Labor "of Love" Day - Hope YOU Are With Lumigrate as We Are Here for YOU!

Labor Day is considered the 'Grand Finale' of the summer. It is observed on the first Monday in September each year, and is intended to be a tribute to the workers whose contributions have lead to the prosperity of our country, per the official definition by the U.S. Dept. of Labor. This year more than most, we are aware of our faltering economy, one which I believe is currently just on the 'tip of the iceberg' of things to come, unfortunately. And it is only one 'symptom' of what we is going on in the world, on the Earth, and for most of us reading this, the United States.

What I hope each of you 'hear' here in the Labor Day Lament 2011, is a charge to look at how you're spending your time, energy and money resources and where you want to be in the future, and realize we have some work cut out ahead of us.  I see there being two kinds of people in the United States today and in the past -- those who work to benefit themselves mostly, and those who work to benefit themselves as part of  the overall.  We are in interesting times, much like the 1960s and early 70s, where there is a growing sense of discontent, concern, and since talking about it nicely hasn't worked, people are putting on their walking shoes and making placards and are starting to march on Washington and demonstrate (nurses union last week, for instance, suggesting Wall Street pay for the health care reform needed in the US).  

Now, with the power of the Internet and in particular thanks to social media, 'come together' in ways like we've likely NEVER experienced.  On this day in 1978, I was saying goodbye to my family before dinner, who had gathered like every other holiday and birthday for my whole life and before, and driving to Colorado State University to begin college the next day. Now they start before Labor Day and last week it was in the national news that a pool party at an apartment building got out of hand due to everyone having a phone and using social media to tell people where the FUN was.  Think of how we can use these resources related to health care reform! I'll gladly stay here at my "ball and chain" I affectionately named 'Big Mac' and do my part!  Are you with me?

This next week is the tenth anniversary of '9/11', and if anybody questions how modern people will act in a crisis, look at the history of 9/11 and take solice in the way our country has handled the biggest tragedy in modern times and the biggest attack on United States soil.  We have much to be proud of.  We have much to have concerns about.  And we have much to learn from and utilize in our work ahead of us. 

For most, as individual people working on ourselves, and as part of the systems around us, which will be a unique palate for each person made up of family, friends, work, "church"/places of worship, community service organizations, unions, schools, and interestingly enough social media sites such as Lumigrate and facebook, Twitter, etc.  Many people also spend time in book clubs, card groups, dance groups, healing groups, prayer groups and things like "Fantasy Football", which creates bonds between them and like-minded people.

These are challenging but also exciting times, because for the first time in history, people are doing much of that networking through the Internet with people they've never personally met! How are you spending YOUR time? Is it out of habit or are you living intentionally and operating authentically off of your overall life goal for what you want from your life in the present and future? I'm an 'old OT' layered with 'new age spirituality' and work with a mix of intentions and goals personally and with those I consult with.  

Are you "working" at your best level? I HOPE SO! And if not, I encourage everyone to make that their primary focus at this time, and then look to those surrounding them as their support system to make that happen for themselves and others.  "Cut the baggage" as much as possible -- unpack your own and repack your emotional suitcase as much as possible.  We have people on Lumigrate to help you with that (see Forums and in Forums check out Podcasts, and on the video tab, download and spend an hour watching (and practicing/doing) Strategies for Lasting Change with Dr Paula King, one of the countries top experts on guided imagery and the mind/body connection).  

Eliminate the energy vampires in your life: some people come with not only a carry-on, but a rolling duffel, AND garment bag.  The old saying "You can't soar like an eagle when you're flying with turkeys" comes to mind for me.   Look at the geese and other birds who are preparing to fly south now -- they're up flying around getting in shape and practicing their formation which allows them to make the long trek with less effort and better success. This does not mean to turn your back on anyone who is not at your level, but to not get mired in relationships and conversations with people who are not 'open' to bettering themselves and becoming part of the solutions for themselves and the overall. 

I have consistently said on Lumigrate and on related facebook conversations, 'chose good people you see around you, build a 'virtual boat', grab onto those who are going to make good rowing partners and grab the oars and start rowing'. I created Lumigrate, which can be thought of as 'a boat', beginning about four years ago in terms of forming a 'union' of sorts, with the original experts, who you see currently in the videos on Lumigrate. We were 'coming together' to do something innovative in creating an integrative center in a collaborative way.  Currently there is only one of the original founders remaining at the center, the owner, but it served as a learning experience for me just as all the organizations I've been part of in my life. I've found that the hardest lessons in the moment have been situations truly set up by G-d which were to be part of my life's bigger plan.  Without exception it pushes me down the path in the direction of growth. 

