Caring – Prayers and Well Wishes
So often, we or our loved ones, go through difficult times and need that bit of extra help sent our way. This is our prayer and special energy gift list – a place where you can ask to hold or be held in our weekly Sunday harp playing of Somewhere Over the Rainbow. For over 12 years now, we come together as a group of harpists to play this song when anyone in our IHTP family is going through tough times. Please scroll down to ask us to play for you on this coming Sunday.
From Christina – I thank you all for the well wishes and prayers during the past couple months of my mother’s transition – Ruth Hersey Cooper. I have moved her information over to this site: The Melody Lingers – Music and Aging (click to go or it is under NEWSLETTER on this site). There is information there about various ways we can help the Aging through music as well as a link to Don Campbell and Alex Doman’s book: Healing At the Speed of Sound. I have also included a clip of a song that mother and I sang just before she went to Hospice – it is a beautiful song that my grandmother used to play on the piano every night before we went to bed – Sing Me To Sleep. Blessings.
~ ~ The Inspiration behind the IHTP ~ ~ Ruth Marcelyn Hersey Cooper
Please add the following people to you Sunday playing and prayer/meditation list:
William Hart McNichols
Yoshiko Sato’s mother and family
Bethany Soh (Khng) and her mother who is in the hospital
Carolyn Worster
Carol Johnson
David Eastoe and Helen, David’s father
Alice, Bill and Claire Guggenheim
Cheryl and Joshua Kissling
Annie Silvestre
Don Campbell
This week has been very difficult. My husband’s first cousin died in a car accident on Monday, His other cousin’s daughter was in a 9 hour surgery yesterday for bladder cancer. Our son in the Netherlands has been in pain for months
and is scheduled in March for going into the hospital in Amsterdam for all sorts of tests. So it has been a very hard week. please pray and for my family. Thanks
Dear Don,
I have never met you, but seem to know you quite well after watching your amazing lectures for our IHTP monthly lessons.
I will play, pray and think of you to contribute another tiny little bit to your health and balance and the whole process of dealing with this huge challenge.
Lots of Love and Blessings
from Barbara in Germany
For Don,
I will soon be playing Somewhere Over the Rainbow for you and to all that needs this special prayers and cares moment.
Happy musical healings to you and all.
Annie :)
Hi Don,
I wanted you to know that it is thanks to your book “Music and Miracle”and the story of Ron Price that I embarked 12 years ago on the marvellous journey of Harp Therapy. It has literally totally transformed my life…
Wishing you a speedy recovery…know that a lot of people are playing, praying for you!
Thank you again from my heart,
Laurence
Dear Don,
From the Netherlands I have just send the sounds of my harp with all my intention to you. I hold you in my heart. I still feel so privileged that I have had the opportunity to be at the IHTP-conference ’09-03 in San Diego where you was one of the key-note speakers. I enjoyed every second of you’re “lecture” and I still have kept the paper plates from the Mozart playing as a treasure and remembrance of a beautiful and joy able time in my heart and live. Thank you so, so much. With love and light, Marga Medema CTHP
For Don
Sending love and energy for healing.
Remembering all you have given so many, may you be blessed to continue this for many years. I’m on way to San Diego for IHTP internship at the hospice there with Tina and will be playing with wishes for you always. Nancy- Elizabeth
Message for Don Campbell
You are now on our church’s prayer list and may all the angels of healing and Light, surround, fill, and protect you bringing ease, peace, loving, caring, on all levels all for the highest good of all concerned.
In loving and gratitude for all the gifts you have shared and for your amazing infectious humor,
Estelle Day, CTHP
Dear Don,
Know that you are being held in my prayers for strength, peace and faith as you walk this difficult journey.
I want to share with you a beautiful experience that I had participating in your ‘guided imagery’ talk in San Diego at our last national conference for IHTP. I found myself all alone at the Burren in Ireland, a place that I have visited, but felt uncomfortable there. I expected to go to my beloved woods and lake in the adirondacks, but I went there instead. I “built” a garden, a roofless-room, and had many animal friends to keep me comfortable. But the most remarkable piece of this is that I “discovered” that I “find God was IN every space.” I keep this paper of writing that I did during this experience near to me and I refer to it often. It gives me great comfort to know that I understood in that experience that I am not alone, and neither are you.
