Thursday, July 21, 2011

Healthy Touch

One of the first things my teacher Nancy said when we started school was to "Never underestimate the power of touch". I strongly believe that as a culture we've minimized the importance of touch and it was one of the main reasons I was attracted to Massage Therapy in the first place.

During the first week or two of class I decided to conduct an experiment. For one week, I kept track of how often I was touched [not including class time where we were practicing strokes] even the most absentminded pat on the shoulder. I was shocked when by the end of the week I had only been touched 4 times. I know I'm single and busy and for the most part my family isn't particularly touchy, but this strikes me as abnormal.



After moving home from Africa where straight men freely hold hands and space bubbles don't exist, it was a glaring cultural difference I noticed right away. We sit alone in our cubicles, need 5ft of personal space at all times with strangers and we wonder why depression and suicide is so prevalent in our society? And often, because we are either desperate or have never been taught any better we use unhealthy touch as a poor substitute.

We know that without touch babies can literally die, but for some reason it's okay to minimize the need as an adult?

These are just some rambling thoughts, but do I believe that we are a touch starved nation and I am so excited to play a small part in changing that.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Summer Photos

These are my favorite summer pictures so far!







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[Maybe not the best of photos, but I love how goofy my brothers are]

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[This is about as close to the fireworks as I could get]

Saturday, July 16, 2011

My Freak Out

Since the beginning of this year, I've been stressing out about my 25th birthday. The idea of turning 25 really hit hard and for the longest time I couldn't figure out why. Like sooo many people have felt the need to tell me, I'm still young and it's not like I'm approaching old age yet or anything. I really do know that.

The fact that it was bothering me so much really bothered me! I'm not someone who's ever worried about aging, but this past week when the day finally came I figured it out.



My mom says that when I was a little girl I would tell her that when I grew up I was going to move right next door and marry a man just like my dad. All through my childhood years and into high school my dream was to get married and have a family. That was literally all I wanted. I was going to be the most amazing mom ever.

Now I just turned 25 and I realized a while ago that life rarely goes according to plan and even though I loved Africa and I love Massage Therapy, I have to fight against a feeling of disappointment.

It is so frustratingly human to always want what you don't have, but I guess I just have to settle for being cliche and hope God continues to work on my heart and teaching me to be content with him.

I continue to be a work in progress.