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It has been said that a common thread in all Native American healing teachings and traditions are several questions we must ask.
This is a story about people helping people. It is a story about the best of the human spirit emerging from the worst possible disaster and grief. It is about the brave and courageous souls who are left behind to pick up the pieces and to provide support for each other and to pay tribute to those dear souls who left us. And to never forget. This is the story of my experience working as a volunteer with the Carolina Emergency Response Massage Team during the aftermath of the attacks on our Nation on Sept 11, 2001 at the World Trade Center in New York City. After the horrendous attacks, the area where the Twin Towers once stood proud and where all are working to reclaim the site is now referred to as Ground Zero. As soon as we were able to take in and realize that this was really happening to our nation, I immediately, as so many others wished to be there. I knew that Aromatherapy might help especially if there were severe burns. I soon found out that others in the healing arts from around the world were thinking the same thing and were putting heads, hearts and resources together to assist in any way possible when the time came. We all knew from the experience of Doug Rasmussen and CERMT and the other emergency response massage teams that it was best to wait while the massive rescue efforts were going on before the emergency response stress relief teams could go in and be of help. In October, Doug E Rasmussen and the Carolina Emergency Response Massage Team (CERMT pronounced KERMIT) were invited to come work with the relief effort in New York City by the MayorŐs office. Doug then dispatched a team from North Carolina to go to New York to access the situation and assist if possible. They were to provide a 15 minute chair massage routine developed over the years as being beneficial for reducing stress and fatigue as well as aromatherapy for stress relief and to help address the respiratory complications. The CERMT team worked day and night for two weeks at St Pauls Chapel near Ground Zero where ironworkers (many were Native American including Mohawk and some from Alaska), police officers, fire-fighters, construction workers, detectives, counselors and volunteers from New York and around the world were working together through the devasta-tion to reclaim the site and to find the remains of our lost ones. They worked at the Staten Island Landfill where the debris was being taken to be sifted through manually. They went to fire stations, Safety Horizons counseling centers, family crisis centers, NYPD and the Ports Authority Police Departments at all three airports. They soon learned that this would be a long term project even a year out of recovering efforts and that more assistance was needed to continue this effort so Doug Rasmussen called for help from Massage Therapists and aro-matherapists teams internationally and from the National Association for Ho-listic Aromatherapy, (NAHA) www.naha.org for volunteers to be on standby to assist when needed which is how I volunteered to assist the CERMT team. Many people answered this call with aromatherapy supplies and donations from all over the world as well as volunteers from Great Britain, Florida, Pennyslyvania, California, Connecticut, New York, and Alaska. I attended a training in Tampa, Florida on massage and aromatherapy in emergency response given by Doug E Rasmussen and Sylla Sheperd-Hanger of CERMT and director of the United Aromatherapy Effort (UAE) and Sue Welfley and Mark Wilson directors of the Florida Immediate Response Stress Team (FIRST). They have all been working for years together during disasters and traumatic events throughout the nation. I was already certified in Clinical Aromatherapy and the 'm' technique for Health Professionals by Jane Buckle, www.rjbuckle.com and with the Institute of Dynamic Aromatherapy with Jade Shutes of Seattle, Washington, and insured by the Associated Bodywork and Massage Professionals so I was accepted as a volunteer from Alaska assisting the CERMT team for the December deployment. We then began forming our team in Alaska with the guidance of CERMT to be standing by, the Response Emergency Stress Team of Alaska (RESTA) which will offer Massage therapy, aromatherapy and traditional healing. We began asking for volunteers to join our efforts. Dorothy Burton, Liscensed Massage therapist originally from Kaltag, now living in Fairbanks volunteered to go. Many others wished to go but just could not get away with such short notice and felt that they needed more training in emergency response and critical incidence stress management. Maniilaq Health Center in Kotzebue, Alaska where I work was kind enough to allow me time off to answer this call and have been very supportive of this relief mission. We were on stand by patiently waiting when we received a call from Doug E. Rasmussen that requested our assistance in New York over the Christmas holidays as their teams had been activated. We were to continue this mission each month through the summer and the New York Battalion as well as CERMT and the UAE are still giving their support whenever needed. We then began preparation for this deployment. We