They shine a light on the invisible connection and give expression to the innermost depths of your being. They capture the awesome nature of essential oneness and help you recognize where you are and help you sustain being there. Meditation and inspiration have become your oxygen and your nutrition. Sustenance on the spiritual level feeds your soul and in turn, allows you to care for your body. Liberation psychology contends that the spirit forms and informs the body and the body forms and informs the spirit.
Most people take that phenomenon for granted and however it happens, it happens.
You, Marlene, have been forced to attend to it, note it, and if you want any quality of life, embrace it. In so doing, you are becoming more spiritual, more meditative, and more capable of being inspired. In return you have found essential truth and inspiration in its awesome integrity. Thus the gift.