Althea: A Story of Love
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My only task, my highest priority, is to decide how I can best love Althea right now. Allowing her to be—to grow uncontrolled—brings unconditional love through me to her. Without constraints, without conditions, without motives, unconditional love grows within and around you.
All I have to do is let this happen. Deciding how to best let it be is my true choice. The quality of our life is measured by what we choose during the time we are given. If there is remorse in our hearts, then we have chosen something other than what our hearts want. If our choices have made us miserable, maybe we should choose differently. A wise person told me at an early age: Choose from your heart and you will live a wondrous life.
Measuring Althea’s progress or state of healing was all about me. Comparing her abilities against those of her past was all about me. I was fooled by her physical body in thinking there was something wrong. I was fooled into thinking she was no longer the same. She was alive, unchanged, trapped inside of a body that now responded differently, and I was not prepared for that. I expected her to be as she once was, and not what she had grown to be. I was wrong. I did not love her unconditionally.
In misunderstanding this, I inappropriately interacted with her believing what my eyes showed me, rather than what my heart knew to be true. During her recovery process, I underestimated her abilities and treated her as if she were incapable of responding to my questions. Why would I continue to treat her in an inferior and somewhat condescending way if my heart knew she was better than that?
Realizing that Althea’s physical appearance had nothing to do with her mental condition proved to be a profound revelation. Although while recovering from her stroke she may not have appeared to understand or be Present, the truth is she was very much so, and my personal biases blinded me from this truth.
Almost two years later, Althea is back to her old self and as close to one hundred percent recovered as one can be. She is joking, laughing, and acting silly. This resurgence of strength and clarity is fantastic to see and a long time coming. Our life has returned to normal but we are stronger and much closer than ever before. We have learned many things on this adventure but the most treasured was the lesson of unconditional love.
The most extraordinary things we accomplish in life are insignificant
when compared to the subtlest things we do for love.
Philip Rastocny, April 2, 2010
So now it is time for you to love and be loved. One day, you may find yourself lying in a hospital bed waiting for your loved one to appear. Or you may be rushing to visit that loved one, with confusion and emotion in your heart. Whatever the case, remember this: treat each other with unconditional love and dignity. Speak honestly from your heart and you will have a wonderful life. Expect more from yourself and you will find strength and truth. Take all of the time that is needed for you to be present in every interaction and pause to enjoy those special moments in life.
Learn to love from your heart and teach each other to do the same.
Porcupine Quill Medicine Wheel
Mitakueye Oyasin
(We are all related)
Biography
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A spiritual being having a human experience, Philip Rastocny has led an interesting life in this body. Upon his soul’s entry into physical form, Philip felt in touch with his spirit from a very early age. Questioning the interpretation of reality presented by his own senses, the only truth he found was his connection with the Creator. Exploring the mysteries of life and searching for the answers to classic questions like Why am I here? and What is life all about? made his personal spirituality his primary focus.
While in youthful physical form, Philip’s Karma attracted him to science and math thereby embracing the fascinating mechanical aspects of life. Marveling at how things worked, he was intrigued by complex designs. At age six, he routinely disassembled clocks, lamps, and play toys reassembling them all without a hitch. Building blocks and left over hardware scraps were a huge source of entertainment and an outlet for his creativity.
His inquiring spirit found a similar fascination with personal relationships. In them, he discovered something new—his emotions transcended physical form and bonded with his insatiable search for understanding. Puzzled by the conflicting priorities between the heart and the mind, he sought balance after permitting his mind to manage—and correspondingly ruin—these relationships.
Along his passionate journey, he consistently chose love and desired to experience it at its highest level. While enjoying the physical form, love’s emotional intensity far exceeded anything his body desired. Like dissecting a clock, he wanted to explore all there was to know about this unique feeling. Love is still his primary journey, and one that appears to have no end.
When finding his soul mate, Althea, their immediate attraction was like two magnets jumping towards each other, and his journey seemed complete. From the first moments of their meeting they were inseparable. Different from enmeshment, their respect and encouragement for individual choice and unquestioning support led them to live a life of unconditional love and happiness that poets ponder.
1 It wasn’t until much later that I understood the full reason for this choice. Trusting Althea knew something I did not, knowing her well enough to understand there was a good reason for her to not go in the helicopter, was good enough for me at that time. She eventually recalled this: she feared the pressure changes in altitude would affect her head causing her blood vessel to re-rupture and bleed even more into her head, possibly taking her life while en route to the hospital.