From Ontario to Nova Scotia, a lot has gone down. Here it goes:
Despite the stunning golden sunset that saw me into Toronto and my ensuing glowing sense of optimism, the overall theme of my time in Ontario was trauma.
My visit to Toronto began with a tour of the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine. I saw photos on the walls of many of the doctors I have encountered or would soon be encountering on my journeys, and my tour guide and I compared notes on our schools and programs. I chatted with first-year students, fourth-year students, and faculty and staff. Once upon a time, I never even considered applying at CCNM, but after hearing the lowdown over there, I could see myself making a switch (especially if the Canadian dollar continues to drop). It was great to get a sense of the birthing place for so many of the naturopathic doctors practicing in Canada and to meet many of them. Sadly, I had to cut my visit short in order to motor my way across town to meet my first Toronto ND!
Upon arrival at the doctor’s office, I was introduced to a baby bird she had rescued after it had fallen out of its nest. She had treated the bird with arnica – a homeopathic remedy specifically for physical trauma. The baby bird was recovering nicely and had already grown significantly in only a few days. It also seemed to be – as weird as it is to say so–happy! She introduced “baby bird” to every patient that day. I thought it was a little unusual to have a bird in the doctor’s office, but her patients seemed to love it! I was a little nervous about making my way back across town during rush hour so she wrote me out a handy map of the roads of least resistance that would lead me back with my sanity intact. Unfortunately, I took a wrong turn, and my GPS took over, leading me right onto one of Toronto’s busiest streets – at rush hour! Cyclists darting to and fro, pedestrians walking onto the street all over the place, street cars, me sliding all over the street car tracks, and so many cars! Needless to say, when I finally arrived at my home base, I was almost in tears and needed a healthy dose of Rescue Remedy to steady my nerves!
The following day, I was back at CCNM to preceptor with a naturopathic doctor there who used to do a lot of work with HIV/AIDS. Today, he focuses on the entire spectrum of autoimmune diseases and has found that by treating the emotional trauma that often precedes these diseases, he is able to achieve the deepest healing. During my day with him, he had only one patient, which meant that we had loads of time for talking. He spoke to me at great length about homeopathy and the ways he has seen it work miracles with his patients. This doctor doesn’t usually take student preceptors but he invited me back any time, and I just may have to make my way to Toronto again (much as I don’t love the place) as I felt there is a lot I could learn from him.
The trauma that so commonly precedes disease can be physical or emotional, but I’m getting a sense that more often, it is emotional. I’m learning that it is the “emotionally traumatized” patients in whom I have the greatest interest. Counseling is a natural treatment option for these patients, but equally or even more effective is homeopathy. My interest in homeopathy was already blossoming prior to this cross-country adventure, but in the last few weeks, in my meetings with so many of the doctors I have met, I’ve been able to see (and hear about) the way it enables patients to delve into the deep emotional traumas they may have buried (either by accident or on purpose) way down inside, and I am becoming increasingly convinced that homeopathy is something worth learning well. I have met doctors who have been practicing for upwards of twenty years, and all of them are using a healthy dose of homeopathy with their patients. Why? Because, they say, when they use homeopathy with patients, traumatic experiences that have been suppressed for decades can be brought to light and processed in a healthy way, allowing patients to finally become unstuck and move forward in their lives and upwards in their health. The healing that occurs is very deep. I liked the way one doctor begins his visits with patients: “Tell me about your suffering.” Patients may or may not be able or ready to do this. The process may be slow, but homeopathy seems to help tremendously, having the capacity to dramatically change a person’s life from the inside out.
Another thing I learned in Ontario is that I do not want to live in a huge city like Toronto. I loved spending time with friends, but I find a city of that volume to be highly stressful and overwhelming, not to mention polluted and moderately hostile. It has a lot to offer in terms of opportunity, amenities, things to do, culture… but I am not sure it’s worth the downsides.
As enlightening as Toronto was, I was happy to speed away toward Kingston. I didn’t know anything about Kingston, but I have wanted to visit for some time, as I have had a gut feeling that I might really like the place. Well, it turns out my intuition was spot-on once again, as it was love at first sight! Kingston's old-world charm reminded me of Victoria, BC, which I also loved the first time I visited. In my brief time in Kingston, I toured the downtown, took a dip in Lake Ontario (so refreshing!), explored the campus of Queen’s University (Wow!!!), and had a picnic dinner by the lake. People in that town are out and about, living life and enjoying the delights of the city. It’s the sort of place a person instantly feels cozy and at home, and it’s the sort of place a person (that is, me) wants to live! People warn me against the weather, but I like snow and seasons. What's wrong with a little snow? The town is overrun with naturopathic doctors, but what's one more?