May this help you in some small way.
Thank you for being YOU and for leading me through this serene experience.
Bambi Niles, RN, CTHP
We are truly blessed to have each other to lean on when our own strength seems to slip.
My mom, Donna Mitchell, has had some recovery. The bladder infection is under control and it seems that she can swallow more easily, although at times she cannot keep food down. I learned that new heart valves do not like any kind of infection in their body, so I am sure that was part of the weakness.
The liver failure is due to mom’s heart working so hard to squeeze blood through the calcified heart valve (that was replaced). This caused back flow of blood into the liver and pancreas, which are greatly enlarged. Also, the challenges of surgery and medications for the liver to filter out have been great.
Thank you for your continued prayers. It looks like she may be released from the hospital this Monday, Jan. 30.
Bambi Niles
Dear Don … a prayer for you:
Sweet Spirit,
Watch over Don and bless him
with Your peace, healing, and sustenance.
In the stillness, let him sense Your presence.
Let him turn from anxiety to You.
In the middle of the storm, let him
turn his attention to Your presence.
Let Your love lift him above this trial.
Sweet Spirit,
Thank You for always holding Don close.
Let his soul be made glad.
Let his body be healed.
Let his mind be at peace.
In this moment, let him know that he is cared for and supported by Love. Amen.
Dearest Bambi,
You and your family are in my thoughts and prayers. I can’t imagine what it must be like for you now. My mom fell again and fractured her hip, required surgery, had a variety if complications but is on the mend. Just going through this so recently (she is still in rehab) – I know how exhausting this can be. We were all worried about Dad as well. Remember to take care of yourself while you tend to your parents’ needs. You have the support of so many people who love you.
Dear IHTP Friends,
With all my heart I thank each of you who held my 90 year old mother in your thoughts and vibration of love during the difficult time she had in mid November due to a heart attack. She had an intense and painful 5 weeks in two hospitals and a nursing home recovering and is now back in her own home. At 90 with arthritis she does not expect to go on forever. But for the gift of however many months she still has here on this side of the veil, she is most grateful. Such a gift is Tina Tourin and this website for us to come to know of the needs of our IHTP Web of Lives, to hold one another and our families.
May the holy One bless and keep you all.
Peace be with you,
Sarah
Dear Don,
You have touched the very soul of the world with a consciousness filled with grace, beauty, love and goodwill. I remember attending workshops you gave years ago in Cleveland, Ohio as well as for IHTP Students in San Diego. We love you and know that at a deep level, we are all connected to the ONE. When I shared with you privately the experience I had of hearing music that sounded like Bach or Mozart as I stood at the backside of the Temple at Abu Simbel and my desperate need to understand and integrate it which is outside of “normal reality”, you responded with a story for the whole group about Nadia Boulanger, of how you got to visit her just prior to her crossing over and how she told you she heard the most glorious music on the other side. I carry this story in my heart, as I carry you. May the grace and love of the Divine One hold you in and through this journey.
with an open heart,
Sarah Clulow Schwartz
I have just received word from Don Campbell that he is dealing with severe health issues. I will post his story that he has shared on his CaringBridge.org site with hundreds of friends. PLEASE hold him in prayer and intention. I will keep regular updates about Don here. If you have a message for him, please leave it here on the BLOG and I will gather the messages and send them to him.
Background Story
For nearly three years I have had serious pain as a result of kidney stones. Over a year ago we found one (right side) that needed to be removed. I chose to modify diet and see if it would pass. It (or perhaps its cousin) would flare up every few months with acute pain.
On the left side, at different times, the pain was much higher in my body and would radiate through the back and stomach. I bought better chairs, worked with alternative techniques and could usually get the pain to subside in a day.
On Thursday, January 19, 2012, I had a color CT scan. On January 20th, my Urologist at Kaiser Permanente called and told me she found a mass in my pancreas. On Monday, January 23rd, Marie, Helena and I met with the pancreatic specialist. He explained in detail to us about the severity of this condition. Yesterday, January 24th, I had an Endoscopy Ultrasound and biopsy which found a moderately sized malignant tumor in the pancreas and partially wrapped around a vein. (That was a Whee moment !)
