reckoning & resolve…12-12-23
Stillness in December has been an acquired taste. My southern California childhood, a year round adventure land, offered no pause for the cold or inclement. I’ve lived up north fifty plus years, but vividly recall when winter’s creep beneath my collar set off tendrils of warmth-craving. Prolonged fog would nestle under my skin and push me on edge. The shift took a while, but now…the quiet dark…I get it.
I burrow down, set little blazes throughout the house. They become prayers for all that is nesting in the hush. I sit fireside with books and tea. I make memories with my beloveds. It is muted here. The buzz that youngsters barreling through the house used to deliver is long gone. The pace of teaching slows to a low hum. The camping gear is stashed until spring. The patients I treat up in my studio dwindle to a holiday time trickle.
In the stillness this morning, I caught myself thinking ahead to January. And then memories of a long ago January bore down on me and I tell this tale because something about January brings forth a reckoning in us. And sometimes, arising from the reckoning, there is resolve. And January 2005 was just that January for me. At that time I’d already owned Dreizler Physical Therapy 15 years and the new year began in a huff with a notice from HPSO.
Somehow, in the hustle bustle chaos, our malpractice insurance had lapsed. We had been astoundingly uninsured eight months. Not what you want to hear when 17 employees are practicing medicine and your name is on the door. No sooner had this mess resolved than Consumer Affairs puts us on notice. A physical therapy assistant’s license had lapsed due to remiss in reporting change of residence. We pay the fine, get her re-instated. The following week delivers the clincher. The litigious attorney next door slaps us with a lawsuit claiming a computer went missing because we left a door unlocked while teaching on Saturday. This takes several months to settle and was not pretty.
All this drama spurned a big reckoning moment resulting in clear resolve to finally sell the practice. Which I had been on and off trying to pull off for five years. Because it was increasingly obvious I was in the wrong setting to do my work. It had been perfect for a long time…an acclaimed clinic offering incredibly valuable service in the community. It was just service in a form I no longer wanted to practice. Mind you, I was completely fuzzy about how it was I wanted to be in service. I just knew it had to change. And these three January reckonings were loud and clear.
The January 2005 saga comes to a fairy tale ending. In the last week of that fateful January, two women contact me with good faith interest in buying the business. By June 2005 it is sold. By January 2006 I am out on the street with my treatment table, an itinerant body worker. I’d treat people who found me here and there. Finally in 2008 I invest the sale proceeds into building the studio over my garage and completing 5Rhythms teacher training. Things were starting to get a little less fuzzy.
15 years in the clinic; 15 years in the studio over the garage. The vision I hold for this coming January, 2024 (yikes!) is all that 2005 reckoning & resolve come full circle. If I had a gazing ball at my disposal back then…well, I probably would not have been surprised.
Reckoning and resolve that occurs in January often centers around caring for our bodies. Creating space to gently explore this particular version of reckoning and resolve on January Saturdays is my vision. Because there is a bottom line here: body stuff arises. Whether you do regular self care or not. The benefit of some regular mat time is this: that discomfort will crop up with less intensity and way less mystery. Less intensity/mystery = less fear. This, as you know, is totally my body heart soul jam and I would love the opportunity to support you. See deets in above image and calendar below.
OPEN HOUSE
Since 2008, this East Sac studio is where so much healing and magic happen. It’s where I treat patients. It’s where I rock and roll. It’s where I take precious care of you and me. Come join me just for fun, questions, concerns, conversation. My trusty treatment table is ready for mini-consultations. I love doing these on the spot encounters and they are always illuminating to receive as well as witness.
RELEASE & ROLL
The other 3 Saturday afternoons in January? Returning to Yoga Shala with all those rollers & balls. 2 hour exploratory, enjoyment-filled sessions. Drop in to any one or take the series. Pleasure and fun and inspiration included.
I hope in this season you have time to burrow down, too. Set little blazes throughout your own home. Let prayers emerge for what nests in the hush. And most of all? Make memories with your beloveds. Feeling you out there with me….
🙏🏼Bella