Life to Years, Years to Life
The signs of life are evidence of the intelligence of life. All living things grow, repair, excrete, replicate/reproduce, and adapt. This is true on the macro scale of organisms and the micro scale of individual cells. In 2009, the Noble prize in medicine was awarded for the discovery and description of telomerase, the enzyme that maintains the length and integrity of chromosomes as they divide. This is a critical, though probably not the only, mechanism that regulates aging.
Aging is a potent reminder of the passage of time. Our bodies change over time and one of the ways these changes manifest is the shortening of our telomeres. Like everything, I think there are both quantitative and qualitative aspects to this. There is an innate desire to add years to life, to postpone biological aging, to keep our telomeres long. Yet this desire is incomplete without its complement, of adding life to years. The epigenetic influences that regulate how genes are expressed, which enzymes get activated, and which proteins our cells build reflect quality and tone more than amounts. These qualities are related to choices we make about how we spend our time, our energy, and our attention.
There is a principle in chiropractic - “there is no process that does not require time.” Sometimes we forget that biology unfolds at its own pace. An acorn does not become an oak overnight. Tissues heal at different speeds in response to injury, unraveling long-standing patterns of stress does not happen immediately, and the invitation to step just beyond ourselves is a step in the long walk of our lives. The instant perception changes, a new pattern becomes available, but the process of cultivating it requires both time and tending.
When we give ourselves the opportunity to look into, get to know, and practice new ways to be in our bodies, we find more space in which to respond and open up to life. This is the goal and the scope of chiropractic. Supporting the natural function of all of the body’s systems, without drugs, jabs, or surgery, we see miracles happen and the quality of life improve. To be clear, medical modalities have a time and a place. My point is that chiropractic offers something qualitatively different in both the principle and practice of helping people grow, age, and be well.
In the grand scheme, any time we have is bonus time. Here, heading into winter, I am again reminded of “The Summer Day” by Mary Oliver.
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
The Foundation is Tone
“The principles of Chiropractic should be known and utilized in the growth of the infant and continue as a safeguard throughout life.”
— D.D. Palmer
At the turn of the last century, D.D. Palmer, the founder of chiropractic, proposed that tension (too much or too little) on the “neuroskeleton” altered the function of every organ and system in the body. He found through decades of hands-on work and study of the the various healing modalities of his time that adjusting the spine had a direct and predictable impact on the function and health of the people he saw.
The principles of Chiropractic outline a vitalistic and salutogenic approach to health and healing. The body is a self-healing organism. The body’s ability to regulate normal function depends on clear communication in and through the nervous system. Interference to this communication is often manifested as subluxations (local areas of stress and restricted movement) in the spine. Adjusting these areas and their associated patterns of tension allows the body to develop, repair, and adapt with greater ease and efficiency.
These principles apply to all humans, including and especially young ones. The “safeguard” referenced above is about the opportunity to allow a developing nervous system to be free from unnecessary physiological stress. It refers to the immeasurable benefit of supporting the innate capacity to adapt. It is a powerful way to help “prepare the child for the road,” recognizing that “uncertainty is chronic…instability is permanent, and disruption is common.”
The reason I am such a strong proponent of these principles is that I see them in practice every day. I learned them by experience as a chiro kid and I witness them now as a papa. It is the tone we set now that becomes the foundation of what is to come.
Beauty and Silence
When I was young, there was a small sign that hung next to the bay window that overlooked the backyard. It read, “How beautiful the silence of growing things.” Now, nearly three decades and three thousand miles from that place, I see the verdant green of new shoots on plants I put into the ground last year. I see the slow and enduring cycle of the natural world open to the light of summer. I see…a rainbow unicorn jump all over this keyboard as the laptop screen is forcefully closed by the small hands of a clumsy yet determined toddler.
These days are a reminder that silence, while essential in its own right, is not required for or characteristic of growing things. What we might take for silence is actually the fundamental - the lowest and most prominent pitch upon which the harmony of nature unfolds. Our task continues to be finding signal amidst a cacophonic information landscape. Perhaps if we open our ears and eyes to the peace of wild things we can come to rest in something not quite silent, but beautiful.