Lessons Learned from Pecans and Cadavers
A house that I owned when my daughter was very young was in a neighborhood that was filled with pecan trees. Pecans littered the sidewalks and yards every year, and we would walk or ride bikes around the streets and literally pick them up off the ground and eat them. The first time my (now) husband saw us do this, he freaked out, thinking it was somehow unsafe (you know, since it was not in a plastic package at the store). But he quickly came to our side of doing things (God bless him, he usually does) and began not only to eat the pecans but the abundant and delicious pears from a tree in our back yard. He also enjoyed fresh rosemary and tomatoes and lettuces from my lovely Italian neighbors who kept gardens and smuggled fig trees in their yard. This was the most effortless and amazing way to eat, and I never expected to experience that in the middle of a small city neighborhood.
Fast forward to present day. I was having an interesting conversation with some medical students who had recently done a lab where they worked with cadavers. Their sense of amazement, wonder, awe, and respect of the human body and all of its internal magnificence was evident in their speech. They had a profound experience working with these bodies and a new vision of how things that our eyes are normally not privy to looked and functioned.
What is the connection between these two events? Just this: the design of God is exquisite, down to every detail in everything in existence. For instance, we are told by nutritionists and doctors that pecans and other nuts should be eaten sparingly. Ask any kid who has ridden their bike around, eating pecans off of the ground: nuts are really difficult to get into. It’s like they are designed perfectly to be hard to overeat because it takes so much work. When given the chance to see the hidden world of the human body, one comes to understand the profound miracle that one cell knows to be a liver cell and another cell knows to be a heart cell and how no computer can even compare to the intricate inner workings of all these beautiful things.
Take some time today and deeply appreciate the beautiful design of your life and of the life all around you. Instead of looking for things to criticize about your body, appreciate it the way those medical students do. See the miracles and the exquisite designs in you and around you….and guess what: they will show themselves more and more.
Amy Allen is a transformative healer and teacher of wisdom and success methods, conducting private healing sessions and teaching Lit from Within workshops for health, happiness, and positive self-esteem and body image. Whether clients struggle to love themselves and their bodies from a lack of self-care or a drive for perfection, they will experience a powerful and embodied transformation through Amy’s work, which directly addresses mind, body, and spirit.
She has been doing this work for over 15 years and has worked with hundreds of people to live healthier and happier lives through her unique blend of compassion, difficult truths, and humor. Her diverse training and scope of practice includes the world’s religions, philosophies, and healing methods. To visit her website, go to www.litfromwithin.net.