I'd always planned that Lumigrate would next go to regional then national experts, and due to the powers of facebook which was rapidly expanding at the same time I was creating Lumigrate, national experts were the second step. Just as I did in person with local experts as an occupational therapist with a vision of how to integrate providers locally to help local people with chronic illness, which I continue to do, I now also 'labor' on virtually a daily basis, to find and foster relationships with providers who can serve people from 'coast to coast and beyond'.  Not yet showing on Lumigrate but having agreed to join us in the forums, a nationally-known homeopath on the east coast and a nationally known patient advocate specialist and author of books related to improved hospital experience and empower proactive patients as overall health consumers, who comes to Lumigrate from the west coast, but spent time in her formative years of education in Colorado. 

 I am GRATEFUL to have come from a family of hard workers and have had a work ethic instilled in me, though I recognize it has contributed to my health going from chronic wellness to illness, and when I learned and was allowed in my blessed life to rebalance my time for work and how I worked, I was able to recover to being 'well again'.  That's always, for us ALL, a teeter totter, so we must all work on our individual 'balancing acts' as we also put forth our selves to be part of the communal teeter totter.  

I believe much of how I am has as much to do with why my soul opted to come to the life I have through the parents and family I did, and that spiritual belief is one of the biggest assets I have for my well-being.  I encourage  people to get in touch with their spiritual side, and am pleased to say we're coming up on two years since the creation of our first spiritual contributor on Lumigrate, Yenta, and now have two certified spiritual coaches to help people at Lumigrate through their writing or if they confer with them privately. One is also a certified addictions counselor; very important when we're serving those with chronic illness and chronic pain.  Find them in Forums, Spirituality forum in the section The Parts that Make the Whole. 

Without exception, the people you see on Lumigrate work VERY hard -- they 'labor' because they also see the enormous needs and opportunities to help people with what they offer as a 'piece of the pie' of solutions. Many of them hold full time jobs and are creating their future work in their 'off time'.  I work to get them to "know each other" through pieces I email to them, encourage collaborations and meeting either in person or through the phone or other technologies.  We are truly a team at Lumigrate and if providers aren't authentic in collaborating they end up not lasting and are eventually replaced by other sources who are more in alignment.  I'm proud of the team I have created and nurture, and believe they collectively will help thousands and potentially milliions in this 'phase' ahead of us. 

I 'labor' to create not only a way for me to work in a way I can and be a contributing member of society, earn money, spend money, pay taxes and give philonthropically financially and through 'time tithing'.  It is a process that takes a lot of time, energy, and money resources but will pay off! Maybe someday I'll be able to 'retire', though I don't expect that is going to be the case: many today who had thought they'd be retired and not working any longer in their field have financial reasons to keep working or return to work, often due to the cost of health insurance.  I believe there might be a 'bigger' reason for their having to work today:  the times we are in are going to require the expertise of the 'older and wiser ones' and we need 'all hands on deck', so to speak. So I encourage each person to examine how you are spending your resources of time, energy, and money and what you intend to be from today until the end of your life.

It's not that I never 'recreate' (look at the word -- re-create), I do, but I have found a way of balancing my life that, when nothing out of the ordinary is interfering, has served me well. My health issues has been a wonderful teacher to me in 'pacing myself' and being selective about who I work for and where I spend my limited resources of time, energy, and money. It astounds me when people I know don't really understand the repercussions of my health issues on my overall life -- by being 'uninsurable' and difference of energy and time I have to work, it's like I've been living retirement level for many years now but without the years beforehand to be in position to do that seamlessly. I believe I have more compassion and ability to understand all who are stuggling with these issues today as a result. 

Everyone has their own way of finding their balance, but I'm afraid many are 'working at having fun' or are unaware of the things pulling them 'backwards'.  And this is a time to clear those things up so that as individuals and collectively, we can move forwards. I encourage you to pause and look at this today and the near future.

Instead of looking at this time and thinking and saying 'the sky is falling, the sky is falling' (aka 'panic', which can lead to depression, etc), but do as I learned when teaching driving rehabilitation when you go into a skid: don't look with your focused vision at the problem but with your peripheral (you'll be more likely to hit it, called 'potholism'), look in the direction you want to go and steer in that direction, take your foot off the gas and don't hit the brake because that mixes up the dynamics too much -- concentrate on your steering and where you want to go.  And if you're skilled in that, with practice, you can get out of any skid as long as you have enough traction.  I think that's a wonderful analogy for these times.  