both had mixed emo-tions and thoughts and some fears crept in. I remember after seeing a special film on TV of a memorial ceremony of New York Firefighters paying tribute and carrying out yet another of our precious lost ones from Ground Zero, I began questioning my own ability to handle this mission and to be of any help during this relief work. Would I be able to be strong for them and who am I to think that I could help them? So I prayed and asked God about it and visited and consulted with family and special friends and people who I knew could help me find the strength to follow through with this mission. I visited the Tribal Doctors and my friends in the Traditional Healing programs at Maniilaq Health Center and at the Alaska Native Medical Center. They met with me to offer their prayers and support. They were all such an inspiration and source of strength and wisdom as always and I remember the special things that they said as I always remember and listen to everything they say. All the people of Alaska have much to offer the world as they have been dealing with trauma and grief for generations and have many healing ways to share. I have spent twenty years of my life living and working with the First People of Alaska and they are as much a part of this journey as I am as our hearts are woven together through time. I heard the Tribal Doctors talk about how this trauma and grief is going to effect all of us for a long, long time, even generations and we need to hit it head on. We need to work through this grief together. They said that all involved in this terrible attack need prayers and to be healed. Violence will manifest itself at another time. They said that we need to get together and talk in groups working through the grief and loss and let our feelings out, we need LAUGH, we need to CRY, we need to GET ANGRY! We talked about all the healing ceremonies and prayers that were being held across the nation and the world. We talked about how there may be a time when all nations and people from the Four Directions would come together at Ground Zero memorial site for healing prayers and ceremony. They would be keeping us in their prayers and thoughts. I have heard them say before that "I have no healing therapies, it is unconditional LOVE and the power of GOD that helps us to heal." I felt much better after hearing from my friends and was ready to go. People helping people. So Dorothy Burton, Liscensed Massage Therapist, from Kaltag, Alaska, now living in Fairbanks, and myself, Tina Melin, Medical Technologist, and certified Clinical Aromatherapist, both had the opportunity to work as volunteers assisting Doug Rasmussen and the Carolina Emergency Massage Team (CERMT prounounced KERMIT) in New York City for two weeks over the Christmas and New Years holidays and then again in March. Our mission was to give a 15 minute chair massage and clinical aromatherapy for stress relief and respiratory complications to fire fighters, police officers, heavy equipment operators, counselors and volunteers from New York and around the world who were working through the devastation and grief at ground zero in New York City. Studies show that a Chair Massage can relieve mental and physical fatigue, increase job performance, reduce stress, increase blood and lymph cir-culation, and enhance general well-being. Rescue workers and volunteers re-sponding working together at the WTC sites have been working extended pe-riods of time since Sept 11. The physical as well as mental and emotional stress produced in these individuals is often suppressed in the body. A Chair massage can revitalize an individual by reducing stress and stimulating cir-culation of the blood and lymphatic systems. Clinical Aromatherapy can be defined as the art and science of using pure distilled volatile liquids and their hydrosols that are extracted from aro-matic plants and trees for healing and rejuvenation of body, mind and spirit. It is the chemistry of the oils that give them their properties and the chemistry of the plants is accepted as teacher, refreshing our awareness for the wonders of Creation. Aromatherapy is a most effective choice for some individuals to promote relaxation, relieve stress, uplift our emotions, increase circulation, manage chronic pain and inflammation, relieve congestion, stabilize our immune system, fight infections, release emotions, balance body systems, and can begin to unleash our body's own abilities to maintain equilibrium. Aromatherapy can provide a link to nature that we all long for in this age of technology. Our chair massage routine was developed over the years by various teams serving disaster and trauma relief sites throughout the nation. We were brought there together to work alongside the Carolina Emergency Response Massage Team of North Carolina, the Florida Immediate Response Stress Team (FIRST) from Florida, several members of the newly formed team from Great Britain, and the newly formed team from California. We were kept busy from the moment we stepped off the plane until we re-turned to Anchorage. We all stayed in the same hotel in Midtown where other relief workers stayed. We met in the evenings with Doug Rassmussen and the other team mem-bers for informal debriefings (which reminded me of Traditional Talking Circles) and recieved instructions on