In it he tells about working with his first AIDS patient back in the late 80's. Toward the end he says,
Being not a physician, but a massage therapist and shamanic healer of ten+ years, I feel the same. Many is the time a client comes to me for aches of the body, and through our work it is clear that those aches are woven in with aches of the soul: the one often engenders the other."My crude set of tools is improved, but it is never enough"
Often through the course of the week I am reminded of a quotation I saw in one of my massage textbooks somewhere along the line (and have not been able to find again!),
The inner is made manifest in the outer. As within, so without; as above, so below.As we live,
So do we move.
Now, I'm not in the business of being a counselor, but I do listen. I hear the stories that so closely match the physical ailments that it makes me ache. My toolbox seems so inadequate so much of the time; it's like standing in front of a beautiful old, crumbling castle when all you have at your disposal is a ball-peen hammer.
I can address soft tissue issues, and I can do that very, very well. I can't address the sometimes underlying causes of extreme stress that manifests into the soft tissues: money woes, adult children in jail, parents ill and dying, failing businesses, philandering partners.
I have my own list of those, of course. And I try and remember that life consists of what I see and what I look for. If I look for the amazing and the wondrous, it's right there in front of me. If I look for the disasters, for the evil and for the scary, I find it, too, in droves.
As Terry Pratchett, modern comic luminary has to say,
Humans! they lived in a world where the grass continued to be green and the sun rose every day and flowers regularly turned into fruit, and what impressed them? Weeping statues. And wine made out of water! A mere quantum-mehanistic tunnel effect, that'd happen anyway if you were prepared to wait zillions of years. As if the turning of sunlight into wine, by means of vines and grapes and time and enzymes, wasn't a thousand times more impressive and happened all the time ...
Terry Pratchett ~ Small Gods, p. 149
Life is great! Even when I'm broke, sad, depressed, sick. What a miraculous body to merely be in! I hope I never waste my precious moments by not being here, not being now.
2 comments:
Sometimes when I catch myself thinking "there's not enough" I change that thought to "there's always more." Both statements could be equally true, but I certainly know which one feels better to hold in consciousness! In your helping someone, with the tools you have at your disposal, you are helping someone. Is there more you wish you could do? Sure! But until you can do more, doing what you can is enough. It is, in fact, all you can do anyway.
We've all been so trained to see the glass half empty instead of half full... but both are judgments; the glass just is. Learning to be happy with what is is the surest pathway I know to being free in the Now & I'm so glad to see you discovering this freedom for yourself. I'm also quite honored to be able to share so much Now time with you! Nowhere else I'd rather be.
Love you.
OneTree
you are a wise and wonderful man and healer.
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