The Promise, The Practice
Since 2016, I have felt the exponential escalation of division. When everyone seems to be throwing fireballs or ducking for cover, finding stillness in the storm is challenging. For the past two years, I have felt deeply the sadness and anger of real and perceived injustices. As much as I would like to have a sense of control over this chaos, I simply do not. I feel angry about it. Often.
My good fortune is such that I have three teachers who help me to maintain perspective, who generously support me, and who allow me to show up as a more congruent version of myself. One is my daughter. Who am I in her eyes? How do I show her that strength does not mean hardness, that disagreement does not make an enemy, and what it looks like to trust instead of to fear? Another is my partner. Her patience and kindness are unparalleled, her commitment to love and integrity is adamant, and her ability to hold space for me (including my anger, my sadness, my grief) - especially when I do not express these emotions skillfully - has tempered the fire of my anger without diminishing its light. The third teacher is my chiropractic practice. The opportunity to educate and learn, see and be seen, offer and receive, empower and be empowered is a gift. What I recognize is that there can be diversity without division and unity without conformity.
Regardless of your politics, your decisions about how you choose to navigate covid, your opinions about mandates, the level of your concern about personal and public health, your relationship to law enforcement, your age, or your educational background - I am listening and I hear you. Whether you are a college professor, a food-truck owner, a stay-at-home mom, an industrial psychologist, a recovering addict, a dancer, a musician, an attorney, or a carpenter - I see you.
At a time when there is such focus on what we oppose, it is easy to lose sight of what we stand for. It has been and continues to be an honor and a privilege to collaborate with the many and various kinds of folks who walk through my office door. I hold a sacred trust within my heart that this work - helping people to remember their connection to themselves, to others, and to Source - is one of the most powerful ways to cultivate peace. So, here is my promise, and this is my practice:
I will listen and I will ask thoughtful questions.
I will offer a perspective on health and healing that clarifies, empowers, and connects.
I will maintain an open and a safe environment.
I will never withhold chiropractic care or counsel on the basis of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, political affiliation, or vaccination status.
I will support your right to informed consent and your right to choose what happens to your body.
I will invite you to consider that the free flow of wisdom, from above-down, and inside-out is the way that life is expressed.
The aim of my work is to help you liberate and integrate who you are as an embodied being. To be embodied is to have an experience mediated by your nervous system. Chiropractic promotes health by directly and positively influencing the ability of the nervous system to effectively coordinate all of the functions associated with life. Everything is connected. My liberation is tied to your liberation. It is often the case that what I share with you is as much a reminder for myself as it is for you. I don’t have it all figured, but I do want to step out of the fog and toward the light of a clear blue morning.
Smile on Your Brother
When unconscious anger is allowed to fester in the hearts of men and its fire is fanned by the bellows of ignorance and prejudice, a senseless and dangerous hatred arises. An unconscious hatred that distorts the mind and clouds the heart seeks to injure and to hurt, and has a will to subjugate because it mistakenly believes that’s the only way it can alleviate its own suffering.
To judge, to blame, and to lash out against other people based on circumstances beyond their control is baseless and immature. No one chose the time, place, family, culture, ethnicity, religion, or body into which they were born. We do have a choice, and I would argue a sacred human duty, to critically evaluate our perspective - especially with regard to those things we do not understand, we fear, or we cannot control. To compare this with equal measure with what the heart feels and with what the gut knows. No one is born with hate in them. Like an illness, it is acquired as an attitude. Left untreated it starts to affect behavior and if left for too long becomes a condition of debilitating ailments - indecency, unkindness, narrow-mindedness, and a propensity for violence.
The protections ensured by the First Amendment are meant as a safeguard to democracy, not as a justification to parade intolerance or incite fear into fellow citizens. I am a firm believer that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Even if you believe any of the racist, prejudiced, or nationalist ideology, it still holds that it is better to be kind than to be right. As for race, we would all do well to remember that there is only one - the human race - and if we want a chance to share what is good and beautiful in this world with the generation behind us, we need to start working with each other, not against each other.
Come on, people now - smile on your brother...