Mind Over Matter

I've always loved the phrase, "Aging is mind over matter. If you don't mind, it don't matter." In a culture that worships perfect faces and bodies and seems to spend much of it's time figuring out how to better promote itself, I get to spend my work days in the hot back bedrooms of ordinary people whose bodies are bent, broken, battered and disintegrating. I feel like the luckiest person alive. Together, we grunt and sweat and stand and cheer, fall back exhausted and share high fives, laughing at Brother Ass. Everyone, from 8 to 98, loves a pat on the back and an "Up top, sir!" even if I have to help them lift their hand to do it. I want to show these beautiful faces I see to the world, to capture the important moments of their lives in amber. The luminosity of the faces I see takes my breath away, and it never fails to move me to watch how a face can change over the course of an hour. How it can grow young again, how the mind comes alive and the years fall away.

Today, breakthroughs. Improvements that even I wasn't expecting so soon. The regenerative capacity of the body and the brain are so amazing, that I sometimes feel like I have simply grabbed the tale of a comet, and am just along for the ride. This afternoon, a stroke patient I am working with said "Thank You" and "I appreciate you" clear as a bell, when one week ago he could only sigh. He stood and lifted both feet, we marched together, a week ago he could not stand. The body is so hopeful, the mind impossible to contain. In sweltering back rooms of unassuming homes in neighborhoods that have no name, miracles are taking place. The water we walk on is a river of human sweat, and we are baptized in tears of frustration and joy. Everyday I learn from my patients that every face is beautiful, that age is just a number, and that the next step we take is the only one that matters.