How it All Began, or Love/Hate
Growing up, I came from a “chiropractic family”. For us, the chiropractor was the gatekeeper to the medical doctors. If the chiropractor said that medical expertise was required, we went to a medical doctor. In most cases, the chiropractor adjusted us, advised us on what to do next, and the issues at hand resolved themselves quickly. Because of this, while I was growing up, I never heard, “be a teacher”, “be a (medical) doctor”, “be a lawyer”. Over and over and over, I had various family members tell me, “please be a chiropractor”.
Eventually, I exhausted all possible interests besides chiropractic, and so off to chiropractic school, I went… I found the study fascinating; it wasn’t a difficult course of study for me. I became very interested in exploring all systems of analysis that the practicing chiropractor had at her disposal. Finally, diagnostics, chiropractic adjusting technique labs, pathology, anatomy dissection labs were all over, and it was time to interface with the public as a supervised student chiropractor. It was both exciting and terrifying for most of my peers. For me, although I did experience fear and excitement, it was also very natural. I slipped into “doctor mode” with a comfort and grace that surprised myself. But one thing really bothered me: it was the feeling that there was more to the care of the human condition than simply aligning the spine and extremities.
Right before embarking on the transition from the classroom to the student clinic, I was gifted a copy of the book Anatomy of the Spirit, by Caroline Myss. I found the book to be a physical representation that validated what I had always known to be true, about how many levels/layers we all exist on, about how we move through the world based on this multiple level existence. What I didn’t know, was how does this book and my own “knowing” integrate with where I was going in the world? That was about to be revealed…
One day in student clinic, I had finished working with my patient and sought out one of the fully licensed chiropractors circling the floor, waiting for students to ask them to officially sign off on our patient appointments. This way we received credit for our work that applied towards graduation. I found my favorite doctor, whom I had become friendly with, who signed off on the adjustment but just stood there as I released my patient with home care instructions. As soon as the patient left, this doctor began closing the blinds in the room, leaving me to ask him, “what are you doing?”. He said “I am showing you something but it is ‘illegal’!” (The student clinic had a very strict set of rules about what was allowed and what was not during our patient appointments). When he turned back around, he put two slips of paper from his pocket up to my collar bone, one at a time, and said “hold out your arm”. One slip of paper, I could hold my arm up very tight; I was even stronger than he was! The other slip of paper, I could not hold my arm up, no matter how hard I tried. The difference between those two slips of paper was literally astounding to me. He looked at me, laughed and walked out of the room. He knew I would chase him down the hallways to say “What Was That??”. He handed me the two slips of paper, along with a business card. Walking away from me, he called over his shoulder, “call her. She will teach you more…”
I opened the slips of paper, one at a time, and this is what they said:
LOVE
HATE
And that was the beginning of the rest of my life…..