I had to leave early the next day to make my way to Prince Edward County, just 45 minutes outside of Kingston, to spend the day with a naturopathic doctor out there who runs a bed and breakfast out of which she also has her medical practice. You could say she’s living the dream – a dream that doesn’t come without its minor nightmarish scenes, it turns out. Her day begins with cooking breakfast for her guests, followed by a few patient visits, followed by more bed and breakfast business, and possibly a brief minute of downtime – if she’s lucky. In short, she is incredibly busy, made even more busy by unforeseen circumstances such as the flood that took place the night I stayed as a guest. There she was, setting me up a bed for the night, both of us declaring how excited we were for bed, when she was startled to notice water streaming in the windows. It had rained fairly heavily during the day. So there we were, on a disaster relief mission, me mopping up water from the floor and walls, and her, venturing into the underworld beneath the deck to save the B&B from its doom! After much toil, we were victorious, and the B&B was saved! –Just a typical day in the life of a naturopathic doctor/B&B owner and manager. And to think that until recently she also owned a supplement shop! It’s exhausting just thinking about it! It's such a romantic idea, but I think it might be too much for this girl. Still, I learned so much from her, and left the county feeling that I had just gained one thousand preceptor hours’ worth of insight and knowledge, after only one day. I also feel I gained a valuable friend. On, on, on, to Montreal!
Montreal is such a great city! I don’t know why I only spent one night there. I had made arrangements to stay with a friend but when I arrived on his doorstep around 8pm, he was nowhere to be found! I stood there, not really sure what to do with myself, when his neighbours who were on the front porch, began talking to me—in French. They were so kind, and my French was so terrible, and after they pulled up a chair for me, let me brush my teeth in their bathroom, wrote me out detailed instructions how to take the metro (subway), and loaned me their metro pass, I bravely made my way to the Osheaga music festival, where my friend could be found. I successfully arrived at the festival as people were starting to leave, which meant I had to swim upstream against thousands of people who were drunkenly bee-lining for the metro. I had been told that I might be able to get into the festival for free after a certain time, but when I approached a staff member and asked, he directed me instead to the ticket booth and instructed me to pay my way.
Instead, I continued to “swim upstream” and pretty soon, I’d passed the gates and was inside the festival in time to see Beck! I made friends with some strangers, wrangled a beer out of one of them, and even found my friend! After the music had ended, he led me to downtown Montreal where we had drinks, ate $2 chow mein, and rode bikes to buy famous Montreal bagels at 2:30am. After a good sleep, we had a great long chat, he cooked me breakfast, made me a gigantic bag of popcorn so I wouldn’t fall asleep at the wheel, loaded up my iPod with fresh music, and sent me on my way. My drive to Moncton was long (ten hours) and I didn’t leave until after 3pm, which meant I was very soon in the dark. This was the first night-driving experience of my trip so far, and after my tenth GIGANTIC, flashing-light-equipped warning sign alerting me of the huge risk of hitting a moose at night, with pupils wide, and the world out there so dark, and with a regular stream of popcorn to munch, I was wide awake and ready to swerve! The best thing that happened during that drive was that delicious popcorn and this song:
Despite the stunning golden sunset that saw me into Toronto and my ensuing glowing sense of optimism, the overall theme of my time in Ontario was trauma.
My visit to Toronto began with a tour of the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine. I saw photos on the walls of many of the doctors I have encountered or would soon be encountering on my journeys, and my tour guide and I compared notes on our schools and programs. I chatted with first-year students, fourth-year students, and faculty and staff. Once upon a time, I never even considered applying at CCNM, but after hearing the lowdown over there, I could see myself making a switch (especially if the Canadian dollar continues to drop). It was great to get a sense of the birthing place for so many of the naturopathic doctors practicing in Canada and to meet many of them. Sadly, I had to cut my visit short in order to motor my way across town to meet my first Toronto ND!
Upon arrival at the doctor’s office, I was introduced to a baby bird she had rescued after it had fallen out of its nest. She had treated the bird with arnica – a homeopathic remedy specifically for physical trauma. The baby bird was recovering nicely and had already grown significantly in only a few days. It also seemed to be – as weird as it is to say so–happy! She introduced “baby bird” to every patient that day. I thought it was a little unusual to have a bird in the doctor’s office, but her patients seemed to love it! I was a little nervous about making my way back across town during rush hour so she wrote me out a handy map of the roads of least resistance that would lead me back with my sanity intact. Unfortunately, I took a wrong turn, and my GPS took over, leading me right onto one of Toronto’s busiest streets – at rush hour! Cyclists darting to and fro, pedestrians walking onto the street all over the place, street cars, me sliding all over the street car tracks, and so many cars! Needless to say, when I finally arrived at my home base, I was almost in tears and needed a healthy dose of Rescue Remedy to steady my nerves!
