#Reverb10 Thurs. 12/16/10 - Friendship

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Michelle Medina <michellem86@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2010 01:25:28 -0500
Subject: #Reverb10 Thurs. 12/16/10 - Friendship
To: michellem86 <michellem86@gmail.com>

December 16th:
Friendship.
How has a friend changed you or your perspective on the
world this year? Was this change gradual, or a sudden burst?

I would say the growth of the one best friend I have *that I can visit
often* has changed me in the sense that I feel gratitude for her/her
changes! It wasn't really about me, but about her & seeing her
changes, her openness & willingness to change her life has just
strengthened my own resolve to change my own life.
As for someone who isn't a friend per se *but a friend I'd like to
have*, & an inspiration to me, that would be Doctor Lissa Rankin. I
joined her website owningpink.com & her Pink Posse community back in
May & her ability to grow & change has impressed me tremendously! She
went through med school, became an OBGYN & created an entire center,
the Owning Pink Center in Mill Valley CA, to take care of her
patients! She sees them as 'whole people', not as just her patients.
What I mean is she's a cutting edge doctor in the sense that it isn't
just about her patients Vaginas. It's about their spiritual beings,
their mental beings, their sexual beings, do they have passion, are
they taking care of their health, how are they, as a whole person, not
just as her gyno patients. She likes to say "I will not fix you, for I
do not believe that you are broken." I love that phrase & it makes me
cry every time I read it because I always felt broken. I can't explain
why it takes someone like that telling me for me to believe it, but it
did & even now I cry when reading it.
She had her book "What's Up Down There. . . ?" published in October &
is now stepping away from her practice to be a coach. She even faced
down her fears earlier this year on the first stop of her 20 city book
tour by heading back to Chicago where she did her residency. This was
no walk in the park residency either! She had scalpuls hurled at her,
suffered verbal abuse & was once instructed to put on depends & 'carry
on' when she was sick as a dog. I couldn't believe the things this
beautiful soul had to endure to become a doctor! Makes it easier for
me to see why some doctors aren't 'what we as the public' think they
should be. I imagine taking beatings like that would kick the piss &
vinegar out of most of us, or alternately send us to prison for losing
it & fighting back! She also does encaustic art, invents inspiring
fairytales about banana slugs who want to be balerinas for her
4-year-old daughter & has the heart of a Goddess! What's not to
love???
In 2011, I hope to make Lissa another best friend!
Thank you both Friendis & Lissa for the inspiration!!


--
"Something in the way. . .
Hmmm. . .
Something in the way. . .
Hmmmm. . ."
--Kurt Cobain "Something In The Way"
"Pain? You don't know what pain is!!"--Author Unknown