I am unveiling a new version of the landing page here that has to do with HOPE: please stay tuned for a new video from Jen Reynolds of FibroTV which this will be included in.  (See Forums, Fibromyalgia section, Forum on Awareness).             

Jen is another who labors very hard for health care change and is reaching out and holding onto the hands of those who are working for the common cause related to fibromyaligia and related conditions.  Though younger than me and having struggled from a younger age with chronic health issues than I did, as is sadly the trend reality, I've watched her as well as many others through facebook evolve and 'turn onto' the concepts Lumigrate launched with in March of 2009 related to body/mind/spirit and the related effects of words, thoughts, language on health through the mind/body connection. I am grateful to the young and creative ones who are also working for the common goal to educate those with fibromyalgia, and always happy to be asked to participate and gladly provide what is requested for good projects if I am able to.  

I have worked for fifteen years now as an occupational therapist gaining experience that has lead to me creating a place for people to come collaboratively and provide information which will allow consumers, patients and providers alike, to get valid, progressive health information that addresses things from a functional standpoint -- what's the underlying reason for the 'dis-ease' or ill-ness? Today, just 2-1/2 years after launching, a person could literally spend their full time for a week or more going over the quality information on Lumigrate that is in video format for viewing if people want to put the time and attention into watching a 20 minute or one hour seminar, podcasts/auditory and written/Forums how to get from being on the 'chronic illness' end of the continuum back to the 'chronic wellness' end.  So for those who want to WORK/labor, and make themselves and their health a priority, Lumigrate is a resource.

The occupation of health care is as important or moreso, to those who are underinsured or uninsured and those who do not value spending copay monies (which were $40 sometimes), and Lumigrate allows me to do that and then consult with people on an individual for-fee service that is much less without the overhead of being in a huge medical building with huge overhead for therapy assistant, aids, receptionists, medical billing specialists, office manager who literally spent days when I started getting all the different insurance companies to have me on their list of accepted providers.  I also paid for my own computers and those for my employees and to be networked, using high-level computer specialists, to do extremely complicated computer networking systems and be part of the software packages necessary to time-efficiently do documentation and scheduling.  It was prohibitively expensive.  The average physician in the United States pays $140,000 to be on electronic medical records. It costs $250,000 in the psychology industry to have the level of electronic records required in their specialty! 

So, my friends, the sky IS falling but only on the way medicine has been doing things, and I feel confident in the growing movement I have witnessed in the last years and decades that I've been focused on health care professionally.  The solutions are here, like Lumigrate and many others that have been 'grass roots' and are ready to be watered, fertilized and harvested/used.  Lumigrate is not just a LABOR OF LOVE for me, it is a labor of love for YOU, the patients out there who increasingly are struggling in this time of transition.  

We are in this together. At least, I HOPE YOU see it that way! If you do, please grab your oar and tap so we know you're there, and I look forward to where we row from here! What can we accomplish together by NEXT Labor Day? ~~ Mardy

I dedicate this blog and this day to my father, who passed away last Labor Day after having Lewy Bodies Disease/ aka Lewy Body Dimentia for at least fifteen years which transitioned from life-long health issues on the chronic fatigue/fibromyalgia spectum, most of which went undiagnosed and untreated.  He took a day off once from work because it was the only day he recalled when he didn't wake up and have some level of a headache. He was a very hard worker and did his part as one of the 'Greatest Generation' to build the country we have today; he was a retired USAF officer and went on to retire from a major US corporation. He was fortunate he married my mother, they were a comical balancing act that only got more interesting when shared with her cousin and his family, who moved to live nearby before I was born.  My "uncle" (as both my parents were only children, we created aunts and uncles) loved to BBQ on Labor Day, and we enjoyed many happy Labor Days together, as well as all other holidays, for many years. 

I also thank graphics artist Greg Mann of Son of Mann Graphics who was working today to finish the above graphic, and has shared many thought-provoking conversations with me recently and when we were growing up a mile away from each other, including about the work ethic and parental influences we have received and handled in very different ways which come together creatively on Lumigrate when he contributes his talents for graphics, art, and 'style' when asked.  I hope he enjoys our diversity of spirit and mind as much as I do; he's currently challenging me on my choice to allow my grey hair to shine: my dental hygienist saw me last week for the first time without the blond/color and said 'I like your sparkles'.