"Memories"

Not any version of 'Memories' that you know, I'm guessing. A period waltz, sweet, not unique. But it was very fun to have my daughter sing along with me today while I worked on this, and then to hear her later playing and singing other songs from her piano lessons. Life is indeed good.

Last night and this morning I was feeling pretty down, and there certainly wasn't sufficient reason for it, as far as I could figure. But it's always really hard to go to bed depressed, it haunts my dreams with blah. I also had to work today, as I had to work yesterday, and the day before. Admittedly, not much work, but enough that I felt that I didn't get the real holiday weekend that everyone else was getting. And today I was working on a new client, someone who had won a gift certificate that I had donated. I found out that this person was already getting massage regularly, and lived a bit far out for convenience. I thought that I was unlikely to 'win' him as a regular client, but we were doing a Thai massage, which he had never had, and I knew that it would be a good thing, at the very least, to introduce him to this form of massage that I am so very fond of.

I did good work. It was another occassion where the client's body and flexibility and needs meant that I needed to adapt what I did more dramatically than the norm, and it worked. I have realized that I do my best work when people ask me for something very specific, and just far enough outside of what I normally do: within my capabilities, but short of prima-donna demands. Today, this fit.

More than all this, though, was coming home and realizing that I wasn't feeling down any more. In fact, I was feeling great: centered, energetic, attractive. Attractive? Yes--but why? This client didn't speak during his massage, we didn't connect in any super personal verbal sense, it was merely a friendly, normal interaction. As I pondered the glory of feeling cute and trim again, the obvious answer came to me: of course this works for me. As centered in my body as I am, as defined by my body and its abilities as I am, when I have the opportunity to move and stretch, to be strong and effective, to do good with these limbs and hands, yes, it makes my whole self pretty darn happy. Yahoo, me! I am a perfect fit for my chosen career, and that's not a small thing.