WHEELA RECOVERY FROM CHRONIC PAIN AND

DISCOVERY OF NEW ENERGY

Sylvia Hawthorn-Deppen

Copyright © 2012 Sylvia Hawthorn-Deppen

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Th e author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. Th e intent of the author is only to off er information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Th inkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.Certain stock imagery © Th inkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-4525-5565-2 (sc)ISBN: 978-1-4525-5566-9 (hc)ISBN: 978-1-4525-5564-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012913023

Printed in the United States of America

Balboa Press rev. date: 09/26/2012

v

Contents

Dedication .........................................................................................................xiForeword ......................................................................................................... xiii

Introduction Why Are We Ill?Chapter 1 ..........................................xvPart I ................................................................................................................... 1

A City Girl in the CountryChapter 2 .................................................. 3Heavenly Mother from Hell ....................................................... 4My Shy, Yet Eloquent, Father ..................................................... 6Byron the Punster........................................................................ 8Tiny Girl with a Monkey Grin .................................................. 9Farm Life .................................................................................... 10Th e Fumes of City Life ............................................................. 11Th e Dolls .................................................................................... 19An Unpredictable Grandpa ...................................................... 20More about Our Home ............................................................ 21Dance in the Living Room........................................................ 23Th e Roof Garden....................................................................... 29Entering a Dark Tunnel ............................................................ 30School Days ............................................................................... 32Nurse Nancy .............................................................................. 39Dive for Safety ........................................................................... 41

I’ve Got a Brand-New Pair of Roller Skates, Chapter 3 You’ve Got a Brand-New Key ........................................... 44

Th e Antics of Bonnie and Clyde ............................................. 49Going My Way .......................................................................... 67

SpinningChapter 4 .............................................................................. 91Dream, Dream, Dream … ........................................................ 93

Mile-High HillChapter 5 .................................................................116Th e Plan ...................................................................................121Little House on Twenty-Fourth Street .................................131

vi

Faith Is the Bird........................................................................138As It Happened .......................................................................139

Part Two .........................................................................................................146Th e Walk to Find What Was MissingChapter 6 ...........................148

Happy, Healthy, and Holy … .................................................154Th e Magic of Mind Training .................................................156Miracles ....................................................................................157

Happy, Healthy, and WholeChapter 7 ............................................162Life on Life’s TermsChapter 8 ..........................................................165

Th e Pleasure of Working ........................................................171Powerlessness and Unmanageability: Chapter 9 God, Grant Me the Serenity to Accept the Th ings I Cannot Change … ...........................................................................181

Where My “Th ere” Is: ..............................................................183Th e Courage to Change the Th ings I Can … .......................186And the Wisdom to Know the Diff erence ...........................187

An InventoryChapter 10 .....................................................................189Th e Grief Process ....................................................................198

SteppingChapter 11 Forward ..............................................................199Another step … .......................................................................204Spirit as defi ned by Websterxi .................................................204Spirit and My Animals ...........................................................206

Th e Diminishment of Suff ering and the Chapter 12 Eleventh Step ....................................................................212

Wheel: Who of us has not been drawn—reeling, barreling—into the twenty-fi rst century? Who among us has found peace and quiet? ..............................................214

Working with ChakrasChapter 13 ....................................................217And the Last Shall Be FirstChapter 14 .............................................221

Th e Promises ...........................................................................222On Sponsorship .......................................................................223

A Chapter 15 Healed Healer ...............................................................225Meetings: A Room Full of MirrorsChapter 16 ................................228As I Look BackChapter 17 .................................................................231AppendixChapter 18 ...........................................................................234

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Chronic Pain Anonymousxix ...................................................234Half measures avail us nothing. .............................................235In Closing .................................................................................236

Endnotes ........................................................................................................239

ix

Hello, my name is Sylvia, and I have lived with chronic pain for fi fty-eight years. Today I still have the pain, but I no longer suff er. I got

my life back. Hurrah, I won, and so can you!Th is book tells a little bit of what it was like to live with chronic pain,

what happened, and what it is like now. In recovery, this is called experience, strength, and hope. Now I have a fuller and more pleasurable life. I do not mean to upset the apple cart as far as what your beliefs or thoughts might be concerning healing and spirituality, because it is not believing or thinking that really matter. Rather, it is about knowledge, and there can be no question about knowing. I merely ask that you keep an open mind … for only what is worthy shall I write.

