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A personal note from Alex and Berit Lees...
We are writing to you from Spain! We apologize for the lack of newsletters for the past two months but with the changes in our life during 2010 some things did not get done. Now that we are getting settled (sort of!) our aim is to get back on track and publish Reflections on a regular monthly basis as we have for the past 18 years. Of course, we will continue to have great articles written by Susan Stone and Tom Dorzab, and hopefully we'll add some new and interesting contributions from the people we meet on our journey.
Hearing that we are in Spain may come as a surprise to some of you, so we would like to take this opportunity to fill you in a little bit on what's been happening in the Lees' World. Let's call it His Story and Her Story.
Dr. Alexander R. Lees - His Story
To begin, this issue of Reflections will be a tad different - different in the sense that it will consist of an explanation as to our motivation, and a short version of our experiences of the journey so far. There are sound reasons for that. Some changes have occurred in our lives, and this issue will reflect them. Once this "news" is out of the way, however, rest assured that Reflections, that is, the one you are used to - complete with various articles on energy medicine, EFT, NLP, mind-body connection, and so on, will be back on track in no time.
Our decision to put the private practice on temporary hold and take some time off came as quite a surprise for many of our readers, friends and acquaintances, to say the least. Interestingly, even though we hadn't specified where, exactly, we were going, or how long we would be on hiatus, quite a few somehow managed to contact us, either by phone or email, to find out what was going on.
As many of you know, I've been in private practice for some 25 years, and in doing so, met some very interesting people that I've learned so much from. Berit and I have also managed to present seminars to both the public and professionals on a variety of subjects and in various countries, and on top of all that, somehow managed to write a couple of books, and added some small contribution to several others.
One day I got up, and knew something was amiss. Without boring you with the details, a visit to our family doctor led to being referred to a specialist, and the next thing we knew, I had a diagnosis. Cancer of the larynx. Ouch.
Also, as some of you may know, I was diagnosed with leukemia some 15 years ago, and decided to 'treat' it, with Berit's blessings, by putting to good use many of the techniques I know and that I'd been teaching at workshops. Now this isn't to say a knowledge of other subjects, such as nutrition is unnecessary; far from it. However, nutrition is not my field of expertise, so when I say I decided to apply the techniques I teach to others on the problem, I'm referring to mental techniques. So here we are, some 15 years later, the leukemia hasn't progressed, and, as far as we can tell, hasn't interfered with our lifestyle in any way, shape or form.
An interesting aside -- A couple of years ago Berit gently asked if I would start to include this information in my introduction at our various workshops. I resisted, explaining that it belonged to my private life, and I preferred it remain that way. Well, Berit has certainly learned a lot over the years, and did a beautiful reframe. She said, "By offering a short version to the participants of what happened to you, and how you dealt with it, it may serve as a motivator for folks to know that anything is possible, and more importantly, that anyone can learn how to do it." I followed her suggestion and she was right... as she is in many instances.
So, after the diagnosis and treatment of the throat cancer, we decided I couldn't continue the work load in its present form and heal at the same time. The next step was to accept that our income would be seriously compromised. Not only that, our existing overhead would quickly eat away what was left of our savings (and, as is true for many people) had already been seriously compromised by the downturn in the world's economic position.
What a dilemma. What to do? Well, thanks to years of training, studying how the mind works, and the gathering of information and knowledge, we decided to walk the talk, and play hooky. :-)
The next thing you know, we are on a plane, no longer proud house owners, heading for Europe.
Some 17 hours later, we deplaned in Frankfurt to clear Customs for the next leg of the journey. The lineup came to a halt very quickly when it was discovered Berit was smuggling the worst of all contraband - water - in her carry-on luggage. As we found ourselves suddenly surrounded by very serious looking people armed to the teeth, my few remaining gray cells were about to be jogged into play when the female Customs agent noticed various bottles of medical supplies in the same bag. My visions of spending Christmas in Spain began to fade, quickly replaced with images of cold steel bars blocking the view to the exercise compound.
It was during this visual exercise that I dimly became aware that the lads with the guns had moved closer, and the female Customs agent was saying something like, "Ah, the water, it is for the medicine, yes?"
As I quickly popped out of my mental reverie and began to focus on the information coming in through my senses, my rapier like mind responded with, "Er... No."
The look on her face suggested I'd just passed wind in public, and as she stared at the male imbecile standing before her, I think that like all women throughout the world, she had decided she'd best speak more slowly, as men can't listen too fast. She repeated a little more firmly, "THE WATER IS FOR MEDICINE... CORRECT?"
Thank goodness for those little gray cells. I quickly stood straighter and replied, "Yes, for the medicine."
Poof! The guns disappeared, the supervisor who had joined the group simply relaxed and smiled, and we were on our way to Spain.
