A couple of weeks ago, I volunteered with two colleagues in one of the most underserved areas of Appalachia – through a mobile nonprofit called the Health Wagon.
Among the 3 of us, we cared for over 40 people in a day and a half of work. Some of our main therapies were: homeopathy, craniosacral, and reiki.
I hadn’t done this type of work since my year of service in Nicaragua back in 2003, and I was worried my menopausal body would not have the necessary stamina. (When I look back at my time in Nicaragua, I’m pretty sure I was receivingan influx of divine
intervention to be able to attend to the number of people I did.) Gratefully, I experienced the same phenomenon on this recent weekend in Grundy, VA. It felt like the best use of me – to open up, ‘let go and let God”.
And if there’s anyone who deserved this type of support, it was the population we were caring for. The people who came to see us had lived through – and continue to endure – unimaginable suffering.
There was a gentle giant – an older gentleman who’d had a stroke while riding a tractor, then fell and sustained a brain injury. As my hands rested on his skull I could feel how it was energetically blown open and I wished I was able to give him a daily session for the next 10 days in a row.
Then there was ‘Dee’, a slender woman with piercing blue eyes who’d survived two heart attacks, the loss of a son to suicide, another temporarily to a prison sentence – she’d also overcome opioid addiction and had undergone gastric bypass surgery. She now grows healing herbs in her garden.
Another mother came in with her son, who has Down syndrome, autism, severe allergies, panic attacks, and had already endured open heart surgery. And the list continued.
What really struck me was that not one person complained about the extreme difficulty of their lives. They were tired and worn but grateful for the time we were able to provide.
When I told Dee that I thought she was a walking miracle and I asked her how she does it. She simply said “I have to”
These folks were dealing with daily hardship, physical pain, generational trauma, systemic neglect, yet were some of the most present, grounded, grateful, and faithful people I’ve ever encountered.
This experience felt like the extreme opposite to what I currently see happening in the wellness industry: we’re biohacking and cold plunging and sipping golden milk and fine-tuning our nervous systems with apps and breath work protocols. (Not to mention the fact that we’re living in a time where spirituality has become real ‘bougie’!)
The polarity between these two worlds was so stark, it stuck with me.
It’s like the more ‘advanced’ we’ve become, the more disconnected we’ve become.
And I’m part of this world too. I appreciate health optimization and spiritual growth.
But then I ask myself the question – do we have too much? Why are we becoming obsessed with perfecting our physiology? Have we replaced God with technology?
This weekend humbled me and inspired me to give more. And it’s helped me to be ok and accepting of the days I just feel crappy and am experiencing a lower level of functioning. I don’t need to bio-hack my well into a more productive state (though every performance driven coach on IG would tell you otherwise!)
I can just accept that perhaps the weight of the times we are in is a bit much for my cells.
After all, if we continue to bio-hack our way into feeling optimal in this disconnected, ‘material resources as God’ reality, how will we ever change it?
There’s nothing like an experience like this to pull you out of your own head.
Witnessing the raw, unfiltered reality of someone else’s hardship brought me back to what truly matters.