The pain has been severe for over a week with a loss of 17 pounds accompanied by severe nausea. Tomorrow (January 26th) I will meet with my primary doctor to develop a pain management plan and some creative ways to supply nutrition for my body.
OK, that is the up and up. This has happened so quickly that the challenge has been to give myself enough time to use my own wisdom and knowledge in health to align with the exceptional healthcare being given to me by my doctors. Yes,….mind, body and spirit are all involved in maintaining my health and balance.
So, that is what I know and have experienced this week.
Now my heart and spirit just feel grateful for my family, friends, my life and the ample opportunities I have had to write, travel, teach and let the humor flow. I do regret I have not had the energy to contact so many close friends and relatives directly. I’ll have more options when we get this pain under control.
Béla (a three year old Wheaton Terrier) and Marie (a great Dame) are here 24/7. I’m in good paws and hands.
I’ll write again on this site in a few days to keep you updated on the unfoldment of the life and times of this journey. Please use this site to communicate.
Don
THURSDAY, JANUARY 26, 2012 7:41 AM, MST
written by Don Campbell
Whelmed !
Oh, how can I express my depth of gratitude for all of the wondrous messages you have sent! Reading them, feeling them and living with them this morning truly takes the pain away.
Going to the doc this morning to see what the next stages are and make some choices about whether to have a little kidney stone removed on Monday.
I must take time to tell each of you I will talk to you or a least leave you a message over the next weeks.
Since Friday morning, my doctors at Kaiser Permanente and Good Samaritan Hospital have been more efficient than I could ever imagine. They are calling, e mailing and making sure I get second opinions. Every step, every option, every detail is covered. To make it even more remarkable, Good Sam in Lafayette, Colorado was the first major hospital in the US to use the music program I developed with Aesthetic Audio Systems. Even before I went into the exploratory surgery on Tuesday, they sent me an e mail with a “Guided Imagery and Music” program.
I’ll be back in touch later today. Again, thanks for all these notes and prayers and keep in mind…Béla keeps telling me: “I can lick this.”
Thank you Kaiser and Good Sam. Thank you beloved friends!
Thursday noon Whee
I am so moved by all your messages, prayers and thoughts. It is just a miracle to have so many, many friends from near and thin, far and wide responding. The love just is overtaking me.
I want to talk to all you and will, slowly over the next few weeks….thanks for the crazy humor, Christian love, Buddhist clarity, toning imagery and musical appreciations. I truly, truly am grateful beyond any words I can express.
(If you just signed on, read my Story first and that will explain what’s going on.)
Marie took me to my great Doc this morning. We do not think we’ll have the kidney surgery on Monday. He’s talking again with the Urologist and the pathologist. The big, big whamo surgery is called the Whipple. They do not suggest I have that surgery until the tumor gets smaller. It is wrapped around a vein and invading it.
The pain has decreased by 80%. Prayers I am able to keep INSURE down and get my first nutrition in a week. (It kept my mom alive for ten years. She also used the twinkie-ruffles-dingdong supplements.)
I also had some scrambled eggs this morning.
How fortunate I am to be a part of the wellness world. What I know from sound and music is going to work with me.
I know I have missed e mailing or contacting some friends, just because my energy is a bit scattered, so please share Caring Bridge with our mutuals.
Thank you again for all your notes. Thank Caring Bridge for such a great service. I’m sure there are some miracles on the horizon. Love to you all !
Dearest Bambi,
Please know that you will walk this journey attended by many, many prayers and much love.
Jan
Please play for a beautiful young soul Briar (who is similar to Alex Bernat in many ways). to help her believe in herself and find a reason to live.
Dear friends,
My mom had heart valve replacement surgery on jan. 3, came home on jan 16 after struggles with atrial fibrillation and fluid on the lungs. I stayed with them until sat. Today she was taken to the ER with jaundice and slurred speech. She is in the ICU at Lewis Co. Hospital. The doctor suspects liver failure. This is too soon after my sister’s death of liver failure. Please put Donna Mitchell in your prayers for faith, strength to face the future, endurance and patience. Dad is exhausted and I will visit them tomorrow.
