A life well lived.

On this day August 14, my mother was born. I was thinking about my Mothers life. And my life as well. 

When I was 7 she was healed of a very rough time in her health by a reflexologist. It became her passion to learn how to help others. When I was 10 she started doing this work in a room in our home. I witnessed some of the most awesome things that reflexology did for people who walked in our door.  I cannot even count the number of times I woke up in the night to find her working on someone with a migraine headache. 

She went on to expand into massage at a time when there were no schools and no licensing. She was a member of the American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA). She was president of the Texas chapter for a few years and then became the Educational Director.  She was one of the few who taught massage/reflexology in the 1960s and ‘70s.  She taught this in our home.  So many kids learn their parents work by witnessing that work being done daily. I was one of those kids. I helped her teach classes at that time. 

When I was 18 she started working outside our home at a very successful salon in Dallas. She became very successful there. Four years later she opened her own business and asked me to help her by running the office part of the business.   Soon she was swamped and we added a family friend who had worked with her years earlier.   When I was 25 we just had more business than 2 full time massage therapists could do and I was pushed into working doing massage therapy.  When she was 80 she was still working and commuting to Dallas. But she did sell her house and moved in with me. At first I had an active elderly housemate. But I morphed into caregiver.  She worked until she was 93. Her business role changed. She managed  the office and did some reflexology and talked to every one. She fell and broke her leg and as often happens that led to her death 11 months later. 

This is a long post and I am leaving out the part about the Herbalist that she became but that part started in the late 1970s. I also learned that. 

As she was dying she was troubled that she had not taught enough people to do this work. I promised her that I would. Since she has been gone I have taught several classes. There are some REALLY great reflexologists out there now. 

Every person I touch in my work. And every person these people and others who took my class touch. We are all and extension of her touch. In that way she will live on. And she would be so happy with that idea. 

I will continue to teach.