Touch

We've been staying close to home lately. Last Friday we were supposed to go to a LifeLearners event, but I wasn't up to the possibly long drive home with Nicholas fussing. I thought we were supposed to get together with another friend in the morning, but that's next week. So we ended up staying home and cleaning the turtle in the morning. After lunch, Sami and AJ started painting and playing in the backyard. A little later we went out and rented a couple of movies. We ran into a friend we hadn't seen for a while which was so great. Everything works out the way it is supposed to!

Sami's enzymes and bacteria arrived on Friday and she started them straight away. I wonder how long it will take to notice any changes.

Yesterday we hit a couple of yard sales in the morning and the kids and I had a lot of fun there. In the afternoon they watched a movie and played 'Go Fish' with some english/spanish cards. They seemed kind of pent-up, so after dinner, I took all 3 kids for a walk to the park. It was getting dark and a little chilly so we didn't stay too long. Everyone was asleep by 9pm so I stayed up by myself and watched a movie. What a rare treat! A whole movie, uninterrupted!

I've been thinking about Touch lately. Being so kinesthetic, I've always understood people and things better through touch. As a child I was very affectionate and loved to hug and hold hands with everyone I liked. As I got older and still enjoyed doing this, kids at school would make fun of me and call me things that I didn't understand, but knew were not very nice. So I became more introverted, afraid to reach out to others (physically and therefore on other levels as well). I started dating just after I turned 14 (without my parents knowledge). I enjoyed the high amounts of touch I was able to explore and years of being pent up exploded though in ways I wasn't emotionally ready for.

When I was 18 I started studying massage therapy. I loved that and wish that I had kept going with it then. Over the years I've earned several massage certificates, but not enough to legally work in that trade. In the couple of years before Sami was born, I had two jobs - one as a Personal Fitness Trainer & Aerobics Instructor, the other as a Reiki Practitioner. One dealing with the physical, one dealing with the spiritual. It was great being able to balance them. One thing I didn't expect: when I did the PT certification, we were warned not to touch our clients. Fear of lawsuits, fear of encouraging inappropriate return touching. Argh! This society needs more human contact! People are so starved for human touch. No wonder the sex industry is so huge. Anyway, working as a PFT I used minimal touch when I though it was necessary to help the client focus on where they were supposed to be feeling an exercise.

This morning, Cary took AJ out for breakfast and Sami and I had some "girly" time. I made her french toast for breakfast then gave her a massage & Reiki while Nicholas napped. After that, she went out to the motorhome and hung out in her nook - the bed above the cab that has become a special place to her. It's been a vampire den, a spiders hole (a little halloween influence there!), a cave, a castle and I'm sure other things as well. She seemed so calm after spending some special time with me and some quiet time alone. Perhaps that's what she needs more of.

I love my husband! Deep down he is a free spirit. He gets so caught up in trying to make a better life for us all and he works so hard. I wish he had more play time. I love that we touch a lot. Gee I am so lucky!