Homespun Healers

I am sure by now that most of you have heard the story about the scientific experiment conducted in the 1950’s with a bunch of Japense monkeys on an island in Koshima.  The scientist would drop sweet potatoes in the sand for the monkeys, and while the monkeys loved the taste of the sweet potato; they did not like the taste of the sand.  Yet, they ate them sand and all.  Until one day, an 18 month old female monkey ventured away from the norm in her own little community, and started washing her sweet potato in a nearby stream.  She then taught this trick to her mother, who also began washing her sweet potatoes in the stream. She also taught this trick to her playmates, who in turn taught their mothers to wash their sweet potatoes the same way. Only the adults who were willing to imitate the new behavior of their children learned this social improvement. The rest continued to eat dirty sweet potatoes.

The most amazing thing that the scientists noted is that within a few years, almost all of the monkeys were washing their sweet potatoes before eating them. Not only that, but somehow, in a way we do not fully understand, since the awareness of so many monkeys on that island had shifted, the scientists discovered that the concept of washing sweet potatoes had jumped across the sea to another sect of monkeys who had never witnessed the behavior. The scientists then noted, that when a certain critical number reach a new awareness, the awareness is somehow transferred “mind to mind.”  Until that certain number is reached, the awareness remains the property of those within the group.  To me, this is mind boggling, but also a message full of hope.

Considering all of the above, imagine what the world would eventually be like, if each person dared to stray from old thought patterns that no longer serve the whole of society well.  Imagine if every person dared to think that my neighbor and myself are one and the same. Wouldn’t we embrace everyone?  What if we no longer thought in terms of ”me and mine”, and realized that this also encompasses “you and your’s?”  What if we began to understand that your pain is my pain, and your victories are my victories?  What if we layed all selfishness and greed down?   What if the critical mass number were reached and the idea began to spread across counties, across states, and across countries?  Peace would prevail. War would become extinct. Poverty would end. Love would rule supreme. 

All it takes is the courage to do something different. The courage to be different, to think different, to behave differently.  It all starts with one.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the whole world resounded: “Let it begin with me.”

Remove those ‘I want you to like me’ stickers from your forehead
and, instead, place them where they truly will do the most good –
on your mirror!

~ Susan Jeffers

“No matter how old a mother is, she watches her middle-aged children for signs of improvement.”_Florida Scott Maxwell

“A mother is not a person to lean on, but a person to make leaning unnecessary.”_Dorothy Canfield Fisher

“If you bungle raising your children, I don’t think whatever else you do well matters very much.”_Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

“A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie.”  ~Tenneva Jordan

“The moment a child is born, the mother is also born.  She never existed before.  The woman existed, but the mother, never.  A mother is something absolutely new.”  ~Rajneesh

“I remember my mother’s prayers and they have always followed me.  They have clung to me all my life.”  ~Abraham Lincoln

“The real religion of the world comes from women much more than from men – from mothers most of all, who carry the key of our souls in their bosoms.”  ~Oliver Wendell Holmes

“The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness.”  ~Honoré de Balzac

“An ounce of mother is worth a pound of clergy.”  ~Spanish Proverb

“When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts.  A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child. ” ~Sophia Loren

“A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts. ” ~Washington Irving