CONNECTIONS

Ruth and I are loving being back in Perth, and enjoying all the facilities of city life. We miss some aspects of our years in the backwoods but it's wonderful to be linking up with some of our oldest and greatest family members, friends and colleagues and to be making brilliant new friends too.

The number of synapses in the human brain is larger than the number of galaxies in the observable universe

CONNECTIONS
I've just started working at the excellent Tay Medispa clinic here in Perth, and it's a fascinating time to be joining the team. I think the helpful potential for making fresh connections in healthcare is enormous.

In the UK we have an over-stretched public system, (the NHS which we have all grown up with and hold dear), and a generally misunderstood and definitely under-utilised complementary healthcare sector. A focus for me at the moment is meeting up with all kinds of practitioners to start to explain about complementary work, how it can help, what groups of people typically respond well, to de-mystify some of our more subtle work, so that all of us in the healthcare world can focus our individual energies where they will give most benefit to the whole population. I would always encourage people to look into the gentler approaches of complementary therapy firstly as a preventative health boost. Sometimes gently, effective complementary therapy may even help a patient to avoid an operation or medication. And at many times it will help a patient to achieve a better level of overall recovery.
Just a few more thoughts:

• Making a fresh connection sometimes means being open to change, or new growth. That may not always be comfortable...
• In Permaculture, we look at how the health of an eco-system revolves around the number of linked elements within it – the web of life. The more elements the system contains, the more resilient it is. Hence the fragility of much of our food supply coming as it does from monstrous monocultures. The same goes for many other systems, including healthcare.
• The future of mankind, if there is one, will revolve around cooperation rather than insularity, trust and hope instead of fear. Helping and assisting each other and enjoying our extraordinary life-journeys together.
• We have so much to learn from connections that seem challenging and rattle our cages a bit as we have from connections that feel comfortable. Refuse to be enemies, insist on friendship. In learning to be neutral with difficult people we learn some of our most useful lessons.