where we would each be working during the next day or night shifts. We was impressed with the mutual support and compassion that the team members showed for each other and the work that we were doing. Someone placed a little silver Angel charm in our hand and closed it gently. We were stationed at various locations throughout the city, day and night, traveling in groups of three to five, via New York City subway or taxi. We traveled to the Ports Authority Police Departments at all three airports, the Fire Stations, the Staten Island Landfill and Safe Horizons counseling and crisis centers throughout the city. Each team of massage therapists had at least one person with them to assist who was knowlegable in therapeutic aro-matherapy. Each therapist carried their own portable massage chair with them to each location. Our assignments covered areas such as St Pauls Chapel on Broadway - the little church that sits right next to the World Trade Center site. That church was a haven for the workers at ground zero, who were working 24-hours-per-day to reclaim the WTC site and, to come in for food, rest, relief, and solace and spiritual connection. Everywhere there were comforting letters and pictures sent from the hearts of people all over the world supporting the people who had lost family and friends. There were stuffed animals and blankets on each pew and cots for napping. Some of my favorite cards and letters, and the most comforting to me, were from the children of all ages. "We love you and together with God's help we will get through this, we are with you in our hearts," I remember reading from one five-year-old's letter. Volunteers came from around the world and worked together as a team to help. They mindfully cared for and gave support to each other. The love, kindness, and compassion transended all cultural backgrounds and geographical origins. We were in the little healing corner next to the kitchen and food line at the church. There were places set up for chair massage, aromatherapy, and chiropractic care for anyone who needed any of these comforting therapies. There were firefighters, police officers, heavy equipment operators, counselors, and volunteers who were so very appreciative and seemed to truly benefit from the few minutes that they took off for themselves. They could not thank us enough for sharing these healing arts with them. We were not there to ask questions or to talk but to provide a safe place for them to take a break and relax and to listen if they needed us to. We also worked at the Staten Island landfill which was designated a forensic crime scene. That is where officials sifted through the World Trade Center debris, day and night, searching for the remains of our lost ones. Many had not had a day off since Sept. 11, as everyone was dedicated to helping each other and the friends and families of those lost in the attack find some closure, and to work through the grief together. We were there sharing with them several very helpful healing arts, massage therapy and aromatherapy. Both massage and aromatherapy helped with dealing with the fatigue and stress and with the severe respiratory complications that the workers were experiencing. We were asked by the physician stationed at the Landfill if we could help provide therapeutic aromatherapy to address the respiratory complications they are still experiencing. The gracious people of Madagascar supplied the Ravensara essential oil for the respiratory blend. This partnership with the United Aromatherapy Effort (UAE) was launched by Olivier Behra, of Madagascar who directs the Aromatic Ravensara essential oil production with the label CBD which stands for "Conservation - Biodiversity - Development" for forest conservation. The Aromatic Ravensara tree has been used in Madagascar for generations for its tonic and antiviral properties and its essential oil has proven to be good for anti-stress. The gentle yet effective oil is produced using the leaves of the forest tree Ravensara aromatica, endemic to the island. Deforestation caused by slash and burn agriculture is the major threat to the incredible diversity of endemic species to the Islands. This destructive practice by local populations is mainly linked to their incredible level of poverty. Enhancing the value to the forest through the sustainable use of its resources has shown to be a key approach to revert the tendency and to achieve environmental conservation. There are many medicinal plants in the threatened forests of Madagascar (12 of them constitute the base for some western drugs), but the use of the Aroamtic Ravensara is the first example of the direct use of a forest plant to help people in the United States. This has been a rewarding contribution from the country of Madagascar making a direct link between the poor people from some of the most threatened forests of the world with those working at the WTC sites in New York. www.mate.mg People helping people. One police officer gave me his heartfelt thanks for all of us coming and being there with them, for sharing our healing arts with them, for giving our support, and for sharing the great burden on all our hearts and souls. The men and women at the PAPD who owned and operated the World Trade Center and who lost 37 of their officers including a K-9 Yellow Laborador Retriever, Sirius, were