Green Tribe of Belonging

 The last couple of years have forced us to rearrange our lives: wearing masks, getting inoculations, staying home a lot, centering down. And though some things about this have been frustrating and even downright scary, there have been some benefits too. With the slow-down came more time to ponder, to discover, to widen our view of life. One of my personal learnings has to do with my massage practice. I am a massage therapist working out of my home office. Mostly I do craniosacral therapy, which I love, with some shiatsu and reflexology thrown in. The pandemic threatened to totally put a stop to my practice. Especially at first, I saw no clients at all. Too risky. But then I remembered long distance Reiki. In massage school, I took Reiki 1, Reiki 2 and Reiki 3. It was required. And though my main interest was in the craniosacral training, it was good to learn other things. Once I became a massage therapist for real though, I never used Reiki. Maybe it was just a little too woo-woo ...

They say you should post a blog entry every week. This week I'm in North Carolina playing grandma to my two grandsons while my daughter and her husband are in London. Not a week for much introspection and writing! So here's a poem I wrote last week after a difficult morning with my dentist. She's a great dentist. It was my endurance that was lacking.  In Extremity  Today in the dentist’s office I was placed in an awkward painful position right beside a special x-ray machine. I was told that I musn’t move at all. After several minutes, I began to give out, to feel rather desperate. I didn’t want to botch the process so I called out in my mind for help. Immediately I felt a huge white polar bear pressing up to my side. Comforting, steadying. I thought: A polar bear??? But it was like a godsend, just what I needed to survive. And later in the dentist’s chair trying to get through the root canal process the bear stayed with me, steadfast, solid, giving me company in my extremit...