After landing in Madrid, we searched out the board with the flight information for the final leg of the journey, only to find it had been delayed. An hour or so later we had a chat with the first fellow that appeared behind the counter, who simply repeated what the board had already told us, and that's when Berit's gray cells kicked in. "Enough of this," she declared, and the next thing I knew, I was being propelled through the terminal whilst sitting in a wheelchair, skipping long lines of people trying to fly somewhere, and into a lounge where it was established the Air Traffic Controllers had gone on strike, and consequently shut down all the airports in Spain. Apparently we were fortunate as our plane was one of the last to land. Where the planes after ours went, is anyone's guess.
"All cars are rented," was the next bad news, and as Berit leaned over the chair and said to me quietly, "Groan." I'd no sooner emitted my very best groan when the kamikaze pilot pushing the wheelchair cranked it up to Mach 2, and we found ourselves outside in the bitter cold being helped into a taxi, ahead of everyone else trying to do the same thing. "Why did he order two cabs?" I asked She Who Runs These Things, only to get back, "While you were meditating, or whatever it was you were doing in that chair, he and I realized all the luggage plus two people would require more than one cab."
This issue was then quickly replaced with the next one - namely, no hotel rooms available. It was during this hunt that Berit finally pulled out the ultimate weapon for which the poor males of the species, even those managing big hotels, have little or no defense for - she cried and then cried some more.
We were in a room faster than you can ask, "What happened?" and our luggage safely stacked on top of the extra queen sized bed, and most of all, we were warm.
"I could get used to this," I began, only to be cut off with, "Best enjoy it while you can. We still have to get to Alicante, and soon."
"What's the rush?" I inquired, as I contemplated floating in the oversized tub.
"The dog." she said, "Have you forgotten, he's stuck somewhere too, and we have to not only find out where he is, but arrange to get him to Alicante." We immediately shifted to high gear, all thoughts of relaxing in the tub evaporating, and we concentrated on finding Ty, and arranging to get him to Alicante.
Once we'd ascertained an employee of the airline would drive Ty down to Alicante on the coast, we grabbed what sleep we could, spent the early morning hunting down a rental car, and set off for a five hour journey to the coast.
Once there, we found the apartment (that had been secured for us) lacked both hot water and heat, but did have a lovely bowl of oranges with a note: In case you get hungry. Oh, I almost forgot to mention... the day we arrived, was the start of a five day holiday and the whole country was basically shut down (including grocery stores) for five days to celebrate!
Needless to say, once we were reunited with Ty, we set off to find more suitable accommodation, motivated primarily by the observation that whenever we entered a restaurant, people left in droves, so a warm place with a hot shower was paramount.
"So, what are you going to do now?" she asked, as we sat at the table on the terrace eating breakfast. "Well, I assume you mean after I sleep for a week," I responded, eyes drooping as my brain continued its journey to oblivion-land, "But first, I'd like to order a keyboard for the laptop."
"And what colour would you like, senior?" asked the pleasant Spanish salesmen in the store. "Grey would be good," I said, "And it will need a USB connector, as it's for a laptop." "Of course," he replied with the flair only the Spanish can do. "It shall be here in a few days."
True to his word, the white keyboard with the wrong plug arrived a few days later, and after purchasing an adapter worth more than the keyboard itself, I returned home.
I announced I would be unavailable for quite some time, and collapsed into a well deserved sleep, muttering "If this is is the way one heals, heaven help us if something else goes wrong."
And so our journey begins...
Berit Lees - Her Story
I might as well jump right in and get the "bad" stuff out of the way. So, here goes...
At the beginning of March 2010 Alex was diagnosed with throat cancer. After the initial shock, we found out what we had to do and did it. We attended all the appointments with doctors and tests that were required. Then we drove to the Cancer Agency every day for five weeks (we had weekends off) for Alex's radiation treatments. How Alex got through that time, I don't know.
Then the treatments were finished! And, now the really rough time begin - the "recovery" period. Watching and experiencing a loved one go through something like that was extremely difficult, but we both got into a rhythm and after a couple of months things started to get better.
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By then it was early August and we found ourselves sitting on our back terrace and talking about life. Specifically our life. The diagnosis and treatment of a major life threatening disease can cause some people to examine their life and some may discover, as we did, that we wanted a change. It was time.
As I look back it feels like in the blink of an eye Alex and I made a major decision to change our life. I think the reality is more that we were ready for a change, we just hadn't fully realized it yet. Many conversations later, some decisions were made.
· Fix up the house.
· Sell the house.
· Move somewhere.
"Somewhere" became the subject of many interesting and fun conversations. Many places and countries were under consideration, discussed and then discarded for one reason or another. The one option we kept returning to was Spain, specifically the area we lived in (Costa Blanca) for two years back in the late 1990s. The decision was made - Spain it is!
