A wonderful thing!

As a new year starts, i am seeing suggestions that a wonderful thing is happening, which is that healers coming from different perspectives are beginning to look at what each other is doing - and learning from each other.

We aren't past a lot of the old history, and sometimes we are still lost in arguing about language or distinctions, or which one way is the right way ..... but that issue not withstanding minds and hearts seem to be opening --- and that likely is a good thing for all of us.

The past few months I've been learning from Tom Rigler, it is a wonderful opportunity - to say it most simply Tom is a good person, and tries to faithfully transmit what he has learned. In any case the past month we've been working on Munay Ki .....a series of Rites originating in Peru .... that led me to watching some You Tube sessions led by Dr Alberto Villoldo .....who left medical school to study in Peru ....and as one of his interviewers said "the rest is history."

Dr Villoldo said the following about American Medicine .... now some call what i do "Traditional Medicine" from the perspective that within American culture mainstream is traditional, and some call what we do "Conventional Medicine" - since many reserve the term "Traditional Medicine" for older wisdom and feel that what is mainstream is simply conventional .....lest anyone think "language" is not important there is now a serious dispute within Conventional Medicine about what to call phD level professionals within hospitals, that is since Nurse Practitioners now are designated doctorates in nursing - an NP working in a hospital is a doctor, but not an MD (or DO or equivalent degree from a foreign school) ..... but in any case .....

Here is what i heard Dr Villoldo say .... that Emergency Medicine is wonderful in the United States and that "if you get bit by a snake, don't go to a Shaman - go to an Emergency Room." And he added .... "but then go to see the Shaman to see why the Snake bit you."

What is important here is that a representative of what some call Traditional Medicine (and some would not allow the use of the term since he is a phD and not an MD) - VALUES what conventional medicine does well.

And at the same time we are seeing "Conventional Medicine" including Complementary techniques ...because increasingly there is a recognition that on an evidence basis these techniques often are helpful and rarely (far less often than some conventional techniques) harmful. In Hospice especially - and in Long Term Care in general .... even non-hospice .... the recognition that human connection can assist in calming people, and help with their rehabilitation, and reduce their rate of decline ..... that we can Care when we are unable to Cure ....this notion is becoming widespread.

It is because i am - really - Conventional - (though Thanks (!) to some of my Reiki friends who say, "oh no - we accept you as non-conventional" .....) within Conventional settings i am increasingly able to have these discussions with my colleagues .... and the discussions are respectful, there exists curiosity - when we made a presentation at an AMDA meeting - a national meeting of physicians in the Long Term Care Continuum we were nervous - we really worried -- but we had no need to !!! Many people stood up and said, "we need more of this type of discussion."

So in November i was able to share a presentation with a colleague acupuncturist at the State Chapter meeting of AMDA in Maryland, and in March i will do a brief Reiki demonstration at Long Term Care Medicine 2012 in San Antonio - but day by day - week by week - as we have meetings about hospice care (my national hospice, Seasons Hospice has engaged Joyce Simard, author of "The End of Life Namaste Care Program" as a consultant, and daily nurses and medical residents are asking me about how we are integrating complementary techniques into hospice care.

For now - i believe that my "Conventional Colleagues" are opening their minds, and my fellows in discovery of energy based methods are being patient with my lack of experience in ancient wisdoms. In Hospice, at the bedside, it remains my job to do the best i can to care when i cannot cure, to assist people in a transitional time .....

If people are reaching out - sharing - respecting others for what they do well .....that's a wonderful thing. This is a wonderful "ripple" to be a part of .....Thank you to all who share the journey!