among the many who were so kind to us and appreciated us spending time with them and sharing our healing arts with them. www.portauthoritypolicememorial.org www.our.homewithgod.com/mkcathy/portauthority.html We were so touched by their love and kindness for each other and for all of us that we could not help but wonder who is helping who here? We became quite fond of all of them and we now call them " our new best friends" and we love them dearly and are so proud of all of them. They invited us to have dinner with them in between our working sessions which was such a special privelage and a good time to spend with them. The NYPD lost 23 of their officers in the attacks. www.23.com People helping people. We visited many fire stations throughout the city. There were 342 firefight-ers who lost their lives in the line of duty on sept 11. www.brotherhood/fdny.com We shared so many special times with the guys at the Engines and Ladders and got to have dinner with them at their stations and laughed a lot. They always made sure that we were fed well as they were excellent chefs and laughed with them which was very healing for all. They made us feel so special and even gave us rides in the fire trucks when they could. We are so proud of all of them and they are truly brave and courageous, our heroes every day. People helping people. One evening during the March deployment we were scheduled to work at St Pauls Chapel next to Ground Zero on the night shift. We were to offer the 15 minute chair massage and then aromatherapy to the people coming in for breaks working there. Before we went in we all sat out behind the Chapel together on the benches near the World Trade Center site and watched the ceremonial memorial beams of light come on and God was with us. There was a platform built then where people could walk out on and pay tribute to those lost and offer prayers and hope for those of us left behind from the devastation and grief of the attacks on our nation on Sept 11. The lights suddenly came on and seemed like a pathway to heaven for our lost ones that somehow lifted our hearts as we all watched in silence, prayer and contemplation while we remembered in disbelief the events of that day of attacks on our nation. We all vowed to get through this together with God's help. I was carrying our Maniilaq Health Center Prayer Banner signed by people from the Kotzebue region with me along with our supplies and massage chair. When it was time to go in to work, we all entered through the main en-trance on Broadway where they were checking our WTC badges and it was so good to see everyone again. The lights were dim with candles lit as we entered the church greeted by smiling faces and warm embraces and sights and smells of that beautiful church and a warm feeling of peace washed over us as we made our way to the healing corner. There at the back of the church were the volunteers serving the food for the ironworkers (many of which are Native American and some from Alaska), firemen, policemen, detectives, construction workers, counselors and volunteers from around the world working together at Ground Zero. There was the peaceful healing corner with the massage therapy, aromatherapy, chiropractors and podiatrists for all those who needed these stress relief therapies. There were the comforting cards, letters and condolences from everyone all over the walls and the pews so people could read them when they came in for solace and rest. I had some of the Kotzebue Police Department and Anchorage Police Department badges with me to share with them as well as the badges from the Kotzebue Fire Department and the Wasilla Fire Department. They all love those patches and like to trade and collect them. I also had the stuffed animal "Buddy Bears" sent to them from the Eagle River Police Department with the Anchorage Police Department patches on them with me. One policewoman who had a massage and some aromatherapy saw the stuffed bears and started crying. She said that she had been working there since sept 11 and her children always worried about her when she left home for work and she asked if she could have two of those bears to take home to them. She said that if she could just take something good home to them from Ground Zero it might comfort them some about where she was working. I was so happy that we had those little bears with us and it was as if they gave her a hug as I gave her two to take home to her little ones. People helping people. After working a few more hours, I asked the person in charge if it would be ok to to hang our banner and showed it to her. She lit up and said, oh my, that is beautiful and she was touched that the people from the little community of Kotzebue, Alaska so far away were sending their prayers and thoughts and had such warm hearts. I saw a little tear in her eye and one came to mine too as that seems to happen a lot these days but that is good. She read some of what was written on that special banner and several others gathered around whispering, Alaska! All the way from Alaska! And read them too. She said, Tina you put that banner up anywhere you wish and then wait until morning when the light comes in and please feel free to take a picture of it to take home to share with those who were so thoughtful. I was really happy as I knew this was a