My 20-year-old son guided me and 21 others on a canoe-camping expedition this Summer. He took great care of us, cooking for us, giving us shoulder massages, and leading a drumming circle after dinner. Just yesterday, it seems to me, I was the one taking care of him.

A few years ago I rushed to both Wisconsin and Florida to take care of my aging mom and dad, respectively. She’d been nearly killed in a car accident and he got confused and suicidal from prescription drug interactions. Just yesterday, it seems, they were taking care of me, taking me canoe-camping, cooking for me, comforting me when I was sick. Now I am their comforter in hours of need.

What a marvelous game life carves out for us to travel. From receiver of care, to giver of care, and back to receiver of care. Back and forth, like a tennis match, with love as the ball.

So much of what we write about in Nexus evokes this game. Wendy Underhill writes in her column (Peak Road Trip, page 12) about a driving lesson road trip with her 15-year-old daughter. Wendy sees the world anew, through Renee’s eyes, as they visit Central City, Nederland and Ward, and talk about boys (current, and long ago) along the Peak to Peak Highway. You can feel the love between them in her writing.

And Daniel Amen, M.D., and I discuss one of the big game-changers many of us might face, or already have faced: Alzheimer’s disease (page 20). He insists that more than any other part of our bodies our brains contribute to our skills and our capacities (such as our capacity for caring and love). And you might think that he and I are only concerned with how we might keep our mental vigor and our happiness into old age. When really, I think, we are talking about caring for others, tossing the ball of love back and forth. For what will I do with my mental vigor if not stretch toward the love coming my way, such as from my son on our canoe trip, bounce it off my heart, and send it back?

Dr. Amen plays in this arena, I think. So does our Zen of Science columnist, Marc Ringel, M.D. (page 8) when he writes about his life as a young doctor in Yuma Colorado. Ditto Pierre Brunschwig M.D. in “Ask the Doc” (page 11). So often when we cover topics like healing, nutrition, spiritual growth and psychology a reader might think we are into winning the ME game, the prize of health and personal contentment.

But look at the bigger arena, at the “holistic” game, and what do you see? You aren’t alone. You see other people, bouncing your love off their hearts, back toward yours. And you, stretching to receive it. And sending it back again. In a big circle.

Speak to me, baby!
All year we have been celebrating our 30-year anniversary. We have excerpted articles from our archives, or updated you about important issues we first covered many years ago. In our last retrospective (Nov-Dec) we will revisit music and sound healing through the words of Don Campbell and Jonathan Goldman. We also check in on child abuse and recovered memories with Martha Beck.

But we want to hear from YOU! Have any past Nexus articles stuck with you? Were you offended by one? Changed? Please write us or call. We’d LOVE to hear from you!
Info@nexuspub.com, 303-442-6662.