annmongeau's blog

Spending a week staying in a log cabin on Lake Superior in northern Wisconsin brought me back to nature, simplicity, music and grounding. 

Impressions:  wind through the white pines and the swaying of the tree in the wind; wind through the poplars – fluttering and twinkling the leaves; the sun dancing in the water like stars in the depths; songs of many small birds – their flittering from tree to tree.  One stops to listen to me play the Native American flute.  Raptors soaring on the air currents.  Sea gulls.  A doe and her fawn early one morning.  Bees.  Mist in the morning obscuring the lake and leaving a droplet-filled spider web outlined in the pine. 

I went through the process of trying to lease a large space for 11-13 chairs again this year. I was after the same space as last year at this time.  Some things had changed.  My proposed business partner was different.  A massage/healing touch therapist is now renting space from me and sharing my office was coming along with us.  What was the same was my drive to get a big clinic, taking it on faith, and looking no farther, that a small clinic just wouldn’t do.

As the negotiations with the landlord through the RE agent started to feel bad (too hard to put this together – it should flow smoothly if it’s right) we all started to become more honest with ourselves and each other.

At the heart of the CAN movement is anger at the failure of medicine to serve community. 

I am writing from the United States, the land of the myth of the rugged individualist.  I say myth because the history of any country including this one is that of interdependence of its peoples.   In 2008 the entire world is interdependent.  The sub-primehousing loan fallout in this country is having global repercussions, for instance.  We rise and fall together.  With this backdrop, what is the responsibility of medicine?

I’m usually ready for blog week but I’m gearing up to movemy clinic in July so time got away from me.  So, I’ll tell you about my wonderful week at CA lastweek. 

I used to have a day job teaching clinical nursing.  I quit the job in December and got aroundto taking the textbooks back on Feb. 29. My top week before last week was seeing 51 visits last September.