Thursday off but on to many good things

It’s my day off of the clinic, but on to many good things.  Pilates in the morning with kwpilates.com.  Awesome way to start the day!  I’m always learning subtle ways to move and feel my body.  Today the sitting cross-legged, spine straight & elongated, arms open as a T and pushing with hands as if against walls felt really good for my fingers.  I never thought my hands would become such an important aspect of all I do.  A few errands and I am off to my monthly osteopathy treatment.  Then back home, giving Shiatsu to my dear friend whose sister is in palliative care.  And a couple more Shiatsu treatments to two siblings, 23 and 19 year-old.  When the sister was 16, she was getting very depleted by a serious Crohn’s issue, and we started regular Shiatsu back then.  Wow, it's been three years already!  Things are much better and she de-stresses bi-weekly with Shiatsu.  And finally I went to my teacher’s Tai-Chi class.  Semi-private lesson on the new form I am learning.  Awesome way to end the day!

A nice Wednesday

Yesterday was a typical Wednesday. At the clinic. A man thanked me for his wife. Her debilitating digestive symptoms and anxiety subsided after Shiatsu. She was finally able to enjoy a good night sleep. For him, walking has improved significantly, and he sleeps now (leg pain was keeping him awake). After getting twice a week of forceful low back adjustments for sciatica elsewhere, a gentle route with a combination of Acupuncture and Shiatsu finally made him feel better, focusing on his piriformis muscle, IT band and sacroiliac joint.  His energy is so much better. Then a 26 year old who overdid it at the gym. Her high school job was in a funeral home, then she became a funeral home director. Now she is a fire fighter. Very humbling for me. At her age I was far from having the maturity and people’s awareness required in such positions. A lady in her seventeen's jumped all over the table when I told her I passed my exam for the acupuncture college. I am glad we were actually not doing acupuncture that day! Teaching Tai-Chi that evening. Awesome group, mid thirties to mid eighties. We’re starting nice spine and body loosening QiGong. After a couple of years of practice, they’re much more flexible and enjoy better coordination and balance. Neat!

No Ordinary Day

I’ve learnt from a long–time Tai-Chi student to count my blessings every single day.  But the day before yesterday was no ordinary day, and I was at a loss as to how to count those blessings.

An email in the morning told me that one of my patients has left our world.  

Late at night I read on Facebook that my very good friend’s father’s “suffering is over now”.

It’s probably a cultural or language thing, but I have the greatest difficulty using the word here.  In French , “trépasser” can mean to pass away, so you can imagine how stunned I was when I first saw a typical North American sign, the one that says:  “No trespassing beyond this point”.  Trespassing aka passing away is about going beyond, or passing across. Or not doing so for those who stay behind…

So as I am staying on this side of the sign, how many blessings can I count today?

My occupation stimulates me.  Both the job and the people.  I have a patient whose laughter sounds like crystal.  Many that keep me on my toes, numerous that make me think and ponder profound subjects about life.  People usually come with their challenges and leave feeling lighter and better spirited.  We’ve shared good laughter.  One person’s blue eyes looks to me like a deep blue sea - something that holds your gaze while your mind turns meditative, like when watching the moon, or the flames of a camp fire.  My Tai-Chi students teach me everyday how to experience more free flow in life, so that I may become a little bit of a better person.  The person counting her blessings is a chronic pain sufferer.  She told me that she would like to be remembered as a fountain of love.  That left me speechless and is imprinted in me and is a soothing life experience each time I see her.  And I have great teachers.  And wonderful friends.

Not to mention family - I dearly love my mother, siblings, nephews and nieces, cousins, uncles & aunts.

So my heart aches for my friend and her family now.

And I can’t imagine how my patient’s parents, husband and little 4 year-old daughter must feel.  She was living grace, a super sensitive person always pondering what’s right and wrong because she was so caring.  She was 35 and her daughter-to-be was about to turn 7 months old.

I lost count.  I have faith that where they rest is only infinity.