Meditation Informs Healing Facilitation

It is my birthday today.

38 years old.  Young.

I went to look at an office space downtown (Charlottesville).  Not knowing what to expect.  I met someone who I think I will learn a lot from.

No names, unless I get her permission, yet.  She does shamanism and process-oriented psychotherapy, hypnotism but she is outside the box in all of these areas I think.

We started talking about being energetically conscientious.  Cleaning up after a session.  Clearing the room of any residual energies or emotions.

Somehow we chatted about celestial realms, angels, Dharma wisdom beings, vortexes and animal spirits.  Energies all.  And in spite of being so grounded in the spiritual realms as it were, she is the manager of the healing space and she works with corporate clients doing executive development.

So…  I want to emulate some of that.  I am a spiritual being have an off-and-on difficult time with my human experience.  She seems to be a similar spiritual being, having discovered a way to work with her human experience.  To be grounded in both worlds.  That is something uncommon to say the least.  To really be in alignment with our heart and mind and body and to be empirical about both worlds – very rare indeed.

At one point in the conversation, it seemed like, while she talked, I was having a separate conversation with her in my mind.  Uncanny but not unexpected somehow.  Bizarre and edifying at the same time.

Needless to say, I am most likely going to take the space.  If nothing else, I will learn a lot energetically.  Just by meditating in the space.  I have a feeling that this 38th year is going to be a great one.

Thanks for reading!

~Kirby

Thomas Jefferson was of course a politician, a diplomat and a scholar, but he was far more than that.  And I think it is the lesser-well-known modesty and wisdom about him that is most pertinent in these days of extremism and intolerance.

This is me at Monticello, with a new friend from Toronto Canada, a Tibetan refugee whose family Canada took in and made a permanent resident and then citizen!

It was an incredible day for a tour – in the 70’s, clear blue azure skies, a light breeze and the daffodils and even some tulips are blooming.  (Although it is supposed to be cold next week with the possibility of snow, so these flowers are dreadfully confused by our warm winter weather!)

But I am most struck by what Jefferson put on his grave: 3 things.  1) He was the author of the Declaration of Independence, 2) he came up with the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom, and 3) he was the father of the University of Virginia.

No where on his grave did he want that was President of the U.S. or Vice President, nor did he want it known that he was the Governor of Virginia or even the Ambassador to France!  Jefferson it seems was basically a modest farmer, and inventor, and creator, and philosopher and plantation owner.  Yes he had slaves, but it seems, after going on the Slavery section of the tour, that he gets a bad rap for that – if he had the power, he might have attempted to fight and end slavery during his lifetime.  But the powers that were in the South at that time were definitely not ready for that!

(And it should be known that he had children with Sally Hemmings after his wife died.  Yes she was a slave, she was of mixed races, and who knows if she gave consent, but I would have to suspect that to give birth to 6 children, there may have been some…  And Martha Jefferson made Thomas Jefferson promise to not get married again after she died, despite the fact that he would outlive her by 40+ years.  So he kind of kept up his end of the bargain, along with siring 6 children with Hemmings.)

It was the Statute of Religious Freedom that really caught my ears and eye and heart today.  Way ahead of his time, Jefferson needed the corrupting influence of religion out of the government.  It needed to be in writing!  Too often, there were priest kings (Popes) dominating the political landscape in Europe.  And Jefferson even went so far as to separate the UVa chapel away from the other campus buildings at his dear University!  This was a radical departure from most schools of the time!  The chapel is literally separated and in a different direction than the scholastic buildings.  School is separate from religion.  The State is separated from religion.

In this current time of religious persecution and intolerance, (read: realizing that Donald Trump is our current President and that he seems to be anxious to keep Muslims out of the United States), it is the simplest wisdom that can reach the farthest.

It is the simplest wisdom that can be understood by the most people.  The Virginia Statute states that no one can be persecuted or thrown in jail due to their practicing a certain religion or not practicing one.  And that fact that Jefferson valued that above the fact that he was the President says something.  He was a wise and powerful man, inventive and a man of vision.  Yes there are one or two controversial areas of his life, but taken as a whole regarding the epoch and society he was living in, I think we must conclude that he was a very special being.  One who was years ahead of his time.

Let us celebrate and honor Jefferson’s memory today by accepting and being tolerant toward all people, regardless of their race or religion or social status.

May all beings realize that when our neighbors are happy, then so are we!  And accept and practice generosity toward all beings!

Thanks for reading!

~Kirby

Hello dear readers,

I am excited to say that I have more time and gusto to be offering Spiritual Astrology classes and bodywork (Embodiment Coaching).  I am working to tidy up my website – Kirby’s website – and it should be mostly complete within a few days.  Plus I am looking around at office spaces in Charlottesville to resume my bodywork practice.

