Coach Elliott

If I had been asked how I would be spending my Thanksgiving my response would not have been that I would be a the Optimum Health Institute doing missionary work.  I guess life really is filled with little and sometimes not so small surprises because here I am.  Not only am I here now I am going to be here for the next three months through mid February. Yesterday I received what  friend referred to as a care package.  She and I had talked beforehand and she'd shared this fact.  So I get this package and I open it pulling out about four or five magazines.  Inside the box another box with a sweater, an orange thermal long sleeve T and  beautiful warm wool scarf.  Suddenly emotion hit me in every direction and I began to cry, then sob and finally I could not control it anymore until I was waling loudly and found myself on my knees crying over the bed in front of me.  At that moment I realised that this was more than just about receiving a care ...

There is a man here who has some sort of illness where he can barely walk.  He walks with a cane struggling like crazy to stand and when he can't he has learned to drop to his knees with a form of grace.  He is a handsome man likely about 50 and I am sure others would think he should be using a wheel chair.  Some would think he just wants to get attention because he should be using a walker at least.  We all look at him and completely get it.  That is the difference when life hands you lemons and you take them and do your very best.  This man has already inspired me and he arrived on Sunday.  He is already calling me by my name, his eyes of blue twinkling and his mouth smiling above it all.  That my beloved sister is what really matters.  We get so tied up in all this other stuff and the truth is that we need to take a long hard look at this man and then ourselves.  What are we doing with our lives?  Are we fighting as hard as this ...

It was a much warmer day today.  I assisted in the food prep class, taught the exercise class and then ushered for the Yoga class. I am feeling like I am doing my best to serve others while at the same time making myself a priority and frankly it is not an easy task when one is detoxing and healing.  Still I keep telling myself that I will do my best and that can do this with some grace.  Tomorrow I have to get up early to assist again in the food class where the teacher is excellent at what he does and I find it to be interesting and useful. My health opportunity and my own healing has to be the first thing that I need to become more focused on each day, making sure that I have drank my wheat grass, eaten some avocado to keep my weight on and drank enough water.  It is like juggling balls in the air for me still but I am getting more accustomed to it. All that I know is that I have to do it and that my life depends on it.  This program puts me in a ...

Today I was thinking about how God don't want to hear me ranting and complaining all the time.  I get tired of my own complaining never mind God.  Today I worked four hours straight and for a person detoxing and trying to heal that feels like twelve.  I have to get back in the swing of life or swing anyway.  I am trying to get to the place where this becomes a little more graceful for me but I admit, I am sure not freaking there yet.  I would use the real F bomb but I am trying to censor myself but when I look back on this experience and I tell it forward I am going to use a lot of profanity just so you all know.  I look forward to that day in my life. Most of the people who work here have cured themselves of some serious illnesses like cancer and today I heard one of them tell her story to guests that were here for the first time.  I had to stand there for a moment and catch my breath because here was a woman who looks incredible that at one time ba...

Just as I promised yesterday I would like to share the poem I wrote at OHI in June for the boy who inspired me to look for the boy inside of me.  He is Xavier and I happened upon him when he was visiting OHI with his sister, mom and grandmother.  Xavier could light a room but what was most impressive about him was his sense of self and extreme joy.  He is the boy who has brought me closer to my tears and more willing to take back what I deserved as a child by nurturing myself and creating a safe place for him, my little Maximo Elliott, to heal. Xavier Xavier, you are the boy that I was, the boy that I am and the child inside of me I see you running towards the sun and I am inspired, knowing that it is never too late for me. Beloved little boy inside of me, living, laughing and free I see the sun in your eyes, our eyes, gleaming shiny like a new toy. You have brought me back to the beginning when I was shear abandon and playful heart when I was dancing ...

Let me begin by saying that I changed my blog from My Missionary Experience to just My Mission.  Don't ask me why.  I may decide to change it again but for now know that the next few blogs will be all about the missionary journey and my healing journey.  Now it is coming to me that maybe it should be called: "My Healing Journey".  Pardon me while I ponder that.  OK, I am ready. Today I woke up a little disoriented and confused, unsure of how I was feeling about getting out of the bed and starting my day at 6:30 in the god forsaken morning.  I replaced all the negative language with positive affirmations.   I knew that my first chore was to put together some booklets that the guests receive when they arrive on Sunday.  That was at 10am.  Then I realised that breakfast was at 8:30 but  still I stayed in bed.  I just needed a little more time to digest the day and it just came to fast. I started to rush myse...

Today is day six of ninety, not that I am counting, because if I do I will literally lose my mind.  In fact the number will be eliminated from my blogs soon when I finally settle in and report that I am over the hurdles, just not yet.  I will admit that today I went to Walgreens to get some garbage bags and ended up with a tiny bag of peanuts.  It had 1 gram of sugar and after eating it I did not feel the least bit guilty.  The requirement to stay on the strict diet here makes sense until the temptation takes you elsewhere and the emotions become scattered in your head.  I ate the peanuts OK, I ate the dam peanuts!  I will do better next time, I promise! I woke up this morning feeling the loneliness of being alone for the first time in a very long time.  The last time I came to OHI I was here for two weeks, the first week with a friend and the second week with my awesome sister.  It was so much better.  I had thought I had a roommate and as...

Today is the forth day of my experience as a missionary at OHI, the Optimum Health Institute in San Diego. California, to be exact in Lemon Grove a suburb of San Diego.  It is a sacred place where people from all over the world come to detox and heal.  Some have health issues while others are here simply to cleanse their body, mind and spirit.  It is amazing the many types of people who attend here from the most affluent types to the most laid back, evidenced by the cars in the lot that range from Mercedes to Prius.  Yet every person is on an even plane because here no one is "special" and no one thinks themselves above anyone else.  It feels like an ideal world where people understand that everyone is made of the same elements.  One can come here for a week, two weeks, three weeks or stay as long as you like.  Everyone is here to have their own experience and frankly by the look on some of the faces it is a tough one.  To look at yourself in ever...

Our heart is the most malleable part of us.  These words came to me after experiencing an emotional moment looking at a recent picture my husband and me taken just yesterday.  The picture is part of a composite of family photos I decided to do prior to the holidays and prior to my leaving for missionary work for three months.  I wanted to have some pictures for our upcoming new home and to have while I was away from home.  The emotion that rose out of looking at those pictures made me think about my nine years with my partner and the ups and downs.  It realised that the reason we are still a couple is because the heart is malleable and that we may have our hearts broken yet we mend.  Once we mend we can either walk away or stay and in our case we have stayed in spite of the because we don't love having a broken heart nor do we love the thought of staying with a broken heart.  It elicits appreciation in us for our partner because our hearts are pliable....