All of LIFE is a coming HOME

All of life is a coming home.

Salesmen, secretaris, coal miners,

bee keepers, sword swallowers,

all of us.

All the restless hearts of the world,

trying to find a way to go home.





It's hard to describe how I felt like then.

Picture yourself walking for days in a driving snow,

You don't even know you're walking in circles-

the heaviness of your legs in the drifts: your shouts disappearing into the wind.

How small you can feel. How far away home can be.

Home.

The dictionary defines it as both a place of origin and a goal or destination.

The storm?

The storm was all in my mind.

Or, as the poet Dante put it:

"In the middle of the journey of my life I found myself in a dark wood for I had lost the right path."

Eventually I would find the right path, but in the most unlikely place.

Dr. Patch Adams

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Who is Patch Adams?

Extraordinary! One man I can look up to and respect, Incredibly, mind blowing and memorable, and Incredibly inspiring, amazing human being, invaluable to hear him first hand …are among the words heard from participants’ after experiencing Patch Adams, the real person behind the hit movie Patch Adams, starring Robin Williams.
Patch is both a medical doctor and a clown…but he is also a social activist who has devoted 30 years to changing America's healthcare system, a system which he describes as expensive and elitist.
He believes that laughter, joy and creativity are an integral part of the healing process and therefore true health care must incorporate such life. Doctors and patients in his model relate to each other on the basis of mutual trust, and patients receive plenty of time from their doctors. Allopathic doctors and practitioners of alternative medicine will work side by side. If you think that all sounds like a utopian impossibility, it isn't. Patch and his colleagues practiced medicine at the Gesundheit Institute together in West Virgina that way for 12 years in what he calls their pilot project. They saw 15,000 patients. Patch Adams has devoted his life to the study of what makes people happy.
Through the success of this program at the Arlington, Virginia location, a model health care facility is being planned on 310 acres purchased in Pocahontas County, WV. The Institute will include a 40-bed hospital, a theater, arts and crafts shops, horticulture and vocational therapy. Over five years ago, Dr. Adams and staff temporarily stopped seeing patients so that they could coordinate plans for raising $5 Million needed for the Institute's permanent and expanded home, a model health care community. Currently planned is an immediate phase of this dream, a $400,000 WV facility so that their medical service to patients can resume within the next two years.
The Institute addresses, by action, four major issues in health care delivery: the rising cost of care, dehumanization of medicine, malpractice suits, and abuses of third-party insurance system.
Dr. Adams adds to his training as a physician, his experience as a street clown. In working with health and mental health professionals, he explores the relationship between humor and therapy using his unique blend of knowledge, showmanship and hands on teaching techniques. Says Dr. Adams, I interpret my experience in life as being happy. I want, as a doctor, to say it does matter to your health to be happy. It may be the most important health factor in your life.

Patch Adams, M.D., is a nationally known speaker on wellness, laughter, and humor as well as on health care and health care systems. He approaches the issues of personal, community, and global health with zestful exuberance, according to Time Magazine. Dr. Adams believes that the most revolutionary act one can commit in our world is to be happy.

Information taken from: http://www.patchadams.org/speakers/bio-patch_adams.html





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QUOTES

"I looked at the problems of the world and said 'I can do something.' I was lucky that I found this out at the age of 18...I could really devote my life to doing something about the problems, and use the joy of creativity that can come from such a passion."

"We need each other, deeper than anyone ever dares to admit even to themselves. I think it is a genetic imperative that we huddle together and hold on to each other. There is no question in my mind that there is nothing else in life, really, than friendship."

"Planets explode; galaxies implode. We are an insignificant flake, except as we are alive and experiencing ourselves in life. And for that I say please devote your life to making a better world. Don't waste one day!"

"I'd say that I think the most revolutionary act that you can commit in our society today is to be happy."

"If you want to change the world, then be your own focus for a celebration of life. Really, fundamentally, at the very core of your being, be thankful you are alive, that you've got this opportunity, with these molecules, at this moment. Be thankful! Be a celebrant! Be thankful that you are alive and then look around to see who else is at the party!"

" I want to live in a world where people become famous because of their work for peace and justice and care. I want the famous to be inspiring; their lives an example of what every human being has it in them to do — act from love!"

"Please give your life to peace, justice and care."

Quotes taken from:http://www.people4peace.net/heroes/adams-patch.htm