Yes, I pressed pause on nursing school.  My work / sleep schedule were not conducive to doing well this time around.  I have more energy now though and more enthusiasm for strengthening my bodywork practice and for doing more of what I enjoy.

Just last night I cooked meat loaf and bread pudding!  And a few days ago, I went for a beautiful leisurely 6 mile hike not far from town.  I would not have that kind of time (or creative energy) if I were still plugging away in school.

I am looking around at potential venues to teach a Relationship Astrology class (in honor of Venus being retrograde March 6th – April 5th).  Let me know if you have ideas about this.

Actually I look forward to any comments / questions you might have at this time, especially regarding setting up an appointment.

Thanks for reading!

~Kirby

I was chatting with a friend today and he asked me about how my recovery was going from Lyme’s disease.

If you are not aware, in 2014 I was bitten by a tick.  I got the traditional bull’s eye rash around the bite site and I hurriedly went to the doctor.  Unfortunately, my doctor (at the time) was not Lyme’s educated and she only prescribed two weeks worth of antibiotics.  This was way too short a time (six weeks is now known to be the bare minimum to prevent an infection).  I think that all the 2 weeks worth of antibiotics did was suppress the bacteria for a few months, to delay the infection as it were.

[Side note – the reason two weeks is not long enough is that the bacteria has a 28 day or so life cycle which alternates between a cyst form and a spirochete form.  The antibiotics only affect the spirochetes.  So while it kills some bacteria in that amount of time, it cannot get all of them in such a short time because the cyst form is relatively dormant but still very virulent once it matures.  Also, the Lyme’s bacteria forms bio-films – layers of recruited bacteria that prevent the antibiotics from getting to the bottom of the pile so to speak.  Therefore treating Lyme’s is a complicated situation!  Some doctors recommend being on the antibiotics more like six months.  Although this brings up more discussion about how much those said antibiotics are tearing up your healthy bioflora…]

So, sure enough, I started to notice slow insidious symptoms creeping in.  I was busy at the time taking pre-requisite classes for nursing school and working full time, plus being in a relatively new relationship, so I was distracted from focusing on my health.  I just thought that the ache in my elbow or wrist was from something I ate – maybe a reaction to drinking a beer or two (which is yet another potential Lyme’s symptom – see below).

Not knowing what else to do, and unfortunately forgetting about that Lyme’s tick that bit me the year before, I had my blood tested (CBC and thyroid test and lipid panel).  That did not show any really bizarre anomalies.  Other than a slightly low lipid count.  So I carried on, doing well in classes and maintaining in my job.

Cue 2015 and things started to get worse.  By the summer, there were some days where, if I was stressed, I would be easily irritable and disproportionately upset by additional stressors.  I started to wonder what was wrong with me.  But then nursing school started and I literally did not have any time to worry about my health.  There were some days that were very clear and my mind was cogent.  But that alternated with some days where I had to struggle through a mental fog.

I did well that first semester of school.  But Thanksgiving rolled around and I used that week off to blow off steam by playing a few extra hours of computer games / day.  I had refrained from playing these for the previous 6 months or so.  Well it turns out that Lyme’s + final exams stress + additional stress on the nervous system of gaming = symptoms ramping up exponentially.

By December of 2015, I was suffering bad.  My wrists and elbows were inflamed and they usually felt arthritic.  I could no longer drink more than one beer / day as this made me feel worse.  And apparently something about the computer games set off a bizarre reaction in my arms (yes I played more over winter break) – by January, the ulnar nerve in both of my arms – that would be the nerve that innervates the pinky fingers and half of the ring fingers – was starting to go numb – I was experiencing frightening neuropathy.  I say frightening because as a nurse, I could not fathom giving medications if I could not feel one and a half fingers on both of my hands!

So suffering from foggy-headedness and not knowing what else to do, I quit nursing school (for a semester).  The time off improved things a little but not much.  In fact, the beer thing got worse, along with eating gluten.  If I had gluten plus sugar, the inflammation the next day throughout my body was worse (see below for why).

And then, thank god, I was referred to Michael Jabalee – an acupuncturist and Lyme’s specialist in Charlottesville Virginia.  He helped me tremendously over the next six months.  His website by the way is: Michael Jabalee’s website

Jabalee does a form of bio-energetic testing where he is able to test the body’s strengths and weaknesses and whether or not Lyme’s is present and whether or not there are any co-infections.  I should point out that soon after I went to Jabalee for the first time, I also had the Western blot blood test run and sure enough – he was correct in his assessment that I had active antibodies for Lyme’s disease going on meaning I had a positive test result.  Jabalee said the same thing – that I had Lyme’s disease but no co-infections (there are other bacteria and / or parasites which occur with some tick bites and these are sometimes worse than a Lyme’s infection).