special privelage and I knew it would help us all feel good to be able to offer our prayers and thoughts this way to those still working so hard there. They really do read them and they are comforting. So I found the perfect spot in the healing corner and put it up and we took several pictures to share. One of the policemen who took a chair massage break stood in the picture with the banner. People helping people. It was good for all of us to be there together and for the all of them to know that we are still all with them in spirit as we work through the devastation and grief. Which again reminded me of what several of our beloved tribal doctors had said about how it is going to take a long time for all of us to work through this grief, perhaps even generations, and we need to hit it head on. We were able to visit and work with several Safe Horizons counseling services and family crisis centers that very much appreciated our services. We had the privelege to visit with many fire stations and police departments throughout the city. They all had experienced such loss and sadness and were all so kind to us and happy that we were there. The love and compassion from everyone was never-ending. We swapped stories and experiences as we shared our healing therapies with them and we were even sometimes able to laugh together, which was good for all of us. Everyone so enjoyed talking and dreaming about Alaska, and we promised to send salmon their way, so my husband, Lester, and his friends will be very busy working on that project! Several police officers asked that we try to visit more police stations, especially in the Bronx, where they are in such great need of these comforting, healing arts. It is very important for everyone to work together toward keeping these healing arts going and being there for them over the months to come. There are those in New York City who are dedicated to this project and are working with CERMT and FIRST and now the Response Emergency Stress Team of Alaska (RESTA) and Great Britain and California to help provide these services on a consistent basis. The New York Battalion Team of massage therapists is making sure that they continue to get their massage therapy and aromatherapy. We need more liscensed massage therapists and aromatherapists and supplies sent their way. On the day after returning from the first trip, I was concerned about how to keep all of this going for the ground zero workers, so I jumped right in trying to get supplies that were needed together and ready to send; I got the process going for RESTA; I was hoping and there would be a way for our Tribal Doctors to go to New York to offer their healing hands and hearts if they could get away from their very important work in Alaska since they had been using these healing therapies for years : I began writing about my experience to share with others which seemed to help; I attempted to focus on my family and work responsibilibies, and I was worried about my teamate, Dorothy who had stayed a few days later to spend time at the American Indian Community Center and who hadnt contacted me yet. All the while I was wishing to visit my friends at the Alaska Native Medical Center to share my experience and I also wanted to go back to work at Kotzebue to share with friends and co-workers there. Then, I collapsed with exhaustion. Thank goodness I had a few more days off before returning to work at the Maniilaq Health Center! With help from other team members from CERMT and FIRST, I was able to focus on my own debriefing. Then, by a miracle, I was connected with Chaplain Bert Mcqueen of the Alaska Police Chaplains division while I was trying to work on yet another project I felt was immediately important; that was bringing in some speakers for the next International Critical Incident Stress Management conference on massage emergency response. Chaplain Mcqueen was very familiar with the situation at ground zero, and he immediately suggested that I get into a formal debriefing session with their clinical director, Bob Nelson at the veterans center in Anchorage. Bob is from New York originally and has been involved in debriefing on-site for all those at ground zero since September. So I made an appointment, and that three hour session helped me tremendously to understand some of what I was experiencing since returning from New York, as well as preparing me for things to come. Bob said it was a wonderful thing we all did, coming together from all directions to work as a team with other volunteers. Upon returning from the second deployment, I was fortunate to get to at-tend the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation conference in An-chorage (ICISF), sponsored by the Alaska Police Chaplains. www.icisf.org It was so wonderful to find myself in a room full of like minded individuals dedicated to holistic health and well being for emergency responders to a critical incident as well as all those in the service and helping professions. We learned about ways to deal with post traumatic stress that is normal to experience and how to keep healthy people healthy. People helping people. I did eventually hear from Dorothy; it turns out she was experiencing the same exhaustion I had. I referred her, as well as the other team members, to Bob Nelson. I believe it is very important for