Healing

Dunbar senior point guard Corey Spence , injured in a car accident late last month, is ahead of schedule in his rehabilitation and could be back on the court by mid-January, Dunbar coach Cyrus Jones said. Spence suffered internal injuries, including a punctured lung, but could be practicing in two weeks. Shortly after the accident, there was question whether Spence would return at all in his senior season. "We need him back because he changes a whole lot of things we do. When he's in there, it makes a big difference for us," Jones said.

For over 40 years, Earth Day has sent a powerful message: that each of us has both the capacity and the duty to support the environment that sustains us. This is certainly a message that dedicated conservationists can get behind, but what about everyday people with busy lives, kids to raise and jobs to keep? For many, Earth Day has become a day of celebration rather than an urgent call to join a movement. Earth Day Network, the organization behind Earth Day, cites the impressive statistic that 1 billion people participate in Earth Day activities each year, making it the largest civic observance in the world.

The Jesuits (Society of Jesus) have a name for it - discernment. Discernment is basically a process of individual decision-making that attempts to get a glimpse of God's will apart from one's own ego. The raging debate on same-sex marriage brings this to mind ("A vote of conscience," Jan. 31). I am neither a theologian, philosopher nor a present or former Jesuit. Nor do I have an inside line on the will of God. I do have some abilities to reason and to process my own life's experiences, from which I make the following observations: If one looks to the Bible, I suspect a fairly sound case can be made against same-sex marriage.

Frostburg State's offense has been paced by the attack of junior Ryan Serio (Chesapeake-AA), sophomore Devin Colegrove (Dulaney) and freshman Spenser Love (Winters Mill), which has combined for 67 of the team's 150 goals and 44 of the 97 assists. And sophomore midfielder Chris Rios (14 goals and 18 assists) has also been instrumental. The unit has also been buoyed by the return of junior midfielders Devon Stailey and Lucas Flaig. Stailey has registered 10 goals and three assists while missing the first four games of the season due to a serious blood infection.

"The Power to Heal: Ancient Arts and Modern Medicine," a photo exhibit on the first floor of Harbor Hospital Center, will be open to the public from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. next Friday through Jan. 10.Part of the center's 90th anniversary celebration, the exhibit is international in scope and includes 60 color and black and white photographs illustrating health care and healing methods from around the world."Harbor Hospital Center is pleased to offer this exhibit to our Hospital Family and community during the holiday season, when caring and sharing are so prevalent in our thoughts and deeds," said Clark Jeunette, vice president of corporate communications for the hospital.

Darryl Strawberry credits his pastor and prayer for healing a separated left shoulder in time to face his former teammates, the New York Mets, last night at Dodger Stadium."

SAN FRANCISCO -- The massage room at the California Pacific Medical Center is open only a few hours each day, but demand is high from rattled doctors and anxious patients."

Most people don't think about breathing, but for Leveda Troy, breathing is the secret to living a fulfilled life.For the past year, the 48-year-old Mount Airy woman has been practicing a technique called "transformational breath," which involves modifying breathing patterns.Mrs. Troy says the results are nothing less than miraculous. She claims the breathing technique has given her self-confidence, healed a chronic hip problem and even helped her give up coffee."Transformation means change, and this type of breathing allows you to change all kinds of psychological patterns you're holding within your body," Mrs. Troy said.

The photographic images of injury, suffering and rehabilitation in Stephen John Phillips' exhibit "Healing the Twisted" at the Knight Gomez Gallery aren't directly graphic in a gross-out way, but they resonate in far more disturbing ways.It's unsettling to see pictures of healthy nude models wearing or caressing the braces and bandages associated with battered bodies. When a seemingly picture-of-health model with his back to us holds a crutch upright, it is as if he is holding it up like a cross of suffering to be embraced.

AFTER SEPT. 11, 2001, President Bush knew America could no longer tolerate the status quo, that only offense could guarantee security in the wake of this era's peril - Islamic fascism. Courageously, boldly and at great political risk, Mr. Bush - through Afghanistan and now Iraq - ignited long-overdue and historic change in the Middle East. Muslims must ask whether they intend to allow extremist elements to act in the name of Islam. They must ask whether it is Mr. Bush or Arab tyranny that causes their poverty, backwardness and lack of freedom.

