Laurie's Blogs.

On Monday morning last week, I received news that my oldest son’s good friend Anders Newman, 18 years old, had died while out hiking the day before.  Devastating!   Anders was that kid that you wanted your kid to be friends with, a boy you wanted your kid to be like, and a person that you could instantly recognize as being wise beyond his years.  He was an exemplary human being!  So kind and compassionate, generous and caring, smart, talented and a real cutie too!  Ander’s death made it pretty difficult to focus on much else this week and I had plenty of clients ask if my allergies were acting up. (No, just crying a lot.)

But things did get done, and I did accomplish some things.

• I did a kick-ass webinar for the Private Practice Division of the Canadian Physiotherapy Association.  It went fabulously well.  Even the organizer said it was the best one he’s ever hear!  
• I muddled through a couple of workdays.  Many clients had to gently question me on things like:  “What did you think of his neck today?”  (Oh, brain of Swiss cheese, I forgot to check his neck!)  Thank goodness my clients are so understanding.
• We toke many a client on a tour of our new clinic.  We’re getting tons of great feedback!  Consensus is that despite the fact that it is pretty much the same size as the previous clinic, it FEELS so much bigger.  (Better utilization of space!)
• It took me three attempts, but I finally managed to film the Bell’s Palsy video for next week.  Hopefully the audio is functioning normally from here on in!
• I managed to go to yoga twice.  Those were the only two hours I could manage to shut off my brain and the bubbling emotions I had to try to control.
• Wednesday, my husband Peter and I emptied the remainder of my old clinic.  In particular, we moved out the wooden storage shed we had in the warehouse (for storage) and took it to the farm.  We were like ancient Egyptians rolling the thing towards the door using 5 pieces of pipe.  Then we loaded it onto the flatbed truck.  It ended up being 12 ½ feet up (still okay for getting under bridges), but Peter looked like some half-witted hillbilly driving his shed out west to go camping!!!  Thank heavens it was dark by the time we were finished up that day… because I think we would have needed a permit to move something that tall!
• On Friday I was able to watch my younger son play football.  But with the whole school in mourning, their team was rather lack-luster – and they lost, without much of a fight.
• Saturday was the funeral, and it was an amazing outpouring of love, admiration, and praise for the young man.  The common thread throughout each tribute was how Anders had touched so many people’s lives.  How his ability to relate to people had enriched everyone he met.  How he seemed to have time for everyone.  And because my family and I were people ‘bettered’ for having known Anders, I wanted to make some points of learning in this blog, inspired by the life of Anders Newman.
  • Relate.  Relate to your clients on a personal level.  Get to know them as human beings.
  • Relate.  Related to your patients – the dogs.  Talk to them.  Tell them how wonderful they are.  Spend a moment or two each treatment to just admire them.
  • Relate.  Relate to your co-workers.  Take the time to get to know each of them personally and if you can, try to leave each interaction you have with these folks, making them feel better or happier in some way.

So the summarized take home message is really, make each of your relationships matter and make each interaction worthwhile.

Laurie