A Matter of Death and Life

Today, I had the honor of treating a man whose wife of 42 years died yesterday. She'd been ill for some time, and D had been doing hospice visits, giving her LDT treatments which, according to her husband, really helped her feel more comfortable.

Jim* told me that he's known D for thirty years and that they played in the same big band together. He plays piano and tenor sax and D plays trombone. He said that he thinks they must have been brother and sister in another life, the connection is that substantial. He's a generation older than she this time around, and she's been promoted to a care-giving role during his wife's illness and dying.

I was so impressed that he came in today! D scheduled the appointment last week and assumed that since Mrs. Jim died yesterday, Jim wouldn't be in. Now, I don't know whether he came because it was in his schedule and he didn't know what else to do, if he thought it would be comforting, or just because he needed some time off from dealing with all that comes when someone dies. What I do know is that he was open and willing to receive, and that the session was a deep, profound experience--with wonderful moments of humor tossed in for good measure.

The beauty of making contact. People get on the table and allow their core being to be touched. This is something that never becomes trite or boring. Doing body work grants access to rare moments when coping defenses and postures drop and people allow themselves to be supported. Being in the same room with someone who is experiencing healing and release feels magical and humbling. That people trust us to hold space for them while they do this miraculous work gives me a daily reminder that there is always credible evidence on the side of hope.

This is even true with people who are seemingly married to their pain or other ailments. Even in these cases, the deeper and wiser parts of the self reach out and receive what they can. Tiny, incremental changes that fly beneath defensive radar, build over time and what appears as today's fixed condition may slip off effortlessly later on. Gorgeous stuff.

I love the posture that this profession lets me assume. I get to facilitate changes and then get out of the way to witness the unparalleled power of human beings to generate new tissue and new ideas, to release toxins of the body and the spirit, to do claim their own holiness by permitting their inborn divine spark to work its healing magic.

What could be better than that?

~M

*not his real name

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