Elizabeth Newell tells us about Quietly Rejuvenating in The Main Central Jin Shin Jyutsu Newsletter, issue Number 47, Winter, 2005:

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My two-year old child sits cradled in my lap. She is healing from a virus. She rests quietly in my arms, so different from her usual exuberant, exploring self. I watch the sleepiness settle in. I notice that I am holding her with one of my hands on her 25 and the other hand on her back over her 9, 10 and 3. I exhale and watch her drift into sleep.

I long to just sit with my child and at the same time, I feel pulled to tend to the seemingly endless list of things that must be done.

Just be. Be the change you want to see in the world.

Just be. Does it mean let go?

Be the change. Does it mean action?

As I hold my child, I hold in mind my life which feels like a precariously steep path – to mother, to provide financially for my family, to care for a home, to contribute to my community. Not an unusual path for a parent; however, I wonder how I can create a more balanced, harmonious path for myself and for other families.

I sit, and let go of Doing and Trying To.

Being with a child and Jin Shin Jyutsu,

I simply look at what is here:

Sunlight and shadow in the garden on a clear October morning,

A peaceful child,

A peace-filled moment.

I think of the wisdom in the saying,

“Just be with what is.”

Wanting, by placing attention on it, to call it forth into my life,

I sit, with hands where they naturally fit.

Trusting life, holding wild and precious life,

I wonder about the relationship between 25 and 9,

Between mother and child.

I think about the longing to be held.

How many times in our lives are we simply held by another so we can quietly rejuvenate? When giving Jin Shin Jyutsu sessions, I have felt the longing of the client to be held. More than once, while using the Kidney Flow with my hands on the coccyx and 12, I have felt like I am holding the child inside the adult receiving the session. How important is it to be held as a child? How healing is a mother’s warmth, heartbeat and hands? My questions out of curiosity and a desire for understanding – not necessarily answers in form of words.

I think of the woman in the grocery store who stopped and talked to my daughter, connected with her, and shared a story of her grandchildren with me. She parted saying, “Enjoy her.” There was ease and grace in her interaction with us. I wonder if it is easier to connect as adults if we have been held close as children.

My daughter wakes from her nap. We go for a walk. Opportunities appear to attend to other-than-mother work. As the day unfolds, I experience many blessings, like receiving the heart-warming sight of my neighbor’s one-year old taking his first “walk” down the sidewalk. A librarian finds a poem I was looking for (I knew only one line of the poem), and prints it out and hands it to me. I receive a project from a new client. I receive a phone call offering financial support for another project. I share my gratitude for my unexpected blessings with a friend who replies that I listened to my heart and responded. My life feels quietly rejuvenated.

Thank you, Elizabeth.

Thank you, Mary.

Thank you, David.

Gassho, Namaste, Blessings

All issues of The Main Central Jin Shin Jyutsu Newsletter are available at http://www.jsjinc.net.