A Narrow Line

I’ve been thinking about two things this morning, intersections and palpation. Intersections being the different currents in our lives that run across one another unpredictably. Palpation is examining a body by touch, and is something I’m starting to practice at school.

Palpation requires patience and sensitivity to work, and a little knowledge of the area being touched helps too. Because of the nature of the soft tissue, it feels to me more like I’m letting the area of the body I’m looking for be touched rather than touching it directly. It’s more passive than it might seem at first.

That level of passive sensitivity brings me back to intersections, and I feel that it’s this kind of training that allows us to recognize and respond to the various intersections in our lives. Some are very obvious, but many more are incredibly subtle. My visual image is streams of various sizes flowing into one another, from a huge river to the smallest of trickles. Being open and ready allows us to feel and respond. We cannot respond to what we can’t feel.

I’m now two weeks into the massage therapy program. My body is still adapting the new schedule, so I feel tired almost all the time. Despite this, I’m very happy. Learning about the body is wonderful, and being able to combine awareness and sensitivity and skill and communicate that to another human being is a great thing.

John Daido Loori, my teacher, died yesterday. My heart is filled with sadness and gratitude. Will I ever be able to repay to the world what he has given me?

Classes have started. It feels good to be doing something new. Even if I do have to wear polo shirts.