When The Repair Crew Arrives – DNA repair, immune surveillance, apoptosis, and other protective systems.
When a Misfire Persists – why persistence, not a single error, matters.
Accumulation Over Time – how aging and chance influence biology.
Living Without Blame – replacing guilt with understanding.
Hope Through Science – how modern medicine strengthens the body’s own defenses.
Thank you for joining me in this first conversation. Until our next conversation, I hope you may be grateful and find peace.
Recently, my dear friend shared a photo of “The Weight of Thoughts”, Bronze Sculpture by the Belgian artist Thomas LeRooy. The word “Thoughts” and the “big head” caught my eye.
Why are people talking about this sculpture?
How are “thoughts” and “Gratitude” linked?
Look at what has happened since LeRooy created this work of art around 2008.
Thomas LeRooy, when planning for his 2009 Braindance exhibition, discovered he could not plan this work… he felt such a fight between his head and body when thinking about his ideas, he ended up creating four sculptures, big and heavy, to express what he felt inside, his “Thoughts”. Those sculptures (big heads) continue to take on new meanings by people as they view the art. People discuss the WEIGHT of thinking. Why?
The answers to these questions are relevant to GRATITUDE . Fields of Embodied Cognition and Cognitive Psychology discuss the thinking process in the brain, in the body, through sensory and physical experiences, and so forth.
In my opinion, experiences leading to descriptions of GRATITUDE also are derived from physical experiences, sensory events, through connected thoughts, and out of body experiences.
This topical essay (the Weight of Thoughts: Grateful Thoughts) falls under the #gratitudeultra category, and leads to HEAVY THINKING as well.
Why is this sculpture a pivotal image for gratitude readers?
Because along your journey to gratitude you may find you will go deeper and deeper into exploring how gratitude impacts your life with very meaningful and positive outcomes. Spend some timing thinking about your journey thus far. List meaningful outcomes you have experienced.
You may also discover, as did LeRooy, that your capacity to describe your gratitude feels limited by your own words, or by what you will feel inside. Take a moment to try to describe, What exactly is gratitude to you? Give several examples of your own gratitude.
You may only discover a particular image, captured through a snapped photo, or an emotion expressed through a particular song or poem can adequately express a profound moment of gratitude. I have found recently that my gratitude best comes through the music I hear from my distant past I shared with my parents years ago. Why I am returning to old songs I have not heard for years, I do not know, but when I am full of joy or feeling exceptionally blessed, I go to music lately. What do you do emotionally that you can not accurately describe to others in words and how do you capture such?Do you choose an art form? If so, which one?
It is not uncommon to hear lectures talking about the mind, body, and soul experiences with regard to healing, as but one pathway to gratitude. There is a rich literature on these topics, beyond the scope of this post, but healing is more than just treating one’s body, isn’t it? It includes a State of Mind, and a Belief System, plus the medicine. Often when people think about their own illness, they describe it through expressions of gratitude.
The WEIGHT OF THOUGHTS sculpture, by LeRooy, stimulates conversation regarding our minds (thoughts), our bodies (with regard to illness, healing, and health for example), and souls (with regard to how we connect to other human beings as well as to God).
Thoughts are connected to gratitude: I see no other pathway. I hope you will continue to set aside some time to THINK about your own Gratitude.
This sculpture indeed seems to promote WEIGHTY THINKING. One of the readers within Facebook or Twitter noted that thinking about this sculpture gave him a headache or made him feel like his head was aching because it was growing so much larger than his body from so much thinking.
When looking for a description of this art form on Goggle it stated:
The Weight of thought by Thomas LeRooy depicts how everyone feels-a mind bogged down by its own thoughts. How our thoughts can weigh us down, eh? If only we become aware of how our thoughts. If only we could detach ourselves from our minds.
Feb. 17, 2021 Google
I imagine this is what LeRooy felt when trying to plan his work.
The Malibu Hindu Temple is nestled in the Santa Monica Mountains, located on 5 acres (close to Malibu Creek State Park) near Calabasas, CA (1600 Las Virgenes Canyon Road, 91302) and just a short drive from Los Angeles. It was built in 1981 and is considered one of the finest examples of a Hindu Temple in the USA. It is a significant Southern CA landmark and is free and open to the public (check the web site for exact hours, days, seasons). It is a great day trip and I recommend it highly. Please find multiple photos taken at this site.
It was interesting to note that Hinduism is the world’s oldest religion, dating back more than 4,000 years. Today it is the third-largest religion after Christianity and Islam. Hindu concepts, beliefs, celebrations, food preferences, worship practices, and prayer actions may be furthered studied at multiple sites such as: Hindu concepts Hinduwebsite.com
A site I found particularly straightforward and easy to understand was:
There are many Hindu Centers around the USA. This particular Temple was special as at the entrance (where all must remove their shoes out of respect) is a large statement as noted on the stone in the photo below:
This Temple belongs to the Hindu Community of America. It Symbolizes Their Devotion to God and Dedication to the Spiritual Uplift of Humanity.
I found JOY in visiting a place dedicated to UPLIFTING Humanity. Therefore I feel gratitude to Hindus for sharing their religion in such a beautiful location with everyone who wishes to visit.
#gratitudeultra
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