everyone returning from ground zero to help with the post traumatic stress that is normal to experience to go through a debriefing session as soon as possible. That way, volunteers can renew their own energy before becoming exhausted and of no help to anyone, in an attempt to help others. Dorothy and I had a day off during the trip, as all volunteers did. We met with the women at the American Indian Community House in New York City. Dorothy had a ceremonial sobriety stake that she wished to share with them for ceremony and we wished to learn more about the Native American Community in New York and to talk with them about our dream of a national healing ceremony to be held there some day. We met Rosemary Richmond and several of the other women present and spent the afternoon with them and had such a wonderful time. We shared from The Circle of Healing, written by Dr. Robert Morgan about health care in Alaska. The document talks about healing in Alaska focusing on tradi-tional healing. They enjoyed hearing about some of what we were doing in Alaska. Dorothy gave them the sobriety stake that they would keep safe until the day came for the healing ceremony. Rosemary said that there are six nations in New York State, all under the French Name, Iriquois. She also said that there are many Native Americans working at ground zero operating the heavy equipment. Many are the Mo-hawk Ironworkers from the Kahnawake reserve, which is south of Montreal, and the Akwesasne reserve, on the Quebec, Ontario, and New York state bor-ders. We talked about something my husband, Lester, has always talked about. Lester remembers that while he was stationed in New York many years ago, he witnessed the building of the World Trade Center towers and that there were mostly Native American people way up in those rafters! He remembers seeing them walking on the beams as if they were light as a feather and eating lunch as if they were sitting on the ground! The women talked about their upcoming trip to Equador to visit and sup-port the women and communities there. They have been working for years on wonderful theatrical productions and workshops addressing problems in our communities such as substance abuse, violence, suicide, Human Immunodeficiency Virus, and other problems. They always weave traditional healing ways, spirituality, and humor into their productions and told us that they were very helpful to all who have experienced them. Susan Jones, director of the Family Crisis Center, in Kotzebue, Alaska, had sent us the commemorative posters from the 1999 Circumpolar Celebration of Women that the Kotzebue community had hosted for people from around the world addressing healthy ways of living in communities. I am grateful that Susan sent us those wonderful posters to share with peo-ple at New York. We left a poster for the people at St. Paul's Chapel, and they put it up in the healing corner. We also gave posters to Safe Horizons family crisis centers, fire stations, and police stations we visited. They all just loved them. We invited everyone to the 2004 circumpolar celebration in Kotzebue, and hope that the people from the American Indian Community center and the museum will present their workshop productions then. They were all very happy about that, and we said, "We will dream it, pray about it, and sleep on it and it will happen!" Dorothy stayed with them (she was enjoying their company so much, and they were enjoying hers) while I visited the Native American Smithsonian Museum to visit the people there and to do some work for our traditional healing library project at the Alaska Native Medical Center. There were two wonderful exhibits at the museum; one was Iriquois Bead-work, and the other, "Spirit Capture." The exhibit that touched me the most, though, was the "All Roads are Good" exhibits. There was one huge exhibit, created by a local Native American Artist, that had thousands of shoes and moccasins from around the world and from throughout history, all arranged in a beautiful, artful display, as if they were all walking together and read, "All Roads Are Good." Very impressive. Also, there was the theme of "Gathering From Four Directions" with the first Americans and people from all over the world. The women there work closely with the community center and they too are very involved in theater productions that address community and family problems and finding solu-tions to those problems. Another remarkable exhibit at the American Indian Community House was the Wiping Away the Tears, Starting Over with Good Words. The web site for the community center is: www.aich.org and: www.conexus.si.edu, and the web site for the museum is: www.coatlicue.com And: www.nmai.com All agreed that once everyone lost at ground zero has been found, and at least some closure has come for the families, then may be the time for memo-rials and for a national healing ceremony held at the site, for all to attend, from the Four Directions. One of the upcoming events at the Smithsonium Museum of the American Indian which will be a hallmark in our history is the Honoring Mohawk Ironworkers, an evening honoring Native American ironworkers who helped build and are now helping rebuild the City of New York. They have been working at the WTC site since the sept attacks. They have a lot to offer others with their