Thank you very much. I know god is good and fully trust god to be in control. I will walk the journey with faith in god.
Bambi
Please pray for me as I am learning harp. I am considering studying to be a harp therapist under this program, I just ordered high speed internet and should get the equipment soon.
Please send prayers and play Somewhere Over the Rainbow on Sunday for my sister Letty who lives in Carson California who had surgery last week on her bladder and seems to be in a lot of pain. Thank you so much!
Aloha, Please keep my brother the Wizard in your hearts as you play over the rainbow he has gone to heaven and I miss him. Thank you so much for the lovely service you are providing.
Please keep my harp teacher, Jill Pack, in your thoughts. She will be having hip replacement surgery tomorrow, December 20.
Thank you, everyone,
Shannon
Many thanks to all the blessings, prayers, positive intentions and music sent my way for my TKR Surgery and Recovery. I so very much appreciate the support and love. I am home from the hospital and into my 1st week of recovery. The visiting nurse visits have started as well as daily visits from physical therapy. From the bottom of my heart and harp; thank you. ~Cynthy
Can you all send forth prayer and play “Somewhere over the rainbow” for my son Michael’s partner, Mark in Kansas? He has Crohn’s disease and was not able to afford a certain medicine and he had passed out and had a seizure this morning, he had to be admitted to the hospital. It would truly mean so much! Thank you ever so kindly everyone!
Much love and appreciation,
Annie
Another update about Cynthy from Steve:
I read both of your thoughtful emails to Cynthy, and we both appreciated them. Cynthy was up a lot today and walked down the hall with pt. She had to sit and rest due to back pain but no knee pain at that point. I washed her hair and helped to clean her up. She is in bed resting with a migraine that keeps returning. I’ll be spending the night in her room again so I can help her with the things they are not staffed to do for patients. Harp Seal Lullaby and Illuminations have been playing softly in the room periodically at Cynthy’s request.
If she keeps progressing well we will both get to go home on Monday.
I received this message from Steve Johnson today – an update on Cynthy who had a TKR on Thursday. Please add her to your Sunday night prayers and intentions when you play. Thank you.
Hi Tina, cynthy has a new ceramic covered knee implant. The original one was 20 degrees off angle, so that explains the pain for the past 2 years. Cynthy asked me to email you to fill you in and also request ongoing healing thoughts and prayers.
I would appreciate your prayers and healing thoughts when you play this Sunday. I injured myself and am on the mend – estimated time for complete healing between 6 weeks to 3 months. My progress and recovery is a miracle and so much Grace has been extended to me. My husband fell and ended up in the ER and hospitalized over night. He’s home and healing now. Thanks for sending Love and Light our way.
Please include my sister, Catherine Purcell McWilliams, in your thoughts and intention this Sunday as you play “Over the Rainbow.” She is awaiting a surgery date for a recently diagnosed uterine cancer. In grateful appreciation,
Bev
Since this is the 3rd TKR (total knee replacement) in my left leg, the upcoming surgery on December 8th has left me anxious and hopeful. Would you please consider having the IHTP family play “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” for me? I would so very much appreciate this, and having a positive intention for this surgery.
Blessings,
Cynthy
Please hold Linda Brousaides in your thoughts this Sunday when you play. She has been playing by the bedside of her grandfather who just passed on. Our thoughts are with you Linda.
lbrousaides@hunton.com
My mother had a major heart attack on Sunday evening and is in Toledo Hospital ICU, on the other side of the state of Ohio. I just got home from Florida from a week’s vacation with my husband Thomas. I will leave in the morning to go and see her. My brother and sister have been with her since this happened. I’d appreciate our harp family remembering her for whatever is happening now in her life journey, and whatever the Divine has in store for her life. Her name is Grace Clulow, she was an educator and touched many people’s lives across the span of her lifetime.
Oh Claire, we will definitely hold your parents in our thoughts. I’m in the UK and it is Sunday Evening and we are pulling up the harp to play Somewhere Over The Rainbow. You have a group here sending their thoughts to your parents and to you. Christina
Hello everyone,
Am requesting prayers/positive healing thoughts/music for my parents Bill and Alice 89 and 87 years old respectively. They contributed to the purchase of the harps that IHTP sent to Japan.
