Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Day 12 of Hyperbaric Dive
Rubedo IX
The Eye in which I see God
is the same eye in which
God sees me;
my eye and God’s eye,
that is one eye
and one seeing
and one recognizing
and one loving.
-Meister Eckhart
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy is giving me a new sight in which to see God. I notice while driving to the clinic the other day that traffic signs in the distance seem unusually hazy, while objects close to me in the car seem quite distinct. I mention this to Ruth, my hyperbaric technician for the day, and she informs me that myopia, or nearsightedness, is a temporary side effect of the oxygen treatments, due to the pressure on the lens of the eye. She says that usually this side effect doesn’t show up so early in the treatment, but assures me that it will go away after the HBOT treatments are complete.
It’s a perceptual shift which has also ushered in a change in consciousness. I notice how I am in a state of being-ness most of the time these days – relaxed, open, at peace. I see what is present around me with a sense of spaciousness and wonder, not concerned about the far-reaching horizons. I feel like a middle-aged baby with the eyes of change, as I stroll out of the hyperbaric clinic after my session and into the calming landscape of the building’s courtyard. I gaze up at the shimmering, blurred canopy of pale green maple leaves as I make my way to a sunny bench by a cascading fountain. I sit and rest and eat my snack of tangerines and trail mix. Nothing to do, nowhere to go.
The oxygen is dissolving my usual agendas, softening the rough edges of striving and control to a place of essential being. It’s a quiet reconfiguring, and yet profound. A state of grace for which I am deeply grateful…
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Day 13 of Hyperbaric Dive
Alchemical Communion III
I felt an angel’s possessing grip, the flames
rising from your skin,
the shadow of the Divine.
-EDWARD HIRSCH
“Rubedo IX” and “Alchemical Communion III,” 4x6” collages on paper from The Oracle of Alchemy, ©2006-2011 by Colette de Gagnier. To order prints from this series, please visit Alchemy of the Divine and Colette's Visionary Art Gallery.
To learn more about Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy and Advanced Hyperbaric Recovery of Marin, please visit ImproveHealing.com
