Dear Inner Ocean community,
I don’t know about you but ever since hearing about the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood shooting, my heart has been heavy. I was shocked, saddened, and wanted to find a way to support and comfort this community that has been so traumatized.
It’s true, women’s healthcare is a battlefield – and yes, even in America.
Imagine my surprise when I had just spent the whole last week glowing for the women and children who were rescued from Boko Haram’s capture. Never mind that 220 out of the 240 are with child, they are safe. Hallelujah. And the trauma repair can begin.
And the other big piece of news I had been sitting on was the formal banning of female genital mutilation in Gambia (and now Nigeria I just read!). I am so proud that countries are stepping up and decided to do things differently in honor of women’s health. Now if we could just get Somalia….
But then this shooting happened: an act so violent and full of hatred, happening only two hours from my home.
That’s why today I am driving down to Colorado Springs to host an acupuncture clinic for trauma relief. I’m doing this with a very unique organization we acupuncturists helped form in Colorado called the CAMRC (Colorado Acupuncture Medical Reserve Corps) that mobilizes in disasters and trauma. We have done this with the fires, the floods, the Aurora theater shootings. And we will continue to do this as a community resource and as an antidote to all the violence, hatred, and fear that penetrates our lives.
These are the same kinds of clinics I have now hosted all around the world. They bring a shocked and traumatized community together and begin to chip away at the need for repair. And I will continue to host them no matter how much oppression, no matter how much hatred or violence exists. If there is a need, Inner Ocean will find a way to respond.
May you find a moment today and just send Colorado Springs a little bit of your loving thoughts. And then, if you like, add to it, a loving thought for all the women and children who will now be thinking of their safety that much more when they go to an affordable clinic for something as simple as an annual pap smear or an ultrasound. After all, only 3% of the Planned Parenthood clientele are needing abortion, even though this shooter says he was targeting them specifically.
All women need a kind and loving thought today.
And if you are interested in donating towards today’s clinic supplies, please click here.
If you want to learn more about my upcoming disaster relief work in Nepal, click here.
(Image courtesy of Apple’s Eyes Studio at FreeDigitalPhotos.net)
