TNR Happenings, February 24, 2025

What makes people extraordinary? It is hard to put your finger on it, yet you know instantly if you are in the presence of one. How does one practice member get it and refer many people in your practice, and the next doesn’t? It’s not results that factor into referral. Extraordinary people can move molecules when others seem to blend in. Tom Petty sings about it in, ‘Face in the Crowd.’ We saw a family from a nearby town very early in our practice. The central patient from the family was the mother, who was rough around the edges; she cared little about how she presented herself or what people thought of her. She referred all kinds of people: her family, friends, first responders, etc.

Our office was a destination for her and her extended family. It was a community of healing. We would hire her kids to do work around our ranch. Even though she had challenging economics, she always found a way to keep in fair exchange with us. One year, she sold us a rusty, brown Ford pickup for $375, which we used for years around the ranch and dump runs. For years, she cared for her husband, who was confined to a wheelchair. She volunteered at all kinds of places for sick and injured people. I saw her for the first time in decades a few years ago. She looked at me for a long time. It was as if she wanted to know if I had changed and become arrogant or unapproachable now that I was considered successful; would I still treat a hillbilly type of person with respect or dignity, or was she forgotten? She was not forgotten; she is an extraordinary person!

Another early practice member came in with an excruciating neck condition. He had been seeing a friend of his who couldn’t deliver the goods. I took care of him, and a friendship was sparked with him that spans 4 decades. He gave my wife her first horse when we moved into our house in Medfield in August. We heard the clip clops of a horse coming down the road, and there he was, giving her a horse. It wasn’t just a horse but her special four-legged baby: a sacred living gift with no peer. He also became our daughter Christy’s godfather. He referred many people over the years and he took us under his wing. He is an extraordinary person!

How about one of our original practice members? Who was that extraordinary person who took you under their wing? Was it a teacher, a coach, a neighbor? They didn’t make you feel inferior or that you owed them something; they made you see the sun where you once only saw clouds. They just do it and they don’t want anything in return. Not all people are extraordinary. I see this all the time when an ordinary person goes through all the effort, expense, and time to get a DC degree and then things just don’t turn out for them. There is no crime with not being extraordinary. They know all about being a DC, however, they don’t have the heart of being a DC/extraordinary person. Knowing how to bake cookies or barbeque sides of ribs doesn’t mean you know how to run the business of selling cookies or catering. There is so much more to running a business than just doing the service. Extraordinary people always find a way. You just can’t keep them down.

Extraordinary people are all around us; however, if you are in a constant state of worrying, scarcity, or low self-worth, you just don’t recognize them. You also won’t develop this in yourself. There are many myths and fairy tales about invisible, ugly people, so you wouldn’t expect that they are indeed extraordinary. As a result, they pass you by. Practice members, spouses, kids, and friends can be extra-special,, yet if the people around them don’t see it, they enslave them to roles that don’t bring out their specialness. 

Miracle Training

As I read a testimonial from a young man I helped quite a few years ago, large tears welled in my eyes, just like when writing about my wife’s first horse. Even though years have gone by since seeing him, nothing has changed between us. He is alive and well, living a life of prosperity, love, and family, a genuine second chance at life, and has embraced the opportunity. He described his journey as an apprenticeship, like Miyagi and Daniel-son. This kid had his finger on the pulse. Initially, he would become angry and say, ‘Just tell me what I need to do and I’ll do it.’ He realized the folly of his words very early in his care: tell an out-of-shape person what exercises they must do. While you are at it, change the way you wipe your butt.

Apprenticeship is a lost art in our overscheduled world. The mindless computer is our master, and we are its slave. In Miracle Training, you have to look outside of yourself and gain a new perspective of why your life is collapsing in on you. It’s an inside job; no computer, technology, or drug will help you. You must give up being dishonest voluntarily (boy, this is hard), blaming others, and holding onto old life narratives that keep precisely what you don’t want in place. Mix in grueling, profane, heavy-duty training, and either they quit or go back to Kansas as they are transformed.