On the road.....

Annie ( faithful canine companion) and I have been traveling to Long Island and upstate New York to do Reiki work with persons either terminally ill or struggling in some other fashion.   The work is on a donation basis so clients are asked to visit the site www.mountainreiki.org for their support of service.

I have traveled a few thousand miles already and have established clients in Saratoga, New York and Long Island, New York.  My next destination is Florida to stay with a woman diagnosed with leukemia.

During the visit I will help her design a  diet that is pleasant to the palette and helpful to her body.
It is unfortunate that a common side affect of chemotherapy is the altering or loss of taste.  The lack of pleasure in eating promotes a carelessness about the fuel  put into an already strained body making the work needed for white blood cell production among many other critically needed functions difficult.


I have also observed a common theme among some of the family members to treat the ill member as if nothing is wrong.  This seemed odd at first until I remembered that denial is a family disease and a common mechanism for coping.  The unfortunate result is the negligence of  a much needed proactive change in diet and habits.  The person undergoing chemo or radiation is often depleted of the energy required for "up spirits" motivation or energy to research, shop or cook, no less clean and deal with what feels like mundane day to day drama.  However, whether due to guilt, fear or their own denial the cancer patient falls in line with the role the family creates regardless of the impact on their recovery.

Shockingly I have seen family members encourage a drink, a cigarette and a meal at a fast food restaurant to the chemo patient.  The absurdity of these acts in light of the circumstances might make you think the family is thoughtless and unloving and in a sense you would be right however, the culprit is denial yet again.
In my visits to the patient I also work with the family and the purpose is to discuss the spiritual, emotional and psychological aspects of what's going on within each person.   No healing work can have any lasting benefit if patterns of dysfunction reign, not for the patient or the family

I chose terminally ill diagnosed persons and 12 step recovery people for one simple reason,   the potential willingness to make life altering changes needed to heal the soul, body and mind requires a force of great magnitude.  I believed diagnosis with a terminal illness is one such condition needed for a spiritual awakening.   I am witnessing however that our western medical approach puts little if any value on the condition of the mind and spirit.  Those in the medical profession that I have met with that proclaim their belief in the body mind spirit paradigm seem only to carry a prescription pad in their lab coat pocket and not a comprehensive list of professionals in the holistic healing, counseling or spiritual fields.