Page 26 of Fierce-Dane

“What you did last time was perfect.”

“Good. I’m sure your job can be stressful and that will add to the tension in your neck.”

“It is,” he said. “But not as bad as it could be. It’s hard tosee a child sick and I’m always glad when I can easily remedy it.”

“I’ve seen a lot of sick kids in my life that simple medication would help, but their parents would rather use home remedies.”

No one saw a doctor when she was a child. She thought about how many times she had colds or the flu, even ear infections and what was used to heal it.

Most times she was positive they just went away on their own and was thankful that she and Sabrina had never been sick much.

Their mother, on the other hand, always seemed to have something wrong with her. Or she thought she did. Home remedies only went so far.

“That’s too bad,” he said. “There is a time and place for home remedies. I’ll never say no. I don’t have a firm belief that every ailment needs a prescription. Sometimes our bodies do need to learn to fight things, but it’s a fine line.”

“I agree,” she said. “And I’m not even a doctor.”

He laughed. “You’ve got enough training of the human body,” he said. “We all know that there are pressure points on the body that aid in healing, but not everyone wants to believe that.”

“We do know that,” she said. She applied some more pressure to a particularly large knot and had him let out a little groan with almost a flinch. “Too much?”

“Perfect,” he said. “I might have pushed my workout yesterday knowing I was coming today.”

“And what do you do to work out?” she asked.

“I’ve got a rowing machine. Thirty minutes five times a week. I turned up the resistance on it to test myself. Not a good idea.”

He was laughing when he said it. “You felt it this morning?”

“I did. If I didn’t do the rest of my workout with it, it might have been fine, but then I do some general calisthenics for fifteen minutes. It’s my me time.”

She smiled. “We all need me time. I’d like to think that is why most people come here.”

“I’m sure that is the case,” he said. “What do you do for me time?”

“I meditate in the mornings and at night. Just fifteen minutes. Most times I listen to positive messages on an app while I breathe in and out. I’m not sure I can even remember half of what I hear, but it’s the fact that I disconnect with anything weighing on my mind for that period of time.”

“Everyone needs to do that. During my residency, I found myself hiding in a closet doing it.”

She laughed. “Hiding in a closet?”

“Sometimes you need to get away from people or noise. It was that or the bathroom. Anywhere I could go to not be bothered. But in the hospital, a bathroom has people. Supplies or maintenance closets, not always.”

“Now I get it. I was thinking you were doing that at home.”

“No,” he said. “At work, during a break. Long hours and a lot of stress during my residency. I wasn’t listening to apps while I did it. Just closed my eyes, focused on one or two things and breathed in and out for five or ten minutes. It was enough.”

“That is the basis of meditation,” she said. “Focus on something that will lighten the load in your brain and relax your body.”

“What do you focus on?” he asked. “Maybe I’m rusty and need to get back to it.”

“Whatever pops into my head. Could be a sandwich I had at lunch. Maybe someone’s hairstyle. I had a woman come in with two buns on her head. One on each side. Something a teen would do and I couldn’t get it out of my head. It made me smile. So that night I just focused on that.”

“So I could focus on this later tonight?” he asked. “Your hands right there on my arm?”

She was massaging his bicep and moving down to his forearm.

“If it works, absolutely,” she said. “I will admit I’ve done that before. I did a few facials today. Normally I remember someone’s eyes or hairstyle. That was the day I had the two buns. For me, when I sit down to meditate it’s the first thing that comes into my head that is stress free.”

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