BACK TO PARIS

I am in Paris. The City of Love. The city with the best bread, coffee and chocolate in the world. I lived here when I graduated from college, rather than pursuing my intention to become a doctor. Instead, I crimped my hair, lined my eyes in kohl, wore tight jeans and impossibly high heels as a fashion model.

What stands out for me now is not any of the actual modeling I did. Rather, my time in Paris was an incredibly generous gift: to get out of my small world, engage with so many people, go to different places and just plain open my mind.

Modeling was good for me. It was the beginning of a circuitous journey that brought me onto other roads that allowed me to be open to the wisdom of Chinese Medicine. When I began to explore Chinese Medicine after a profoundly positive experience with it, I did not know that I would become an acupuncturist and that acupuncture would become an integral part of my personal health care. I did not know that I would start a program serving those with HIV and AIDS. I did not know that my skills would help to prevent surgeries for back pain, carpal tunnel, tennis elbow, plantar fasciitis and other sources of pain. I did not know that I would be able to stop a panic attack, ease depression and address other emotional dysfunction. What I did know, however, is that I always felt a deep calling to help others who were in pain.

After my son went to college, my choices enabled me to go back to school for 4 years so I could pass the national board exams to become licensed and National Board Certified in Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture. The roads I followed to get there seemed disparate at times, but as I look back, they were anything but. Along the way, I learned about healing: from the bucket load I needed to do myself and from the experience of helping others. Now I am headed to the south of France for a writer’s retreat, to breathe into my story some of the wisdom on health garnered through personal experience, study, and practice. My hope is to inspire others to see health in new ways.

So wish me luck. I hope your segue into summer is smooth and that you have carved out a time for yourself to get away from it all so you might rest, relax, and have a chance to hear an internal voice that might be telling you to change course. As always, I wish you the best. I will keep you apprised of my progress.

Onward!
Maureen