healing ways. Here is an excerpt from the National Museum of the American Indian Celebrating Native Traditions and communities Journal that I thought worth sharing to pay tribute. At Ground Zero and at home in their communities, people were burning tobacco and praying for protection for their men. Before going home, Bona-parte who had been working at Ground Zero, had to bathe in medicine to-bacco water to properly cleanse himself, according to Haudenosaunee cultural traditions, so he would not bring any negative things upon his family. That ritual is part of a broader understanding and ceremonial respect toward death that Mohawks and other tribes in the Iroquois Confederacy still practice. "We have a ceremony to deal with grief," said Mike McDonald. "We burn tobacco to free the spirits who were trapped there so they can journey to met their Creator. For the surviving families, we use the tobacco water to wipe the tears from their eyes, to remove the dust from their ears, and to remove the knot from their throats. Those are the three communicators that we open up. "Then we help the family, care for them, and support them in every way while they're grieving. We encourage them to remember that tomorrow the sun is going to rise and life is going to go on. And we have to go on, too," McDonald added. "It helps them to deal with grief and overcome their sorrow. Ceremonies like this were held in New York City and at Kahnawake to help us all deal with this." McDonald said historically the Mohawk people had to deal with similar tradgedies caused by war against their people. "We lost a lot of people too. Yet we have managed to remain strong. We've done it, and maybe we can show America that it is possible to overcome great losses. ThereŐs real strength in the power of our prayers." People helping people. During the March deployment, I had a little time to visit some other people and places. I visited the Continuum Center for Health and Healing on 5th ave, a holistic healing center affiliated with Beth Israel Medical Center. I had heard so much about the center and read about it in Dr Larry Dossey's, MD Journal, Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, as a center that offered many choices for their patients. Sure enough, they were offering many healing therapies and activites to the people of New York. One of their staff members is a collegue of mine who teaches several ways to facilitate self-healing including aromatherapy as we had studied aromatherapy together under Jane Buckle a few years ago. She was offering stress management techniques in a Healing Circle. This center was designed to be a healing sanctuary and provides fully integrative care. www.alternative-therapies.com People helping people. In one of our Arctic Newsletters for the Western Arctic National Parklands I had read an article about the Federal Hall National Memorial National Park Site in New York City. It told of some of the victims fleeing from the devasta-tion of the WTC finding refuge in their building. This NPS historical site was where the continental Congress met after the Revolutionary War and where George Washington was sworn in as our first president. The article said that several of the firefighters from NY planned to visit our Parks in Alaska where they could find relief, solace and inspiration. "What better place to begin the healing process than in our parks, where Americans can draw strength and inspiration from the people and events that shaped our nation and the hope and comfort found in the enduring rhythms of nature." Before I left Kotzebue, the NPS sent brocures and books with me to take to New York to give to the folks at the Federal Hall National Memorial to share. So I visited the Federal Hall and enjoyed talking with the people there and swapping stories about the two parks so far away yet both so helpful. People helping people. The last time I was working at St Paul's Chapel, I picked up a little book there called God is our Shelter and Strength. Words of Comfort and Hope from the Bible. I know after these last few months spent in New York City with these incredible people that there is no reason for us to be fearful. That little book had several verses and sayings which truly touched my sprit: God Will Comfort and Heal You. Lean on God for comfort, healing and strength. In the same way God com-forts you, you can give comfort and help to those who are experiencing simi-lar hardships. You can share what you are feeling with others. Giving and re-ceiving comfort can ease your burden and provide you and others in your community with hope, encouragement and the strength to endure. 2 Corinthians 1 Praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! The Father is a merciful God, who always gives us comfort. He comforts us when we are in trouble, so that we can share that same comfort with others in trouble. We share in the terrible sufferings of Christ, but also in the wonderful comfort He gives. And: Isaiah 65:17 I am creating new heavens and a new earth; everything of the past will be forgotten. What new things do you see happening around you? What gives you hope? Can you sense God's presence in what is taking place? People helping people. Tina Melin, MT Maniilaq Health Center Kotzebue, Alaska April, 2002 |
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