by sylvia guinan salis

Created on: May 02, 2008

"I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake", (George Bernard Shaw)

Inspired action is the prayerful manifestation of the soul's desires. Optimism and faith define my personal response to difficulties in life. With these bedfellows, problems become challenges and challenges become opportunities.The premature birth of my twins called forth resources from deep within my soul, which, to this day, has strengthened my entire being both emotionally and physically. How I dealt with this situation involved a mental, spiritual and physical process.

Initial awareness of the problem

As I recovered just hours after a painful caesarean, I lay in ignorance as to the fate of my twins, a boy and girl, born nine weeks early due to premature rupture of membranes. I was then faced with the tortured look on my husband's face as he told me that they weighed less than three pounds each and that my baby boy could not breathe without full ventilator support. I had a vague idea that most premature babies survive nowadays and tried to comfort my husband but his beaten look and desperate expression betrayed his poignant fears.

Take stock of the situation, visualize, and be grateful

In that moment, looking at my husband, I felt sore, cheated, sad, lonely, lost, helpless, and painfully empty. Drugs, exhaustion and confusion were taking their toll, but in a bid for sanity and strength I got my twin books from my suitcase and read up on all the complications of premature birth. For each unhealthy or life threatening condition I read about, be it eyes, brain or stomach, I visualized with a vivid ferocity, a beautiful mind, perfect sight, functioning lungs and digestive system. I thanked God for my babies and was grateful that they were in good hands. There is nothing more tangible than the vision a mother has of her healthy child, and no greater joy than the grace of experiencing this vision as a truth from deep within the psyche. This feeling is everything and dispels all doubt. This feeling is your soul's communion with life.

Believe, know, act

When your soul is telling you all is well, it is felt as an indescribable sense of relief, hope and strength. This is the belief, the knowing part of you that leads you to inspired action. When the doctors offered me pills to dry up my breast milk, I knew what to do. I had already breast fed my first child and had read and extolled on the benefits of breastfeeding. "No formula can

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