Metaphysical Friends

                                                  "In our game of fetch

I throw out meanings you swiftly catch, then refine

into sculptures of a beauty we both can name."

                                                     from Dyslexia, Aviva Dautch

September 2014
I committed an ethical crime...I stole a patient and made her my friend.  Willingly I have to add. I should explain. My day job is an acupuncturist. I've been practising for 21 years, worked in a hospital in China, done research for the NHS on pain, men's mental health, been nominated for a BMJ award. Yes, really. The British Medical Journal recognises the value of acupuncture now. I adore art, it was the oxygen in my house as I grew up. Poetry too. But my dad was such a massive presence I rebelled by becoming something (almost) totally unrelated to art. My parents pretty much let me do anything I wanted so actually there was nothing to rebel against, except getting a job in healthcare of course...
My patient was (is) a metaphysical poet. I had to do my 'OMG, what an interesting person! no, I can't make her my friend... professional boundaries and all that' conversation in my head.
But week after week, as her health improved, it was:

Me: 'Oh, do you know so and so?  
Oh yes, and I was chatting to X... 
Shit, you know X?
Only because I was introduced by Y
Y? You know Y?

And so it goes...I met someone from my past that I never knew at the time. My dad's love of poetry and poets that he knew shaped his work and my childhood hugely. My new friend was part of that group.