Sunday, October 25, 2015

Happy Halloween!




My pumpkins and the bookcase behind my desk were the extent of my decorations.  Super Moon from my backyard.  Not so scary black cat aka Oni.  And on my first visit to Raven Run, two zombies  wandered out of the woods behind a bride covered in blood--they were doing a magazine shoot for Halloween.

Saturday, October 24, 2015

My Funny Papa

Last weekend I invited my father to come hiking with me at Raven Run.  When we arrived at the Overlook and were looking at the river, Dad asked me if I knew about the time he took my mother swimming in the river.  I told him I did remember that story and the two of us had a good chuckle.  Naturally my husband wanted to know what had us both so tickled so I told him the river story.

Now, for those of you who might not know Papa Joe.....he is a dedicated Bible thumper from way back. If the church doors were open--we were there. Everyone in my family was involved with some church activity, be it choir, puppet team, deacon, pianist, drummer, etc   So you can imagine how many friends were made over the years.  And
some friends were more special.  The Miller Family was very special to our family.  Not only was our pastor and his wife close to the same age as my parents, their three sons were also about the same age as my sister and me.  We spent a lot of free time with the Millers and it was at their home when this story was first told.

Papa Joe was telling Brother Miller and his wife about what happened when he took my mother swimming earlier that week.  There was a relatively safe beachy area near our home and on rare occasions we would swim there.  Mom and Dad were there adventuring alone this time.  Dad said that he and my mother were floating on rafts when they saw three strangers approaching the beach.  It was two men holding hands with the woman walking between them......and she was topless.  He said that he and my mom quickly gathered their things and left for home.

After hearing all this and having a good laugh, Brother Miller jokingly reassured my dad that he had not committed a sin by looking once, it was only a sin if you looked back a second time.  Papa Joe says "Yessir, I know that.  That's why I took One Looooooooooong Look."

Brilliant loophole?



Friday, October 2, 2015

Shaved or Unshaven

It's that time of year again......when all my ladies apologize for their unshaven legs.  I wish I had a dollar for every time I have heard a version of  "I'm sorry.  I didn't shave my legs."  Do I care whether my clients shave or not?  Not in the least.

Since most of the unshaven moments happen when the weather is cooler outside and I live in the horse capitol of the world, I like to think of the unshaven legs as something akin to a horse's winter coat growing in.  And like the winter coat, growing hair out is a completely normal thing to do--no matter what season it is.  In fact, in many civilized places around the world it is just as acceptable for women to grow out their armpit and leg hair as it is commonplace to shave in the USA. 

I recently read a study in Psychology of Women Quarterly that explored the taboo of women  not shaving their body hair.  The women were asked to answer questions about body hair and after the initial survey they were asked to go 10 weeks without shaving.   At the end of the 10 weeks the women were asked the same questions again.  The results were:

*Many women reflected on how, although they initially framed body hair as a (sometimes insignificant or casual) personal choice prior to doing the assignment, they changed their views once they grew their body hair. Four themes (sometimes overlapping) appeared in women’s discussions: (a) new perspectives on the social meanings of body hair, (b) encounters with homophobia and heterosexism, (c) anger from family members and partners about growing body hair, and (d) internalized feelings of being “disgusting” and “dirty.” 

It was an interesting read, but it only gave the female point of view.  Men shave/wax parts too!

Soooooo for the last time (not), massage therapists are taught to practice unconditional positive regard. What exactly does that hippie speech mean?  It means we consider every body on our massage table in the same way--with respect.  We focus on what the client needs and we do not care whether you are shaved/waxed or wooly.