At first he put me on a lot of homeopathic medicine for Lyme’s – it is a protocol of 4 different homeopathic medicines which help the body to detox, to clear the energetic body and to go after the actual Lyme’s bacteria.  And yes, some of you are thinking, “Homeopathic medicine?  That is all you did for Lyme’s?!  Are you crazy?”  And I understand why you would think this, but the answer to that question is basically yes.  He also gave me two potent vitamin B supplements – because I was also suffering neuralgia from a post-herpetic (Shingles) condition.  And I was put on an interesting supplement for Leaky Gut (which is also Lyme’s related).  He does not take insurance, so my HSA account was drained a little with that first round of meds / supplements ($400 for intake visit + everything else) but it was so worth it.

I should mention that (see previous posts) due to having received an abundance of bodywork treatments – Craniosacral Therapy, emotional-process-oriented bodywork, acupuncture, somatic therapy and being a decent meditation practitioner – that I was very embodied and in touch with my body.  My body communicates with me and I know how to listen.  When he put the Leaky Gut supplement in my hand, my stomach had a monstrous gurgle the likes of which I had never heard before.  I knew instantly that I wanted to start taking that supplement immediately!

The regimen was as follows: take the homeopathic meds (away from food or drink) 3x / day for 3-6 months, take the vitamin B’s and then go get tested by him again, along with the Leaky Gut supplement – take that and then get tested by him 12 weeks down the road.  Then each month the supplements and acupuncture got cheaper as I needed less and less.

This is getting wordy, so to be continued…

[The footnotes referred from above will be on the next post.]

(thanks for reading!)

Kirby

Among other areas of study – like astrology, Buddhism and emotional-process-oriented-bodywork – I also work in a restaurant to pay the bills.

According to most people who pay attention to benefits that employees offer, they would say that my job is a great one.  We have good health insurance, an HSA account, good 401K program after working there for a while, etc etc.  We have great benefits yes.

But I have noticed a trend over the past few years.  And I think in management’s defense, it is / was a response to the recession of 2008 / 2009.  The trend is to cut and slash one thing from employees each year.  In 2008, they slashed away tenure based raises – seriously – most people who had been working there for years saw their wages slashed by $2.00 – $4.00 / hour.  That was the worst.  I wasn’t working there at the time.  As an employee who primarily makes tips, I would not have seen a cut from my $2.13 / hour wage…

But each year, we have less positions, less staff to do the same amount of work.  Basically management is wringing all they can get out of their lower staff members.  And still they make cuts.  It doesn’t exactly make sense to us employees – we have only one host on staff and yet the restaurant is open from 7 am until 11 pm, 7 days a week.  What that means is that there are people who call to make a reservation and they don’t get called back for at least 3 to 4 days.  Some people are growing upset.  And we lose more and more business as a result (management doesn’t seem to realize that sometimes, to make money, you have to spend a little to begin with – or at least invest in your employees!).

But here is why I mention this: I am also in nursing school.  And I for the most part, I am noticing that same trend in hospitals as well.  In nursing school, we are taught in a very strict manner, that everything must be done a certain way – doctor’s orders are meant to be followed explicitly.  But when you are short one or two nurses on a floor…  some things start to go.  The first hospital I was in actually had a surplus of nurses – I have heard that they pay $2 – $3 / hour less for their nurses, but at least there is not the intense stress of having to give medications to eight patients within an hour – if each patient is getting an average of 8 – 10 meds…  and as nurses we are supposed to do a thorough assessment on each patient the first time we are seeing them.  But giving all those meds and doing a thorough assessment on each in one hour?  Are you kidding me?

As a future nurse, I don’t want this level of stress.  Yes nurses do pretty well – they start out making anywhere from $21 to $26 an hour depending on the hospital and the work load.  And it swiftly goes up from there.  But they have to be able to predict what the doctor is going to order, they make recommendations to doctors about what a patient might need, they are responsible if a patient starts to take a turn for the worse and they do 90% of the patient care (when compared to doctors).

I’m at the point where I just have to accept what I am seeing.  Right?  Maybe this is America.  Corporate America.  It really is all about the bottom line.  Hopefully I can swallow my desire for a constantly safe working environment that has very few stressors in it.  Because it seems that if I am working as a nurse in a hospital…  I will have to develop a thick skin and constantly move forward – to expand my nervous system’s functional range, and to self-regulate over and over again.

In order to end on a positive note…  at least as a nurse I can get paid to be of benefit to others.  In this time, in this dense frequency of a planet we live on, finding a job that is truly right livelihood is difficult (trying to cause zero harm to self or other is nearly impossible).  But I think nursing can come close – at least that is the initial intention anyway!

Well thanks for reading my ranting…  and feel free to leave a comment  🙂