The following day, I was back at CCNM to preceptor with a naturopathic doctor there who used to do a lot of work with HIV/AIDS. Today, he focuses on the entire spectrum of autoimmune diseases and has found that by treating the emotional trauma that often precedes these diseases, he is able to achieve the deepest healing. During my day with him, he had only one patient, which meant that we had loads of time for talking. He spoke to me at great length about homeopathy and the ways he has seen it work miracles with his patients. This doctor doesn’t usually take student preceptors but he invited me back any time, and I just may have to make my way to Toronto again (much as I don’t love the place) as I felt there is a lot I could learn from him.
The trauma that so commonly precedes disease can be physical or emotional, but I’m getting a sense that more often, it is emotional. I’m learning that it is the “emotionally traumatized” patients in whom I have the greatest interest. Counseling is a natural treatment option for these patients, but equally or even more effective is homeopathy. My interest in homeopathy was already blossoming prior to this cross-country adventure, but in the last few weeks, in my meetings with so many of the doctors I have met, I’ve been able to see (and hear about) the way it enables patients to delve into the deep emotional traumas they may have buried (either by accident or on purpose) way down inside, and I am becoming increasingly convinced that homeopathy is something worth learning well. I have met doctors who have been practicing for upwards of twenty years, and all of them are using a healthy dose of homeopathy with their patients. Why? Because, they say, when they use homeopathy with patients, traumatic experiences that have been suppressed for decades can be brought to light and processed in a healthy way, allowing patients to finally become unstuck and move forward in their lives and upwards in their health. The healing that occurs is very deep. I liked the way one doctor begins his visits with patients: “Tell me about your suffering.” Patients may or may not be able or ready to do this. The process may be slow, but homeopathy seems to help tremendously, having the capacity to dramatically change a person’s life from the inside out.
Another thing I learned in Ontario is that I do not want to live in a huge city like Toronto. I loved spending time with friends, but I find a city of that volume to be highly stressful and overwhelming, not to mention polluted and moderately hostile. It has a lot to offer in terms of opportunity, amenities, things to do, culture… but I am not sure it’s worth the downsides.
As enlightening as Toronto was, I was happy to speed away toward Kingston. I didn’t know anything about Kingston, but I have wanted to visit for some time, as I have had a gut feeling that I might really like the place. Well, it turns out my intuition was spot-on once again, as it was love at first sight! Kingston's old-world charm reminded me of Victoria, BC, which I also loved the first time I visited. In my brief time in Kingston, I toured the downtown, took a dip in Lake Ontario (so refreshing!), explored the campus of Queen’s University (Wow!!!), and had a picnic dinner by the lake. People in that town are out and about, living life and enjoying the delights of the city. It’s the sort of place a person instantly feels cozy and at home, and it’s the sort of place a person (that is, me) wants to live! People warn me against the weather, but I like snow and seasons. What's wrong with a little snow? The town is overrun with naturopathic doctors, but what's one more?
I had to leave early the next day to make my way to Prince Edward County, just 45 minutes outside of Kingston, to spend the day with a naturopathic doctor out there who runs a bed and breakfast out of which she also has her medical practice. You could say she’s living the dream – a dream that doesn’t come without its minor nightmarish scenes, it turns out. Her day begins with cooking breakfast for her guests, followed by a few patient visits, followed by more bed and breakfast business, and possibly a brief minute of downtime – if she’s lucky. In short, she is incredibly busy, made even more busy by unforeseen circumstances such as the flood that took place the night I stayed as a guest. There she was, setting me up a bed for the night, both of us declaring how excited we were for bed, when she was startled to notice water streaming in the windows. It had rained fairly heavily during the day. So there we were, on a disaster relief mission, me mopping up water from the floor and walls, and her, venturing into the underworld beneath the deck to save the B&B from its doom! After much toil, we were victorious, and the B&B was saved! –Just a typical day in the life of a naturopathic doctor/B&B owner and manager. And to think that until recently she also owned a supplement shop! It’s exhausting just thinking about it! It's such a romantic idea, but I think it might be too much for this girl. Still, I learned so much from her, and left the county feeling that I had just gained one thousand preceptor hours’ worth of insight and knowledge, after only one day. I also feel I gained a valuable friend. On, on, on, to Montreal!
