Medicine

"Not all medicine needs to be ingested. Some is heard, some seen, some is felt."  This is a quote from Dr.V.
That quote gets me thinking about the things that bring the most healing into our lives.  It makes me think about the things that can touch my own life with much more significance than any meds that are put into my body.  I am not knocking meds, I would likely not be alive without them.
It makes me stop and think about the things I have heard.  A piece of music that is so touching it is beyond words of explanation.  It brings a soothing into me that can calm the brewing storm that threatens to rise.  The music that moves me to the point that I can't stand still.  I have to move.  It plucks away at my mood, helping me to change it.  The music that is so familiar that I am automatically singing along to it at the top of my lungs.  All, medicine for my soul.  When my mood is *ugly* I often feel the pain in my body more intensely. For me, change the mood, change the pain level, works more often than not.
It is not only in music.  The sounds around me make a difference.  Running water in nature is a sound that can take me to another place.  I find some of the greatest peace there.  A baby giggling with all that they are, always brings a smile to my face.  It can be so contagious, regardless of my mood.  Hearing the voices of those that I know care about me, reminding me that I am loved, that I am strong, that they care.... these give me added strength.  They can be the medicine that I hear that helps me take one more step or tackle one more issue.  Those sounds, all of them, can be the medicine that means the difference between success and failure on my part.   For me they can bring healing and peace and wholeness and sometimes in ways I had in no way expected.
What have I seen that was as a medicine to me?  The face of a person I didn't know was coming to visit and I hadn't seen in years.  An elderly couple walking hand in hand.  A piece of art that played on my emotions. An elephant, almost any elephant, for some reason brings a smile to my face.  The open arms of one who loves me, beckoning me into them.  The spanking implement held in the hand of one who means to use it on me.  Eyes filled with compassion.  Books I have read that open my eyes to something different.  The success of someone I care about.  The passing from this life into death of the man I held in my arms.
What I see with all of these things are they address me, (or us) as a whole person, not just flesh and bone.  There is another quote from Dr.V. that goes something like this:  Why seek out a healer that profits from illness?  That speaks volumes to me about treating the whole person that I am.  I am much more than what can be seen easily and on x-ray.  There is medicine, in the sense that Dr.V. is using it, all around each of us.  There for the taking if we wish.