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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Positively Health – The resilient power of love

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Tim MitchinsonIndividuals around the country are searching for ways to help returning veterans cope with the mental confusion and distress so many feel. And, solutions are being found in creative and unexpected approaches.

Dave Keeler is a volunteer with the group, “Divine Canines,” that brings service dogs to soldiers diagnosed with PTSD. “Dogs offer unconditional love – it’s their sweet nature. This is the power of love – and love heals,” Dave told me.

There are many ways to express and feel that unconditional love that restores health. But what if there was a love a million times greater than human or animal love?

Health researcher, Mary Baker Eddy, went through years of discouragement, abandonment, grief and illness. Eventually, her deep love of the Bible, led her to better understand the all-powerful love of God. She realized that this divine, absolute love, is with all of us, and aids individuals in finding and restoring their mental clarity. Her grief and illnesses were healed.

Could it be that what dogs really do is simply express this more powerful Love; and, that brings healing?

Here’s how it happened recently. Keeler went out to Fort Hood Military Base in Texas to meet a soldier diagnosed with PTSD. He began talking, but the soldier did not respond. Maggie (Dave’s dog) just sat next to the soldier. Soon she rolled over, placed her head upside down on his boot and looked up at him.

The soldier smiled and began to talk. Soon, he began playing fetch with Maggie – talking, smiling, laughing.

After about an hour, the soldier had to go back to his barracks. He rubbed Maggie’s head and thanked Keeler. After the two parted, an Army therapist came out and asked Keeler if he knew what had just happened.

“That soldier hasn’t talked since he arrived here – three months ago!” she exclaimed. She added that it was truly an amazing thing she had just witnessed and thanked him.

Maggie didn’t talk to the soldier about God’s love for him, but he probably could feel it shining through the stress and trauma he is experiencing. And, it can be a powerful agent to dissolve mental anguish and restore resiliency – the ability to bounce back.

If dogs can do it, can’t we all help others feel the unconditional, divine Love that brings better health into our lives?

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Thomas (Tim) Mitchinson
Thomas (Tim) Mitchinsonhttp://www.csillinois.com
Naperville resident, Thomas (Tim) Mitchinson, writes on the relationship between thought, spirituality and health, and trends in that field. He is also the media spokesman for Christian Science in Illinois. You can contact him at illinois@compub.org.

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