Montreal is such a great city! I don’t know why I only spent one night there. I had made arrangements to stay with a friend but when I arrived on his doorstep around 8pm, he was nowhere to be found! I stood there, not really sure what to do with myself, when his neighbours who were on the front porch, began talking to me—in French. They were so kind, and my French was so terrible, and after they pulled up a chair for me, let me brush my teeth in their bathroom, wrote me out detailed instructions how to take the metro (subway), and loaned me their metro pass, I bravely made my way to the Osheaga music festival, where my friend could be found. I successfully arrived at the festival as people were starting to leave, which meant I had to swim upstream against thousands of people who were drunkenly bee-lining for the metro. I had been told that I might be able to get into the festival for free after a certain time, but when I approached a staff member and asked, he directed me instead to the ticket booth and instructed me to pay my way.
Instead, I continued to “swim upstream” and pretty soon, I’d passed the gates and was inside the festival in time to see Beck! I made friends with some strangers, wrangled a beer out of one of them, and even found my friend! After the music had ended, he led me to downtown Montreal where we had drinks, ate $2 chow mein, and rode bikes to buy famous Montreal bagels at 2:30am. After a good sleep, we had a great long chat, he cooked me breakfast, made me a gigantic bag of popcorn so I wouldn’t fall asleep at the wheel, loaded up my iPod with fresh music, and sent me on my way. My drive to Moncton was long (ten hours) and I didn’t leave until after 3pm, which meant I was very soon in the dark. This was the first night-driving experience of my trip so far, and after my tenth GIGANTIC, flashing-light-equipped warning sign alerting me of the huge risk of hitting a moose at night, with pupils wide, and the world out there so dark, and with a regular stream of popcorn to munch, I was wide awake and ready to swerve! The best thing that happened during that drive was that delicious popcorn and this song:
I was deeply relieved when I arrived in Moncton, having spared both my own life as well as those of the moose.
In Moncton, I stayed with a chiropractor friend who has set up shop there. Moncton seems like a cool little town, but I didn’t feel a strong resonance there. Property sure is cheap though! A gigantic, old, well-preserved house right downtown for $185,000? Yes, please! My friend took me to work with her one day to observe an appointment with a patient. I haven’t spent much time with chiropractors, and it was interesting to see that so much more than bone crunching is involved. I’m still not sure what I think about physical medicine and if I would want to practice it or instead refer my patients to a good chiropractor. I’m leaning more toward the latter. I had my friend adjust my neck before I left, which eliminated the constant pop I’ve been experiencing every time I shoulder-check to the right. Thanks!
If I were to summarize my trip so far, some things I have learned are:
1) People are incredibly generous and kind, especially if you give them a chance to be.
2) Everyone has emotional garbage that is weighing them down. When people find ease in moving through their garbage, their mental and physical health improves.
3) Canada is enormous. And the people here are lovely. And the geography is fantastic!
4) My French is terrible!!!
I am now in Baddeck, Cape Breton! After years and years, I finally made it up here! Growing up, my mom would often drive my brother and me to Revelstoke, BC for the holidays, and on the way, we would listen to cassettes with titles like “Sounds of Nova Scotia” filled with the Celtic music of the east coast. “My heart’s in the highland” was one of my favourite tunes. Well, here we both are, and my heart is now literally in the highlands! Tomorrow mom and I are going to be exploring the Cabot Trail and doing a bit of Highlands hiking! Maybe we’ll come across a Scottish man playing the bagpipes on a hilltop somewhere. One can only hope!
I met up with my mom a few days ago in Halifax, where she arrived by plane. Yesterday we drove down to one of my favourite towns, Chester, Nova Scotia – a charming little affluent town on the coast. I visited Chester about ten years ago (for maybe an hour) and I remember declaring then that I would retire there! Well, before I can retire, I must work, and yesterday I assessed whether Chester would be a good place to pass my working days. If you can believe it, Chester—a town of only a few hundred people—already has a naturopathic doctor! After strolling around town and eating lunch, mom and I stopped by Peggy’s Cove and ate some delicious Nova Scotia berry ice cream (to soothe my discouraged soul?) while looking out over the Atlantic. Lovely people, and so much delicious seafood! So far, the east coast is delivering!
More to come on this great adventure. As I relax and eat lobster dinners, the preceptorship component of my trip is on pause for another week but will then continue in Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and beyond. First: holidaying in Cape Breton, PEI, and Maine! Stay tuned!
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