November 30
First happiness actually comes before December, because it was a good one:
I've had some degree of headache at some point every day for more than a week. I'm at clinical (state psych hospital), my students happily esconced playing cards with various friendly folks with various degrees of psychiatric and legal issues. I see Little God (all patients will be refered to by their Super Hero Nicknames, for confidentiality) shuffling down the hall, heading straight towards me, and I hurry towards him and take his hands and we walk together into the dining room. We stand to the side, watching the students and just hanging out, going through the usual Little God dialog (with years of practice, I can make out most of the words: "I'm God's son! Say it! Say it!" "Yes, absolutely.")
I turn to Little God and say, "I have such a headache. Will you take care of it for me?" and Little God promptly nods and mumbles something affirmative (after a while, I don't even hear the words -- I just glean the meaning). I go sit in a chair, and he shuffles up behind me and begins rubbing my head and neck for about ten minutes.
Why this makes me happy:
I love Little God -- he's the first patient I met at the Shattuck, and remains my favorite. He is the exception to most of the rules -- just about everything above would NEVER happen with ANY other patient, since you don't touch, don't agree with delusions, etc.
I was happy to have my headache greatly reduced. Little God seriously does have the ability to do Reiki, Polarity, call it what you will. The man has energy flowing out of him, and it has a tangible impact on those around him. I'm always amused when students doubt this until I point out to them that they adore this man having known him for just a few days when he is objectively REALLY scary looking and acting, and then they realize that there really is no reason for that, other than the standard "Little God is magic."
And what really tickled me in this encounter is it was the first time I saw that Little God knows he can do this, and proceed to do it intentionally. He just keeps getting cooler.
I've had some degree of headache at some point every day for more than a week. I'm at clinical (state psych hospital), my students happily esconced playing cards with various friendly folks with various degrees of psychiatric and legal issues. I see Little God (all patients will be refered to by their Super Hero Nicknames, for confidentiality) shuffling down the hall, heading straight towards me, and I hurry towards him and take his hands and we walk together into the dining room. We stand to the side, watching the students and just hanging out, going through the usual Little God dialog (with years of practice, I can make out most of the words: "I'm God's son! Say it! Say it!" "Yes, absolutely.")
I turn to Little God and say, "I have such a headache. Will you take care of it for me?" and Little God promptly nods and mumbles something affirmative (after a while, I don't even hear the words -- I just glean the meaning). I go sit in a chair, and he shuffles up behind me and begins rubbing my head and neck for about ten minutes.
Why this makes me happy:
I love Little God -- he's the first patient I met at the Shattuck, and remains my favorite. He is the exception to most of the rules -- just about everything above would NEVER happen with ANY other patient, since you don't touch, don't agree with delusions, etc.
I was happy to have my headache greatly reduced. Little God seriously does have the ability to do Reiki, Polarity, call it what you will. The man has energy flowing out of him, and it has a tangible impact on those around him. I'm always amused when students doubt this until I point out to them that they adore this man having known him for just a few days when he is objectively REALLY scary looking and acting, and then they realize that there really is no reason for that, other than the standard "Little God is magic."
And what really tickled me in this encounter is it was the first time I saw that Little God knows he can do this, and proceed to do it intentionally. He just keeps getting cooler.