When the Hontz family lost their Hanover home to a fire last summer, it wasn't long before they started missing the basic necessities. First, it was a toothbrush. Then, a Band-Aid. But for Lauren Hontz, who was just 9 years old at the time, all she really wanted was a blanket to call her own. The family quickly received more blankets than they could possibly use, which gave Lauren an idea. If all she wanted was a blanket after her fire, then wouldn't other people want one too? With this in mind, she asked her parents if they could donate the extras.

March has been a rough month for Maryland Republicans. In Annapolis, they watched helplessly as Democrats worked their way through an ambitious ideological wish list that includes new taxes and spending, death penalty repeal, Second Amendment limitations, wind power subsidies, and other proposals anathema to Republicans. Seven of 12 GOP senators - apparent victims of "Stockholm syndrome" - - supported Gov. Martin O'Malley's budget, which includes $1 billion in new spending. And just as state Democrats rammed through an 87 percent hike in state gas taxes, David Ferguson, executive director of the Maryland Republican Party, canceled a planned training session for candidates to embark on a quixotic national "tour" to preach the evils of a possible Martin O'Malley presidency.

By coincidence, last Easter I was in St. Peter's Square in Rome as Pope Benedict XVI delivered what turned out to be his final Easter Mass as head of the Catholic Church. A week from Sunday, the new pope will deliver his first. Expectations for Pope Francis are high. The Argentine, formerly Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, is the first Jesuit pope, and the first from the Americas. Here's hoping he will lead the church into a more transparent and progressive era. But hoping is not the same as hopeful.

When Laura Neuman heard that an Annapolis salad dressing maker was planning to move his business out of state, she arranged to meet with him. Neuman listened to Greg Vetter's story and made some calls. "She just said, 'Dude, you are NOT leaving Maryland,'" recounted Vetter, CEO of Tessemae's All Natural. "I don't know the nitty-gritty of how she did it, but she did it. And now we're in this insane, awesome space, and we don't have to move to Kentucky. " Keeping Vetter's company in Maryland last year became the latest success for Neuman.

Maryland will soon be home to a new university — one in which students can train in acupuncture, Chinese herbs and other forms of integrative medicine. The Tai Sophia Institute, a Howard County holistic health training center, has received state accreditation and will be renamed the Maryland University of Integrative Health, school officials announced Monday. The school plans to nearly triple its student body, begin granting doctorates in acupuncture and other healing techniques, and bolster its reputation nationally and internationally, said its provost, Judith Broida.

For all the worry about how a bye week can abduct a performance edge from a top-seeded playoff team, it does have one significant redeeming value. Health. In terms of bones, muscles, joints and ligaments, the week off helped the AFC's No. 1-seeded Broncos to feel much better about themselves. A couple players were dealing with a virus Monday. But while medicine can help treat illness, there is nothing like rest to heal the body. To begin, there's a decent chance running back Willis McGahee will be able to practice with the team Tuesday.

"The Healing," by Gayl Jones. Beacon. 283 pages. $23.Gayl Jones' first novel in 20 years, "The Healing," was, by some accounts, to have been a major literary event. However, two dark clouds hang over it. One is personal, violent and tragic. The other is the literary quality of the book itself.The story begins in the most recent stage of Harlan Truth Eagleton's life as a traveling faith healer. Jones traces that life from the end to beginning, starting with her on the road to a "healing." The reader revisits Harlan's life and the relationships that seemingly accounted for her departure from some of the temptations and distractions of the physical and material world, for more spiritual pursuits.

Joan Meekins first tried reiki a year ago, to relieve the side effects of chemotherapy.Now the Carroll County woman is a certified practitioner of reiki, or touch therapy."

When I heard the news that Ray Lewis was retiring at the end of this season, I cried. Ray Lewis has an emotional hold on this community, state, and fan base - and on my family. He has been, for 17 years, a leader, an inspiration, a sign of hope. A constant. I was a daddy's girl, but inside there was always a yearning to be one of the boys. I was the middle child, a "rose between two thorns" as my mother said, with a brother on either side. I was always wanting to be one of the guys but never quite fitting in. When the Ravens came to town, that all changed.

After the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, what's needed is more gun control, according to columnist Dan Rodricks ("The massacre this time," Dec. 15). Yet a story in the same edition described a man in China who used a knife to attack some 20 children. The problem is not the weapon, but the troubled young men who wield them. It is a daunting, if not impossible task for psychiatrists, psychologists and others to take the first step in situations where even parents are frustrated and helpless in dealing with a troubled child.