Healing energy

A strange thing happened to me recently.  I was talking with an accomplished therapist who is well connected and respected in "alternative therapy" circles.  I was staggered by her comment, "Clive you will be a great healer".  I suppose in my mind I envisaged Reiki or something like that and could not see in a million years how that would fit with my career as a writer, speaker and coach.  I asked her what she meant and she just commented on "my energy".

Needless to say, the therapist's words rattled around my head for a long while and I even went to sleep that night trying to make sense of it all.  I still didn't see myself as "a healer".

The next morning, I awoke early to take my daughter to catch the 7.20am train.  Sensing she was likely to be late, I urged her to get ready.  She commented that if she missed the train, she could always get the next one.  Like many parents, I guess I was a little peeved to have got up early and moved my schedule around to accommodate her - only to find that the early train wasn't as urgent as I thought.  I stressed to her that I was going in to the office after taking her to the station so if she wanted to get a later train, she could walk to the station (which was not unreasonable).  This caused her to rush and she just caught the early train.  But in doing so she left her mobile phone in my car.  So off she has gone on a journey without her phone which as a musician will cause all sorts of inconvenience.

Now I guess some readers will be sympathetic to me as the dad and some will be sympathetic to my daughter's situation.  Isn't it funny how we take sides!  The point is this.  The whole affair caused me to think how much we cause pain and dis-ease with our everyday actions.  And how much pain and dis-ease we can resolve if we are better tuned in to what's going on and act with presence and wisdom in all we do.

On reflection, I could have communicated better with my daughter in the run up to this episode.  And a more selfless response would have been more accepting of options to do with the later train.  Would it really have mattered if I'd gone into work later?  Sure, my daughter could have responded differently too, but we're all very quick to point the finger at someone else.

So coming full circle, perhaps we all have the option to become great healers and maybe a career change is not necessarily the answer.