The house was fixed up (a very special Thank You to our friend Dr. Mike McCallum for all his hard work) and it looked good. Time to put it on the market. A few problems selling it (due to real estate conditions) but we finally had an acceptable offer.
There was only one glitch - we had only three weeks until "get out of the house" date arrived. This was another one of those times where I had no idea how we were going to do it, but do it we did! Plane tickets for us and Ty were organized and before we knew it, we were arriving in Spain. It was now the beginning of December.
So, here we are, one senior citizen (Alex) and one almost senior citizen (me) and our doggie (Ty) whose only six. Each of us has gone through this major life change in our own unique way.
Ty, for example, has learned how to behave while leashed, and go for walks on city streets. The smells are so different here and his little nose is having a great time. We discovered that across the street from our rental house is a huge area that is undeveloped. It has trees, hills, trails and all sorts of creatures to chase. Humans call it the "campo" whereas Ty calls it "heaven" because he can run around like mad, off leash, sniff the different vegetation (and eat some of it!) and chase whatever, to his heart's content. He's one happy camper!
We humans on the other hand, have had some ups and downs. We're not too hard on ourselves because we think that most people would encounter some difficulties adjusting to a new country, especially when they don't speak the language - which we don't. On the whole, things are starting to settle down and we're getting organized, sort of. :-)
And now we're going to go and explore some different areas. Ty is a great little traveller and has met many new people and explored new places with us already, so we know he'll be fine when we hit the road.
Speaking of hitting the road... we've done a few trips to see friends we haven't seen in many a year. We went down south to see Ron and Joke (they have an amazing house and property -- it's a paradise) and had a sumptuous lunch prepared by Ron. We asked if we could move in, but they kindly declined. :-) Also reconnected with Robert whose been a tremendous help to us since we got here. He has the good fortune to live up the coast in a national park! Ty (and we) love his place, but he wouldn't let us move in either.
Then a few days ago we went down south along the coast to visit Werner and Petra. They live outside a small town up in the mountains. Ty thought he'd died and gone to heaven because there were 23 hectares of land to run around and play in. The second morning we were there I woke up early and Ty and I went outside. He was being good and didn't stray too far. Once I turned my back and looked the other way, the little rascal ran for the hills. I could see this big fluffy ball of black fur (amidst all the green trees) charging up one of the mountains.
As he was nearing the top and about to disappear I started yelling his name and the word "COME!" Much to my dismay my darling little doggie had gone deaf!
Alex and our friends Werner and Petra on the other hand were woken up by my shrieking and joined me outside to see what the fuss was all about.
We'll never know what caused Ty to stop, turn around, look in our direction and start scrambling down the hill. He looked so funny because instead of him chasing something, it looked like he was being pursued by the devil. He was almost tumbling over himself and couldn't get down fast enough. As soon as he got back he was put on the long leash. It was a good thing too because then we heard the rifle shots - we were out in the "campo" and the local men still hunt for food. Another disaster avoided!
As I mentioned, we are now going to go and explore and see what we can discover. In a couple of weeks we are going to visit our friends Coralyn and Lee who live in France. Both Alex and I are really looking forward to that. We've been told there are no hills or mountains for Ty to climb, just acres and acres of fields, which I'm sure he'll be delighted about.
We have no idea where we'll end up, or where our new home will be. Not to worry, we'll have some fun finding it!
We'll also get back on track with our monthly newsletter. Alex wants to start doing phone sessions with people (thank heaven for Skype!) and he'd also like to see some clients in person. Maybe we should start calling him the Travelling Therapist? Also, both of us want to do some workshops/seminars wherever and whenever we can. Let's see, besides Alex being the Travelling Therapist, maybe we should call ourselves Dr. and Mrs. Travelling Teachers? We're open to invitations. :-)
So it seems, we sort of, have a plan. It's an interesting time in our life and we're going to take the opportunity to really enjoy it. We're thinking of starting a blog where we can chronicle our journey because many people have told us that they think we are brave and courageous for doing what we're doing. They've been very kind and polite, and not added, "especially at your age." I'm sure there are also some that think we're just a titch crazy. Maybe we are?! :-)
Either way, we hope you continue to subscribe to Reflections, maybe sign up for our blog when we get that organized, and then enjoy our adventure with us. Who knows, maybe we'll inspire others to become a little "crazy" too?
For Alex and I, the thing we look forward to the most, is the new people we will meet along the way. As well, keeping in touch (and hopefully seeing) the great people we already know. It's a big world out there and we want to experience it.
More, much more, next time.
P.S I apologize for the lack of photos. The charger that I need for my camera is still in transit. Hopefully our stuff being shipped from Canada will be here soon so we can share them with you in future editions. Till then, you'll have to visualize... it's easy... just think of green trees, mountains, a fluffy black dog, and a woman shrieking "COME!" :-)
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