Hold On To Your Dreams....

Greetings Family,

A million years ago, I use to be a massage therapist or as I prefer to be called a Therapeutic Body Worker (Massage Therapist still carry negative connotations which I STILL do not find humorous. "Oh you a Massage Therapist, what you gon' massage?" You come at me like that and I promise you, you gon' get your feelings hurt-BAD! Hommie don't play that!  And it was due to snide comments like that I don't tell folk I am involved in the field). At any rate,  I got the calling one day when I was home sick from school, I think I was in middle school a.k.a. Junior High.  During my convalescence, it was my immense pleasure to stay in my Maternal Grandmother's room, which was the best bed room in the house-so to recuperate there was a huge honor-especially since I didn't think my Grandmother loved me-but that's another story.  Anyway, I was watching the groove tube and a commercial came on where a man was performing, what I didn't know at the time was, a basic Swedish message.  I took one look at what he was doing and knew I can do that too.  And I could.

One of my biggest fan's is my Mom who always, always said, "You have healing hands".  While I didn't understand fully what that entailed, I intuitively knew I did have the healing touch.  It was just instinctual what to do to heal through Therapeutic Massage-but at the time I just throw it under the category of just doing what felt right.  After many years of procrastination, I finally enrolled in Massage Therapy School, California Healing Arts.  However I did not finish due to financial woes of not being able to pay for the program. Plus EGO was running rampart then, causing me to piss off the scholarship I had and not doing the real work of helping the clients I was blessed to have, due to it being an internship program-another story for another time.  Yet, while I was in the program I met some truly extraordinary therapist's, one being James Peck. He was my massage therapist because, as any good therapist knows, you need a therapist to care for your body as you care and assist other's with theirs-and James was then and still is one of the baddest as in damn good therapist I know.  Matter-of-fact I need a massage now and if I had the funds to go to Hawaii, I'd be sending this post from the plan before I land-damn I miss him.  But I digress, now, one of my ultimate goals was to give my Mom a massage, but with her fear that massaging would move a blood clot, cause her to have a heart attack and she would die, she never wanted to experience a full massage and thus I had to settle for what she would allow, which was me massaging either her feet or hands-a manageable compromise-even though secretly I was completely devastated.  It was like not being to share your highest and best self with someone you love.

Well Family, today, on April 24, 2014 a long held dream came into flusihsion.  My Mom FINALLY allowed me give her a mini-massage and when we get her up today, I will give her a full, but gentle Swedish =0)! I'm so proud and honored I could just scream!!! I mean the well spring of joy from hearing her express how good it felt and she felt better afterward was a pleasure I cannot put words too.  Also for me, it was a pleasant surprise I realize I still remembered.  It was like when I touched my Mom, it all came tumbling back, everything I thought I did not know came back, last night when my Mom complained of hurting and the rest is the second reasons for this post.

And you know family even though I have not given a professional massage in years this experience has reawaken my desire to return to school to complete my hours to become a licensed therapist.  And really, even though I did not want to admit it, it hurt deeply leaving school and not being able to complete the program.  Hurt I could no longer walk into a Massage Therapy room and preform a Deep Tissue or Stone Therapy Massage. Hurt not being able to walk around the massage therapy table as I prepared the room to receive a client.  Hurt I was no longer partaking in the Citizenry of the Healing Arts. It's a unique community not limited to Massage Therapy, as Yoga, Pilates, Martial Arts, Aroma Therapy, Mediation, Spiritual Ministry, Energy Work and the list goes on and on. But for me, the tacit joy of helping another feel better getting off the Massage table then when they they laid down is bliss.  That look on the clients faces was so rich, I would give, at time, give massages for free or would run way over the allotted time. It was majestic, delightful, nirvana, a feeling unparalleled and others in the aforementioned fields can also relate.  I was the facilitators in my clients rejuvenation of spirit and well-being and with each client I touched I, too, was healed. Being at California Healing Arts College, immersed in learning the art of body work, was truly, truly one of the happiest moments of my life, magic happened-I'm shaking my head at the wonderment of those precious moment I was blessed to experience at the Santa Ana Campus. I just Goggled my old institution and found they now have a school in Carson, much more closer and far more doable than the one in Santa Monica. Family I just fill out the information form-so we'll see what happens.


Hold on to all your dreams Family, this being the primary reason for this post, fore you never know when they might come true....

Blessings of Peace,

Kioni

P.S. Here is an article titled Thriving Through Touch for additional information in performing Elderly Massage if you feel so incline to enhance another's life and your own through touch.  Naturally get the proper training at the institution of your choice, I suggest going to an accredited school and ALWAYS get permission from the elder's Primary Care Physician or Health Care Provider before performing any massage on an older person as some of their medical conditions may not be conducing for certain types of massage or the elder's body may not be a to frail to tolerate the pressure of the work as their bones my be brittle and yes, in legs or other extermites, there could be blood clots that could actually become lose to travel to the heart and injure if not prove to be fatal in some incidence (so yes my mother was justified in her fears-after all she was a Nurse).