HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News-Record, 1985-12-11, Page 37Paye 6
Regional Value Spotter, December 11, 1985
Away, But Not
Gone t Christ as
By James M. Flanagan
ear Tem, It was hard
for all of us. Your
mother and I didn't
talk much after we
left you at the airport.
Maybe it was time to
talk. I guess so, but we didn't.
For 18 years we'd cared for you,
raised you. loved you.
Now you were gone, starting
out on perhaps the most
important task in your life —
and we couldn't help. Not an
easy thing to talk about.
It must have been especially
hard for you, leaving everything
you knew, going off alone with
your thoughts into that dark sky
then finally arriving in Texas, a
complete stranger, not sure at all
what to expect.
I pictured them meeting you
at the airport, grouping you with
others bound for the base,
putting you on a bus, driving
you away onto the black. plains.
It made me ache with the need
to protect you. And there was no
way 1 could. That hurt.
Back home, later, 1 cried.
You don't want to do that in
front of others, at least I don't.
so I went up to your,room and
sat by the small worktable where
you'd done your homework and
all sorts of other projects over
the years. The room seemed so
empty and silent now.
The tears came then, hard and
fast. They weren't for myself, or
you.— not exactly. More for the
separation.
Our road had split, become
two. Before 1 could go on down
mine, I: had to cry at -the fork in
the road.
Continued from page 5
the term "spinology" to
describe their area of treat-
ment. They are concerned
with the entire neuro-
muscular -skeletal system, a
complex interconnection in-
volving the spine, the spinal
cord, and the relationship of
the nervous system' to the
muscular system. This in-
volves the .entire body, ex-
plaining their emphasis on the
holistic approach to health.
"The philosophy of
chiropratic is that the body
has•within itself the power to
heal itself. Our role as
chiropractors is to eliminate
the interference (to natural
' healing) that we, as human
beings, tend to create within
ourselves. That's not just the
spinal aspect of health. And
that's where our concentra-
tion in nutrition comes in.
"If you can do the •three
things I mentioned with every
patient who walks through
Your door, they are going to
be so much healthier, their
Crying is good, at least at
times it is. 1 felt drained, but
also relieved. The log jam of r
feelings inside me broke up and
the river could run its course
again.
Only two weeks to Christmas.
For the first time it was an
occasion 1 wasn't looking
forward to. A couple of days
after you left, your mother and I
were shopping. We jostled our
way through holiday crowds,
and right there, in the middle of
the lights and sounds, it came to
me you wouldn't be here for
Christmas.
It didn't come as a thought.
Naturally I'd known you
wouldn't be here. No, it came a:
a feeling! And what a feeling,
like being hit right in the
stomach. Whoosh! All the air
going out of you in a second.
No, Teresa.
You were always such a
central part of Christmas.
There's quite a mob here, an
even dozen if we all make it.
Subtract any one of us and it
would have the same impact as
your not being there.
thought about and marveled
at the way we don't fully
appreciate the part others play in
our lives until they aren't there
any snore. 1 tried to analyze
what .made you special, more
critical than any of us to
Christmas.
You were the spark. That was
it. You know, the way a
baseball team always has one
player who sparks the rest, who,
by word and deed gets
'everything moving, keeps all the
wheels turning?
• That's what you did for us,
and not only at Christmas.
As the big day drew closer,
eminders were constant. I
struggled with buying presents,
and missed you. At every turn
'd recall how you'd offer hints
on sizes, styles, colors, etc. All
ittl.e things, often not really
noticed except when they
weren't there.
And the way you prepared for
Christmas: catalogs, telephone
calls preplanning and those
endless lists you always made as
an aid to tackling projects.
Remember how you'd canvass
people about their needs and
desires, translate those into
presents, put up a chart covering
everyone on the refrigerator,
where we'd all see it several
times a day? •
Now 1 realized what a help
that had been when we found
ourselves in a quandary as to'
what to get someone.
Of course, this tendency of
yours to emulate the staging
talents of Cecil B. DeMille
occasionally went to lengths that
left the rest of us stunned and
open-mouthed.
Like that anniversary surprise
you sprang on us a couple of
years ago. There we were, your
mother and 1 all settled in to
spend a quiet evening at home:
have a glass of wire, exchange
presents, that kind of thing.`
Then came the knock at the
door. Did I ever really tell you
how absolutely stunned I felt to
general well-being is going to
be affected. Not just their
spinal health, but their abili-
ty to fight off other illnesses.
"For example, people
think we `catch' colds. They
somehow appear and we
`catch' them. The fact that
your body accepts a virus is
a breakdown in your own
defense system. Your im-
mune system becomes open
to this viral infection and you
end up with symptoms."
"Cold viruses are around us
all the, time. Sometimes there
are more vrulent strains than
others, but they are around us
all the time. It's your body's
ability to fight that - to protect
itself that keeps you from
getting it. If you're practicing
the things I mentioned, then
you're going to run less risk of
catching it than someone who
isn't.
"The whole philosophy of
chiropractic is to give your
body a chance. It can ,do
phenomenal things if given a
chance."
find a smiling, dapper chauffeur
there, waiting to whisk us off in
his 100 -foot limo to a fancy
dinner at an elegant restaurant?
Well, I was.
Almost too paralyzed to thank
God for the wonderful children
He gave us. among them a
certain teen-age female, .a
mastermind of intrigue.
Yes, it wasn't only Christmas
when you made yourself felt. It
was an all -year-round,
Please turn to page 7
Distributed with The Goderich Signal -Star, Clinton
News Record, Mitchell Advocate, Seaforth Heron Ex-
positor, Exeter Times -Advocate, St. Marys Journal -
Argus, Parkhill Gazette and Strathroy Age -Dispatch,
Wednesday, December 11.
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