friends – We Only Get One Chance

MY TRIBE

I never really felt the word “my tribe” until I went on my last vacation over the holidays. This is my tribe.

We have a resonance, ride the same wavelength.
We look at life through a similar lens.
We were familiar to each other from the beginning.
We laugh louder and harder together.
We mastermind.
We play. Like kids, we play.
We call each other out on limiting beliefs.
We call each other to be bigger people than we currently are and hold one another accountable.
We love in a really big way, each other and the world.
We bounce ideas off one another and truly gain so much from the other’s perspective.
We live fully and loudly and that is magnified when we are together.
We make our little crazy lives and ideas seem “normal” when we are together.
We have worked so hard, dug and excavated all kinds of stuff in order to uncover more of who we each are at our core. We did a lot of that work together and have tremendous trust in one another.
When there is time to shift and change and grow, a gentle space is held for when one stumbles.
We dance and sing. A lot! Fenton Chiropractor My Tribe
We can be our authentic selves, and it is encouraged.
We love life and remind each other to remain keenly aware of how blessed we are in our individual lives…and also as a group.
We have seen each other at our worst and helped to elevate that space.
We serve others and realize service is the key to happiness.
We have learned love, loss and so many other life lessons together.
We have great respect for one another.
We plan and plot and scheme.
We are family but we are so very different from our own blood-family.

That is my tribe and I wish all of you had a chance to get to know all of them. They are some of the most incredible people and my life would not be quite as rich without them. There is a great line in the Broadway play “Wicked” that goes something like this…

“Because I’ve known you, I’ve been changed for good.” This is my tribe.

A ROSE

The rose is known for it’s beauty and energy. It is a symbol for “love and beauty” and different colors mean different things. I remember growing up, when I got a rose that was white, it meant something similar to the “like” button on Facebook, yellow meant “friendship” and red meant “love”. When roses were delivered in high school from someone, the color truly was significant…but the bottom line was everyone loves roses.

This evening I was having wine and a bite to eat with a friend, and since it was Mother’s Day, the restaurant was giving red roses out to all the females…basically making the assumption that they were mothers.

One of the servers at the restaurant taps me on the shoulder and says “Ma’am, would you like a rose?” Instantly, and based on my assumption that “roses are for mothers only” I said “No thank you. I don’t deserve one. I am not a mom.”

WOAH!!! HOLD YOUR HORSES!!!! …now all of a sudden I have made an assumption that in order to “deserve” a rose, to be “worthy” of receiving a rose from a random restaurant server, I must have birthed a child into this world or somehow married into a step-mother role.

When absolutely ridiculous statements like that fall out of my mouth, a HUGE red flag goes up indicating it is a good time for me to take a step back and evaluate where on Earth it came from.

The friend I was sitting with was just the perfect person to have this conversation with as he reminded me that I am worthy of a rose…and so much more. “You are like a palm tree in the North Pole…you give hope and you give life and put a smile on people’s faces”. “Leaders and movers in the world were never placed on a yacht in the Bahamas, they were always where hungry and thirsty souls are.” and “Bloom where you are planted.”

Thank you my dear friend.

So I took the rose and I placed it on my purse and it became the center of conversation and a focal point for the rest of the evening.

Have you looked at a rose lately? If you sit and are really present with a rose and you take the time to check out the intricacies of it’s structure…it is truly magnificent, a beautiful natural work of art. As I brought the rose up to my nose for a smell, I was taken back by the beauty of the layers and layers of pedals that created this amazing thing…and to think all of that came from a very small rosebud is absolutely astounding.

In its infant stages, all of that gorgeous structure was already planned and mapped out. A rosebud holds so much potential that is only expressed if it is nurtured and given what is necessary for growth. …and the same holds true for each one of us. There is such a magnificent, grand plan that will unfold in perfect timing and perfect beautiful structure if it is nurtured and given what is necessary for growth. And if you look around, you will find this is also true for everything around you.

So let the beauty of a rose remind you of your inborn, INNATE potential to be magnificent and grand and beautiful and loved. When you walk by the floral department in your local grocery, take a second glance at the beauty that is the rose in all of its gorgeous shades. But do more than that…pick one out of the group, buy it, take it home, put it in water and place it by your kitchen sink. Let it be your early morning reminder, your lunchtime reminder and your after dinner reminder of the beautiful potential that is you. Nurture that potential and give yourself what is necessary to grow…and then get busy blooming where you are planted.

