Sometimes Life seems hard

Sometimes Reiki meditation helps us in keeping a perspective, and understanding what it means to "be grateful." Right now, it is difficult to be a primary care doctor in this country, and in talking with colleagues every day, I hear and am aware of the frustrations. And this Blog is not intended to enumerate these concerns, nor to minimize them, when young physicians are choosing not to enter primary care, and experienced physicians are leaving their careers prematurely, it is a cause for concern, but the intention of this Blog is to reflect on other stories, of people who overcame tough challenges in life, and made a difference.

Reiki as we know it in North America became widespread due to the efforts of Mrs. Hawayo Takata. People are seeking to understand more about her allegorical stories about Reiki, and to understand more about her life. Much is private and some that was taught in allegory is not clear, but certain things are clear. Mrs Takata had many difficult challenges in her life. Things did not always come easy.

Before she was 30 years old, her beloved husband passed away of lung cancer, and she raised two children as a single parent. She had to work hard. She had health challenges herself. When she was 40 years old, her Reiki mentor died, and she was alone in Hawaii as a widow with children, an American of Japanese decent, at a time when Japan and America were going to war. Perhaps the truth most important to keep in mind as we seek to understand what she gifted the world with, was the simple fact that in the face of personal hardship she worked very hard, and gifted the world. Her biographies mention some of her hardships, and some of the prejudice that she faced, but do not dwell on them. The common thread to the stories about Mrs. Takata is that she maintained a cheerful countenance, used her talent to help other people, and sent forth ripples of compassion that still spread.

This past week, I had the honor to hear another such story. A nurse, Deb and I were making a home visit together to meet a new hospice patient. We went to her home, where her husband was caring for her, as she continued her long struggle against Alzheimers Disease.

With all the stresses on our time, we feel it is important to take the time to get to know our families, and in this case her husband gifted us with his story. He is a retired fellow physician, and the story of his life as a healer is one all doctors today need to keep in mind.

He went to Meharry Medical College, until the early 1970's, almost 25 years after Jackie Robinson played for the Brooklyn Dodgers, African Americans were only admitted to 2 medical colleges in America. It is hard to believe. But true.

He shared that his father was also a physician. And he remembers when his brother's high school was closed down, his brother had to walk 7 miles a day each way to go to school. His father, in 1947 began a lawsuit against the school district, but things moved slowly, and they lost at local court levels, with the justice system permitting racial segregation in schools and lack of equal opportunity in education. As a child, he remembers then NAACP lawyer Thurgood Marshall, coming to their home, and listening to his dad and brother's stories. When lawsuits from several states were "merged" to be presented by Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court, this case was one of the cases which became a part of what was named "Brown vs Board of Education." And in 1954, the Supreme Court of the United States declared that segregated schools were illegal.

Sitting in that room I felt a sense of awe and honor. I came to help this family, but his story was helping me. It was placing the challenges of my own day in perspective. My patients husband was facing life as he had always faced life, as his father had taught him to face life, without worry or anger, but with a determination to be a physician and spread kindness to others.

Deb and I were sitting in a room connected to a moment of history most important to our country, but we were being gifted as well with a perspective on how to face challenges.

When things are difficult as a health care provider, all I need to do is see the challenges my patients are facing. They are so often stories of courage.

In a prior Blog I wrote about one of my patients who was brought to my in patient unit, with the intensive care facility of a referring hospital expecting him to die in a day or two. He was bowel obstructed, and medically we saw no hope. We cared where we could not cure and our chaplain prayer with him, and did Reiki with him, and somehow, he did not die right away. After a month, we agreed to send him home, and he lived another five weeks - it seemed whenever we talked with him he was praying for other people he loved, Blessing other people, or thanking God for what he had been gifted with in life.

Some people see the challenges they face, and do not allow themselves to absorb the worry and anger of the moment. A doctor who had to face terrible prejudice just to be a doctor, persevered and took part in a quiet action that changed the soul of America, and Mrs Takata, a facing personal loss, and at times prejudice in her new land, left a legacy of compassion that has a very wide impact today.

Whatever the details of the stories, and however they are written or not written by history, there is a precious human lesson - we are gifted when we listen to it.