xi

Dedication

I am dedicating this book to Kathleen L. Russell, deceased, who was my devoted counselor in the twelve-step process of recovery from chronic

pain. Ms. Russell introduced me to Louise Hay, the words “I am safe,” and the fi rm belief that fear is at the root of dis-ease. She also taught me that by facing this fear head-on, we can conquer it. Kathy, I am sorry you are no longer with us, but in a way you are with me more than ever—I can talk to you now anyplace and anytime. Th ank you for all you have taught me.

I need to honor one very faithful friend, Betty Burawski, with whom I attended a chronic pain group back in the nineties. She had an acoustic neuroma removed in 1974. Th is was a benign growth around the nerve to her left ear which caused her severe headaches and loss of balance. Because there was no laser surgery at the time, she was left almost totally incapacitated from the removal. It took extensive physical rehabilitation to bring her back, but that was only the beginning of her troubles. A cyst was left where the tumor had been and, as a result, it periodically fi lls with liquid and gives her headaches that often last as long as nine months. We sat together in our misery at those meetings. Betty, I hope you know how much I cherish our friendship.

I would be amiss were I not to mention the saints around us through all this, and they are the spouses and families. I am certain many a time they would like to have said in reference to our contorted faces, “Ah, get over it!” But they didn’t. Instead they just stood faithfully by and gave us the time and space we needed to fi nd healing.

Finally, I must not fail to give credit to the people in the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous, especially those who were with me early on: Diane N., Sondra D., Rachel W., Donna D., Cathy S., Tina H., Beth H. and her husband in sobriety, Fred J. Th ere are countless others, too many to name one-by-one, but we were all gifted with enough desperation to achieve and maintain our sobriety. My fi rst sponsor, Kris K., has made herself available to me now for ten years, and it is to her I owe gratitude for her

xii

steady guidance those fi rst, most diffi cult years. Ruth B., my third sponsor remains a good friend and honorable example—her active listening and deep wisdom have never failed me.

To all these people: I am your teacher and your student as the miracle continues to unfold.

Sylvia Deppen

xiii

Foreword

I have had the privilege of knowing Sylvia for many years and have known some of her story. However, this book details her story in a very intimate

and insightful way. Having come to know her in the later part of her journey, it is a joy to see her recovery and witness how she continues to share her story and help others fi nd pathways to their recoveries. Th is book is a message of hope and triumph of the human spirit—the healing spirit that exists in everyone that can be realized with the help of others and through meditation and prayer.

Russ MatthewsProgram SupervisorBehavioral HealthHoly Spirit HospitalCamp Hill, PA

xv

Introduction Why Are We Ill?

“Th ere is an advantage to bringing nightmares into awareness, but only to teach that they are not real, and that anything they contain is meaningless.”i

Have you ever wondered why, when two or more people are exposed to similar circumstances—same houses, same bacteria, same nutrition

and body types—one person can be stricken by an illness and the other(s) not? I have to also wonder why, when two people are diagnosed with the same illness at the same time, one succumbs quickly and the other stays in good health. Th e following is an example of this.

Th ere are two women I know who were diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at nearly the same time. One had a family that catered to her every need and demand, and she was soon in a wheelchair requiring help with the most basic of human needs—going to the toilet, taking a bath, and being fed. Th e other woman, who was the same age, had to work to support her little three-year-old daughter. Today the woman who had things done for her looks like she is at death’s doorway, and she sits helplessly waiting to die. She must frequently be totted off to the hospital because of panic attacks, during which she feels she is about to die. Th e other, who has the three-year-old making constant demands, is still working and has a full life. Why, can you imagine, has one gone downhill so rapidly while the other thrives?

xvi

Having found recovery from chronic illness myself in the last ten years, I am questioning the mentality of those who become ill as it relates to that of those who do not. A Course in Miracles has helped me to realize that all of life, including our perceived illnesses, is an illusion, and that in reality we are whole and well beings. It is not that our symptoms are not real—not at all—but our perception totally comes into play here.