On Tuesday my dad fell onto my mother after his knee buckled. He is OK for the most part just feeling horribly guilty, bruised and tired. Mom was hospitalized for 2 days due to a pelvic fracture as a result of the fall. Now she is in a rehab facility where Dad can walk a short distance to see her.
They are the most wonderful parents anyone could ask for and are loved by so many.
Your energy is appreciated!
Claire
From Christina – Please hold Tinky in your thoughts and prayers – her mother just passed on. We are thinking of you Tinky! It was great to see you at Southeastern Festival! Tina
Hi Christina,
This morning I was on a webinar with Stella Benson and she suggested that I contact you.
I am, Ainslie Allison, a graduate of Stella in 2008 and am have now been credited with you, on Tuesday I had a Hysterectomy for cancer of the uterus and Stella said you have a list of people you think of during a prayer meeting, she suggest that I contact you and ask that you to add me to that list. This I am doing,
Please hold one of our own, Ainslie Allison, in our weekly Sunday harp playing. Ainslie will be undergoing surgery for endometrial cancer on Tuesday morning (October 18) Australian time — that’s Monday evening in most of the United States.
On behalf of the Llewellyn and Laptiste family, we gratefully thank you for holding my mother in a sound realm when you played Somewhere Over the Rainbow for her passing July 12th. The singing and playing of Don’t Stand By My Grave and Weep touched our hearts and we showed your picture Tina sent and played the song before the funeral. I am so honoured to be part of this beautiful, embracing International Harp Therapy family. With love and blessings to each and every one of you and your loved ones, Denise Llewellyn
I’m writing because one of my very dearest friends just found out she has breast cancer, may be very bad we’ll knew how extensive
next week. I’m just asking if you can please put her name on your IHTP prayer list, she is such a wonderful person I can’t believe
‘this is happening to her! Her name is
“Grace Vick”
i surely appreciate it.
Lots of love,
Lynette
Dear Christina,
Yesterday a friend invited me into a Facebook group, please read what she wrote, the group is called: I am a dandelion
There is a man.
He is dying.
He is an immigrant. I don´t know him, he is not in my family. But I know he is very alone.
His breath is like a tiny flower.
It feels like even if he tries hard he won´t be able to blow even those fluffy seeds from a tiny dandelion head.
I would like to ask you to create/dry/find/buy/ a dandelion.
Anything you can think about. Think metaphorically, think creative, think literally. A helium balloon or a candy floss can be a dandelion, too.
A dandelion.
Something weightless, fluffy, pure and fragile. Something that can peacefully float in the air, or sit on the wall, or hang on the window.
He lives high and can´t go out. So the dandelions will fly up to him.
Every morning he will wake up to a new dandelion floating behind his windows.
One dandelion from every one of you, one dandelion a day for him.
It doesn´t have to have any artistic value, the most important is your attention. if you don´t live in Norway maybe you could send something inexpensive – anything would be good!
Please help me with this.
The time is very limited.
Light and love to you all,
Svetlana
I was very moved and spent hours improvising on the harp around the theme of a dandelion and a man on his deathbed, lonesome.
I would like to ask if we could play “Somewhere over the Rainbow” for this man, feks sunday evening. It would be the most beautiful if we could play it so that he can actually hear it. In fact that might be possible. Svetlana, she created the group, could take her laptop into his room. But even if he cannot hear us, he would feel the warmth and love comforting him.
I think I might play for him anyway, but to create a cradle of sound together with other dedicated people is much more powerful!
Peace and Light to you.
Marie
Dear Bambi,
Deepest sympathy on the passing of your dear sister Terri. My thoughts and prayers are with you.
With love and best wishes,
Rhonda
Bambi,
Keeping you and yours in our thoughts & prayers.
Karen
Thank you for holding my family and me in loving intention during the passing of my sister, Terri. During our vigil on Tuesday evening, I knew many of you were thinking of us, and it gave me great comfort.
She passed Wednesday at 1:10 ET with a gentle sigh. It was quiet, peaceful and dignified. She will be missed.
Thank you again, and God Bless you all,
Bambi
Dear Bambi,
Even though we’ve never met, please know that you are in my thoughts and prayers.
