Making a Mess

Dear Patient,

I love treating headaches. When a person comes in with one, they almost always feel better after a few needles and an hour of rest. Often the headache vanishes altogether.

But every now and then the needles do the opposite of what they’re supposed to do, and the headache intensifies. I hate this. A person comes to me for help, and I end up making things worse. And then I start to feel terrible about myself. Surely I have done something grievously wrong. People aren’t supposed to leave my clinic feeling worse than when they came in. I have made a mess of things. I am a maker of messes, an amplifier of headaches.

This is a rather shortsighted view of making a mess. Messes happen. Sometimes we’re at fault, sometimes they’re due to forces beyond our control, and often it’s a combination of factors.

But what we do with the mess—that’s all on us. We can choose to reach down into it and sift through the debris. What we find may surprise us: a lesson, a new outlook, empathy—something we might not have found if we hadn’t made the mess in the first place.

Yes, we are makers of messes. But we are also cleaners and menders and restorers and reconstructors. The mess can be our materials. And we can build something beautiful.

Love and gratitude,

Your Acupuncturist