I have noticed that I seldom become ill anymore. Why is this? Where years ago a cold could take a month to pass, today it will only last a few days at most—that is if I even catch one. Th e diff erence, I believe, is my indulgence in mindfulness and meditation. In other words, I keep my thoughts fl owing and positive, no longer fi xed on problematic thinking. Instead of the thought, “Oh, I’m sick—isn’t it awful!” my mind-set is, “Oh, I’m having symptoms, but I will feel better soon.” When one’s thinking goes in this direction, everything else gets better as well, not just one’s health. It has to be that my energy is free and fl owing, my chakras unblocked. I feel so blessed.

I recently met a young man with an affl iction called multiple sensitivities. He lives a boy in the bubble life—so sheltered. Perfume, cleaning agents and pesticides sprayed on the local crops send him into allergic reactions. He breaks out in rashes and becomes easily nauseated. I feel his depression, too, very deeply. In the brief periods of time I have had to speak with him, mostly because he is either too tired or sick to do so, I have told him how meditation can help him get in touch with deeply rooted, unconscious fears, and how doing so myself is how I fi nally healed. I tried to emphasize the fact that symptoms and illnesses are very, very real—just the permanency of the disease is not. Still, he rebuff s me. I have had to ask myself, “What holds him back from healing?”

For one thing, he is probably surrounded by too many enablers, the biggest of whom is his mother. My prayer for her son is that someday he is allowed enough space—time away from her—to let him adjust his self-image and decide for himself the direction of his life. Another thing is that his mother is an evangelical Christian and probably brought him up in a home where the suff ering of Christ on the cross planted in him the idea that he is a miserable sinner. I know this never helped me in my suff ering. I am so glad I fi nally invested in A Course in Miracles to sway my thoughts, because I learned that all of life is about a kind of forgiveness, the Creator’s, of which

xvii

none of us are devoid. Th is realization is what fi nally heals. It’s okay the young man rebuff ed me, because someday he’ll see I was not judging him. Rather, I was seeing him as he really is: whole.

While with this young man I am also with my elderly aunt who suff ers from an ongoing depression. I must be unusually sensitive to these situations because they cause me great sadness. But in departing from the arena of dis-ease I am reminded to be a healed healer, and that the reason I was put into such circumstances was to learn one lesson: forgiveness.

I thank God and the many spirits that comprise Him for the ability to see through the sadness around me. I constantly have to remind myself that it is all an illusion—as the course puts it, “Everything is an idea.”ii Everything is an illusion from which my fellow humans will someday awaken and see themselves in the perfect light by which the Creator sees them. Ah, yes, the light— one does not have to be a character in the television series Th e Ghost Whisperer to see it. We can walk in it all the time by merely turning away from any perceived darkness.

I have wrapped my life up in these few pages. But more than the story of my life, it is the key to becoming a healthier, happier person. If there is only one person out there who I will have helped by writing this, it will have been worth it. Love, fullness of living, and wellness are all there really is; the rest is pure fi ction. Please, fi nd this truth in your life too. Be happy, healthy, and whole. It is the only way to be.

1

PART I

For now we see through a glass darkly …

3

CHAPTER 1

A City Girl in the Country

Wheel: Who of us has not been drawn—reeling, barreling—into the twenty-fi rst century? Who

among us has found peace and quiet?

Wheel going around and around, clicking, spinning, driving me further into life, away from, toward. Where have I

begun, where have I been, and where am I going? I just keep pedaling around and around … I saw what I saw, I see

what I see, and I will see what there is to see. Oh, wheel going around and around, clicking, spinning, driving me further,

further, further … When I stop, nobody knows; where I stop, I know not either. I just am, I just am, I … just … am …

I … am … I … am … I … I … I … am … am … am …

Since I was a young girl of twelve, growing up on my grandparents’ farm outside Carlisle, Pennsylvania, I have grown accustomed to the

steady roll of bicycle wheels beneath me. My brother and I—sometimes just myself—would ride out of the city of Harrisburg to the marvelous quiet of

4

Sylvia Hawthorn-Deppen

the country. Who else but the children of driven business folks, like our parents, would have the inner drive to ride those gruesome seventeen miles of country hills—up, down, up, down? We were all driven people: Mother, Father, Brother Byron, and me, Sylvia. My sister, Wendy, came along years later as a kind of surprise package to our dear, tormented mother, for she was often overwhelmed by the rigors of raising a family and running a business. Yes, the business—photofi nishing and cameras—was our father’s kind of baby. For over forty-fi ve years, it grew and grew, until it was almost too much for the both of them.