Much strength & peace to you and your family during this difficult time.
Michaela
Dear Bambi,
We had our conference call this evening for finishing students and Christina updated us on your sister. After that she requested a moment of silence from all those on the call. You and your family are being held in our prayers, thoughts, and intentions.
Love,
Claire
Hello all,
The weekend was difficult. Terri was increasingly restless and confused. The ammonia level is climbing in her bloodstream causing confusion.
On Friday she and I developed a “happy place” for her to visualize when she is anxious. Sunday around 4 pm her heart rate raced to 140 bpm steadily. I stroked her forehead and talked quietly to her about her happy place, which is a beach with 2 bull mastiff dogs. After a few minutes her heart rate returned to the 100 bpm, which has been her resting rate.
She is now more drowsy and difficult to wake.
I keep referring to the children’s story “We’re Going On A Lion Hunt”. When you come to the dark Forest or briar patch, you can’t go over, under or around it, you must go through it. This is a journey we must walk through.
My scripture is Exodus 33:17to 23. God has placed us in the cleft of the rock so that we will not see God passing over us, but we will see God’s back, as we are not allowed to look at God’s face.
Thank you for your continued prayers for strength and peace.
God has blessed me with wonderful family and friends.
Bambi
Will you please hold our new IHTP student Loril Shannik as you play Somewhere Over The Rainbow? She lost her father 2 months ago and her Grandmother this past Thursday. Our thoughts are with you Loril.
Hi All,
Thank you for your thoughts and prayers during this challenging time. I just want to let you know that Terri has been transferred to St. Elizabeth’s ICU where she could have an endoscopy. She was found to have a bleeding ulcer in her esophagus and I believe it was cauterized. She also was given blood.
I visited her at noon time today and she was lucid, and wanted to talk about the issue of a possible liver transplant. She was reviewed at Strong Mem. in Rochester about 1 year ago for possible transplant. She was found to “not be sick enough” to warrant being placed on a waiting list for a liver at that time. However, it is now very important for her to express her wish not to take a liver that could be placed in a younger person. She hopes all will respect her decision. Of course, we do, I assured her.
Terri is still a very ill person, and her life hangs in the balance. One cannot survive without a functioning liver. If she survives this, it may be that she cannot live alone. We will see.
Please remember us in your daily talks with God.
Many thanks,
Bambi
Good Morning,
I am requesting prayers for my sister, Terri Mitchell. She went into the ICU in Lowville late last night with all the signs of Liver failure.
Unfortunately we have walked this path before; about 2.5 years ago when she lived in Florida. She pulled out of it and mom and dad moved her to Lowville to be near them. She has been living in her own apartment since then and doing pretty well. Dad will call her children today.
Since January she has been experiencing terrible knee pain. With all her physical complications, she is not a candidate for knee replacement, and has been getting around using a walker and a wheelchair. She has taken many nasty falls. Terri is 52 years old. She was also seen at Strong Mem. in Rochester to be screened as a liver transplant patient and was turned down.
Please pray for her comfort and for strength for her, my parents, Harry and Donna, my brother Chuck, and myself as we pull together and take this journey with an unknown outcome.
Thank you very much, I trust God hears all prayers.
Bambi
Please hold Elithe Kahn and her father in your thoughts, prayers and music this week. Elithe joins our new incoming class this year and has been called to be with her father in Florida. Her email address is: elitheinhawaii@gmail.com
Jocelyn Obermeyer writes: Could the IHTP family please play Over the Rainbow at 11:00am PST today or anytime today for Diane. She is a co-worker of mine at Hospice and she does alot of my scheduling. She has been EXTREMELY supportive of TM and has started asking me to do presentations about TM vs. entertaining. Her Father who she just brought back from Minnesota passed away very unexpectedly. The service is today.
MUCH APPRECIATED!
As we come together this Sunday to play Somewhere Over the Rainbow, may we focus on our two IHTP students from Norway who have been experiencing the horrendous loss of so many young people in Norway. Their nation has been jolted in the worst way.
And let us hold Denise Llewellyn from Montreal Canada. Her mother recently passed away. We held a special musical circle for her in Vermont at the Conference and truly missed seeing her in Vancouver for the Canadian Conference.