Tuesday, 31 July 2007 19:00
Written by Allan Besselink
I recently found myself on the "client" side of the health care equation. I was on vacation - Canada to be exact - visiting my family and looking forward to some rest and relaxation. It would be a nice change of pace from the summer in Austin, that's for sure. Within hours of my arrival, I was stepping out onto my father's front porch ... placed my foot in an awkward position ... and suddenly, I felt an ouch. I sat down - and within moments, found myself trying to problem-solve my way out of it. That's the physical therapist in me - collecting data, assessing my active and passive ranges of motion, trying to make sense of my apparent clumsiness doing something I've done routinely for 40-odd years!
Saturday, 03 June 2006 20:00
Written by Allan Besselink
This website started as but a mere concept, a fleeting thought in my mind. I have been writing for years … and I have been creating in the most basic sense for even longer. It was time to pull it all together - and now, with small and steady steps, it is progressing down exactly that path. My labor of love is growing, expanding … and today you see the latest tweaks to my little piece of Internet creativity. The format has evolved - and soon you will see content in the form of poems, songs and photos appearing here. All of this in the Land of Rhubarb …
Tuesday, 09 January 2007 18:00
Written by Allan Besselink
There were many years in which I truly believed that Hawai'i was probably one of the last places I wanted to visit. Commercialized. A tourist mecca. Haven for newlyweds and the like. Las Vegas of the Pacific -ok, well maybe not quite that bad (and certainly with a whole lot less polyester) ...
Then I made that fateful trip to the Big Island in 2002 - and my life changed forever.
I can look back on it now and chuckle a bit. I went purely for non-metaphysical reasons - to experience the Ironman World Championship (and as a coach no less). It was a short trip, and the intent was, admittedly, far from "self-discovery". But all it took was walking off the plane, onto the tarmac at the airport in Kona - and I knew it was a special place. There is a purity, a vibe, a power that emanates and pervades all existence on the Big Island. It is something that words can't truly describe. It's a bit mystical and other-worldly, but it was definitely something I noticed immediately upon arrival.
Wednesday, 18 July 2007 19:00
Written by Allan Besselink
In today's world, the paradigm of health care is based around "going to see a provider for care". Yes, there are certainly instances and circumstances in which this is a necessary scenario. The question I pose today is this - how many health-related issues do we experience that can be readily dealt with on the basis of self-care strategies - if we simply knew how to use them?
Many of the chronic health issues facing our society today - for example, heart disease and diabetes - are integrally related to self-care. "Lifestyle changes" are critical to success with many (if not all) long-term chronic conditions. Along with these chronic conditions, we have another set of conditions that are self-limiting and have their own natural history. Consider the common cold as but one example. How many people get it? Lots. But it has it's own self-limiting course that it takes, and with time (and an environment in which the immune system can respond as it is designed), the condition goes away.
Tuesday, 04 March 2008 17:52
Written by Allan Besselink
Today is a big day in Texas. It's election day - and with any luck, the picture of our impending national election in November will be a little clearer.
In the midst of all of this, and after discussions with many (because "talking politics" starts to feel like "talking Longhorns football"), I found myself wondering about the potentialities that are ahead of us. So before the events of today play themselves out completely, I thought I'd throw out a few thoughts in no certain order ...
Let's take a look at our contestants.
I've got to start off with a comment by the Clinton campaign this past week - about how Barack Obama doesn't have the "experience" necessary to be president (and, of course, following that up with "... and Hillary does").
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