HEAVENLY MOTHER FROM HELL

Mother, I believe, suff ered the most. She would try to mother the employees. Th e dear woman seemed to have no personal boundaries. If an employee was having a hard time at home that a fi nancial boost of advance pay that Father occasionally off ered would not remedy, she did her best to fi nd him or her the kind of help needed. She was, indeed, a self-made social worker. Years later, when I started giving my parents more and more problems, she grew to become my social worker too. I was a troubled child, and she was going to fi nd help for me.

Trouble? Yes, I was known as this beginning in my early teens, and I grew worse as an adolescent. It became very apparent when I got even older and had a daughter of my own. Th e older I got, the more I blamed Mother for all my problems: It’s all your fault, Mother! Even though I did not say this out loud, I screamed it on the inside. She was, indeed, a responsible business person and commanded respect from her employees. She showed them compassion, and they usually returned her gestures of kindness with thanks. She was so caring. But when it came to being a mother, she admitted, “I just don’t know how to be a mother.”

Th ere were two aspects of my life she thoroughly encouraged. One was my singing. In third grade, she solicited our Melrose Elementary School music teacher, Miss Malon, to come to our home and give me voice lessons. I remember her telling this lovely young lady, who had blonde, wavy hair to her shoulders and shapely hips under a tight skirt, how I was always swinging and singing like a little bird out on our roof garden. Th ose were very peaceful and personal times for me—a time to be by myself and only

WHEEL

5

myself. But quite honestly, I did not want to sing for anyone else. I was encouraged to sing in the church choir. Years later, I sang mostly at weddings and at a few funerals. An incident when I was six years old should have been the end to me performing for the public.

We were members of the Methodist church up the street, and one Easter, Mother volunteered me to sing and play my little autoharp. It was my fi rst public performance, and I can remember not being very happy about it. I was so nervous I bit my fi ngernails to the quick. Mother had me do the piece for her several times before she thought I might be ready. Th en there I sat on a small wooden chair, harp on my lap on the rise of our sanctuary. Th e words to “Rock of Ages”—only three of them—were uttered on key, and I played two chords on the harp. Th en, as if on some cue from heaven, I stopped. I froze. I sat there in utter, ghastly silence. Neither words nor chords came to me. Not only was I totally embarrassed, but Father also took me by the hand the whole way home, uttering, “Never again, never again,” over and over.

For years as I grew up and sang at all those weddings, I blamed this little fi asco for my inability to put words with the proper notes of music. I struggled and struggled to live up to this ideal. But I couldn’t; I just couldn’t. Not only that, but when I was with the choir Sunday mornings, I was also the one person in the bunch who would process in and out like a lost duckling. I would invariably go up the wrong aisle or in the wrong direction. Th is again brought me such grief and embarrassment. I don’t know how I ever got in front of an audience again. What was wrong with me? All the other kids seemed to get it right. Many a choir director would shake his or her head in disbelief at my blunders.

Another thing Mother encouraged in me was writing. Again in third grade, we were to write a personal diary. I remember sitting at my small wooden secretary and pouring thoughts out onto paper. Mother was a writer of children’s books. She was, however, frustrated in her endeavors to get her books published, but she did manage to get one book published, twice: a Golden Book titled How to Tell Time in Rhyme. Many years later, she struggled to get another book, How to Do Times Tables in Rhyme, on store shelves and in schools. Th is latter book got her in some trouble.

Our daughter was in fourth grade and learning the times tables, and Mother brought her new, unpublished book to the school. Apparently she