Sweet Silence

Today I took time to relish how lucky I am. On Wednesdays I work in a space where silence doesn’t reign, yet patients still feel right at home passing out amidst the chatter and banter. 5th Street Clinic’s open clinic space means we as practitioners are sharing ideas, inspiring each other and humbly asking for help when needed. Clients benefit and feed off of the communal healing energy and know that we all consider them 5th street family.

I listen, always. I learned quickly once I began apprenticing with Tom that I gained more by listening and gathering information rather than asking lots of “why?” questions. I preferred sitting with my questions and sometimes, but not usually posing questions to him later down the line. Perhaps I didn’t want to ask stupid questions out of potential embarrassment, but I prefer to believe I valued what Tom had to share so much that I didn’t want to interrupt his thoughts or practice patterns. He has always been very generous with sharing his knowledge and beyond gracious.  I see something different each time I work with him. I get to see deeper into the layers of the body and rejoice when I have those AHA moments and know that my patience has paid off. More has always been revealed.

A few years have passed, and I have begun to start asking his advice in terms of my patients or for him to elaborate on his shared thoughts, but beyond that I still remain quiet. It’s a good practice for me. It’s a challenging practice for me. And believe me there are people firing questions at him all day, so I get to absorb more than I can fit. But having unanswered questions floating in my mind challenges me to come up with my own best conclusions first and to pick up books and fall asleep dreaming about solutions. Many times I do stumble across an explanation from Tom and I am all the more rich for the process involved in getting there.

A little mystery keeps things interesting.