RE-DIPPED

I have been traveling a lot in the past 2 months…some for family, some for fun with friends and a trip to get, what a lot of us in the chiropractic profession call,”re-dipped”.

There is a phenomenal chiropractic seminar in California called Cal Jam that I am able to attend for continuing education and license renewal. There are seminars all over the country, even some really close to home, however I choose to go and spend my time with the best of the best and have sought out a couple venues to keep on my regular schedule every year.

Cal Jam always exceeds expectations and this year was no exception.

Some of my nearest and dearest friends and I all decided we would meet there this year, get hotel rooms together and be able to spend some time catching up in between listening to the speakers.

Chiropractors are kind of a strange breed to begin with. We have some really “wacky” ideas about the body’s incredible ability to heal, a philosophy that guides our profession and gives us framework for life, living and all things natural, we help people through the use of our hands, we practice what we preach and most of us absolutely love what we do. Put a few thousand of us in one huge theater, add in a little music, and the positive energy is palpable. For me, add to that some of my nearest and dearest friends, that also love what I love, and I feel revitalized, rejuvenated, re-energized…”re-dipped”.

The line-up of speakers was top notch; Joe Dispenza, Brenden Burchard, Garrett Gunderson, Jeanne Ohm, Barbara Loe Fisher just to name a few…some of the greatest in the profession and others that present on topics that compliment our profession.

When the days come to an end, we gather as groups and invade the local restaurant scene to “talk it down”. Our conversations range from the topics the speakers have presented, how our practices are going, business and money matters, family, travel plans, matters of the heart and so on. There is often roaring laughter coming from these conversations and in a small way, that positive energy that was palpable during the day flows out the doors of the theater, down the streets and into the local establishments.

Have you ever been around positive energy and felt your energy lift? I assume we have a small effect on the wait staff that is serving us, the bar tenders that are pouring the wine and maybe even the people that are sitting around the tables next to ours…or maybe it is bigger than we think…Really tune into this YouTube clip around the 2:20 minute mark…she happens to be one of the people sitting at one of the restaurants while I was there last week.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=at6NsWoYGBI[/youtube]

“They look very happy, that’s all I know…” she says. I just love this glimpse into what kind of effects are happening due to positive energy. Happiness is contagious…being positive is contagious. Give it a try sometime.

I love to travel. Actually the process of getting to a place is not very glamorous with packing bags, driving to the airport, making it on time, lugging heavy suitcases around, dealing with security, sitting on the plane next to strangers for long hours, finding the rental car place, dealing with getting all the way to the destination, checking in…none of that is what I would call “fun”.

However having a change of scenery, seeing new places, learning new things, meeting new people, exploring new areas both physically and mentally…I FREAKIN’ LIVE FOR THAT!!! Something about all of that gives me a fresh start almost like pressing a “reset” button. Then when it has anything to do with the profession that I love so much, with people that love what I love, and the philosophy that I live in, there is nothing better than getting “re-dipped” and returning home to serve at a higher level. And yes, yes we are all really, really happy.

DURANGO

Durango, Colorado!!! I visited such a wonderful place last weekend I have to share with you. It is a small town in southwest Colorado, very near what they call “The Four Corners” where Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah come together. I guess there is a monument there that you can straddle with your arms and legs and be in 4 states all at one time. I didn’t make it there however I did get to explore the area. Durango is a very conscious city. The people of Durango pay attention to what they eat and how they treat the land and environment. They recycle whenever they can, ride their bikes if it is possible, and respect others. It seems that many people are questioning standard western medicine there, thus leading to healthier births, childhoods, and lives in general. I have friends that practice chiropractic there in the city and are loving every minute of being in their small piece of paradise. Though it is more than a hop, skip, and a jump to get there, if you get a chance to go, TAKE IT!!!

BOOK CLUB

One of the most wonderful things that has come into my life in this past year is the Cafe of LIFE Book Club.

I am not the originator though it was passed to me because I host it at my office. It is such a wonderful experience each and every meeting we have. We all leave lighter and with more ease than what we came in with. We cozy up here at the Cafe of LIFE and have open discussions about real things, that really matter. If you ever get an opportunity to join something like this, take it. And if you haven’t found one yet, COME JOIN US!!!! We begin a new book “Loving What Is” by Byron Katie tomorrow, Thursday Sept 25th at 6:30pm and meet every other week to discuss about 3 chapters at a time.

One word to describe book club….INSPIRING!!!