So, Dr. Kitzman and myself hosted an event called "pay it forward" Here at the office in LeClaire Iowa. We decided to take a Saturday and open the clinic to everyone for free massage and acupuncture services. We figured this will give people locally a boost and better equip them with the drive to make positive changes in the community.
The event went exceedingly well! We were able to help around 50 local citizens to relieve some anxiety and stress for one day. The response was overwhelming! I personally massaged so many people I thought my thumbs would fall off, but the appreciation they showed and the smiles on there faces made every minuite worth while. There was such a feeling of kindness in the air that it actually made me change the way I do massage. No longer a strict 50 min regimen but now by the session, sometimes lasting an hour , sometimes an hour and a half, depending on what there body needs. All this for the same price of $45. I know this is not an earth shattering change but I like this way much better because I feel like I am giving 100% of myself to my client.
At 4:00pm , when the office closed I went home and fell asleep until 9am! I was BEAT! I did get the best sleep I have ever had with the best dreams, so vivid and beautiful... I will never forget that night's sleep! So thanks to everyone who showed up because I got this amazing sleep because of you:) (all this from a VERY sleep deprived mother of 2)
We also heard that there was a line of people at Starbucks of over 100,in Moline Il, right across the river, who paid for the person behind them that same "pay it forward morning". Is that related? IDK?? But I believe in some way it is, when you put good things out into the universe it is WAY easier for good things to happen...Makes sense to me.
Just a thought:)
Muah!
Dannie Diesel
Big Mouth Mickies roller derby
Monday, March 2, 2009
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Paying it forward Roller Derby style
I will apologize in advance for the length of my story. It reads like a brief novela... This is the story of how I came to be where I am today, by way of the caring actions of those around me and a bit of my own intuition.
2005 proved to be a vey lonely year for me! I had decided to move myself and my husband of ten years as well as my son and daughter from the comfort of the farmland and family , whome I am VERY close to ,in LeClaire Iowa ,to the hustle and bustle of the city...CHICAGO! I LOVE this city, I always will , for where it later directed me. I love this city even though my life there was packed with lonliness and hardship, there were also exciting and adventerouse times, which I sorely needed.
I was playing outside my condo in Albany Park in our gated secured garden, which consisted of a 10x10 slab of fresh laid cement. The feeling of the day was defeated. I had officially been beaten down by the city, I had to leave my AWESOME job as a color expert for the Chicago market/ well paid makeup artist flying all around the midwest staying in the finest hotels, eating in the finest restaraunts, schmoozing and hobnobbing with the most beautiful and well connected people....Yet... I never saw my kids, never made out in movie theatres with my husband, or even had any friends who were more than "party friends" around me. I had lost all all my value by looking for a more expensive fancier life. This was my waking moment! ALONE in the city with so many people around me , standing right next to my children yet feeling miles away from them. My husband and I now drowning in debt when we used to be swimming in love. Our cup was running over with it and I felt like I had poured it all out now!
I was missing my 2 sisters terribly as well as my AWESOME very eccentric parents..Devistated, DEFEATED! And I hear a womans voice hollar at me "hey, u ok?". "Yep" I returned, not really wanting to be bothered. "It's Easter, why are u sitting all alone?" she said. I looked up to see a tall asian woman with a good deal of bruises yelling down to me from 3 or 4 stories up. "it's Easter?!?" OMG, I forgot it was even Easter, that's how self consumed I had become! "Get up here and have dinner with us, I have some friends over and 2 little girls for your kids to play with"she yelled. This woman was Juanna Rumble from the Windy City Rollers rollers derby team. I grabbed my husband and the kids and crashed there party and had a time I will never forget, This woman became a very special friend of mine, I don't think she even knows how much her kindness meant as I am not the greatest at showing my feelings sometimes.
In the end we ended up moving back to the comfort of LeClaire Iowa where myself and my 2 sistersTara and Annie started a roller derby team "the Big Mouth Mickies". This is our way of paying it forward, we spend long hours and many sleepless nights planning, coaching and strategizing asd well as being the shoulder our girls need to cry on or cheering them up when they are down or just making sure they don't spend Easter alone. We recieve no financial compensation however once again we are swimming in love and our cups runneth over!
My life has never been better, I love my derby girls and they give me exactly what I give them, true friendship and a hand to hold through the rough patches.
Doctor Kitzman comes into the picture at this point as he is our teams doctor and donates all his time for free, to make sure we are well and cared for. We apreciate this so much as most of us on the team are of little means and could not otherwise afford such services. The one thing that sticks out most in my mind though is the last summer. My husband and myself have been trying to heal from the stress of the moving and ..well, it got the best of us last summer and we seperated. To our childerns dismay!
It was a terrible experience, the most painful of my life thus far. I came to Dr.Kitzman for an adjustment and started crying, he tenderly reassured me that this will pass and gave me an acupuncture session to help, in turn I offered him a massage (I am a massage therapist) and by my 2 nd session I was back together with my husband and we are both the happiest we have ever been together. it wasnt an easy fix, it took a GREAT deal of hard work and compassion on both sides, but I do believe the acupuncture session was the reason I wanted to fix it. I had one full hour to carefully meditate on my situation and do it with an open mind, not clouded with negativity or fear. An oprotunity to focus on the positive for one hour changed the whole course of my life, as well as my childrens lives.
So in closing , Paying it forward isn't just a one time thing. It has a way of coming full circle again and again, right when you need it most. I intend to keep the circle going !
Thanks Juanna, Chad, Jay, tara, Annie, and my derby sisters!
Mad derby love,
Dannie Diesel (Danielle Colby)
Big Mouth Mickies roller derby
2005 proved to be a vey lonely year for me! I had decided to move myself and my husband of ten years as well as my son and daughter from the comfort of the farmland and family , whome I am VERY close to ,in LeClaire Iowa ,to the hustle and bustle of the city...CHICAGO! I LOVE this city, I always will , for where it later directed me. I love this city even though my life there was packed with lonliness and hardship, there were also exciting and adventerouse times, which I sorely needed.
I was playing outside my condo in Albany Park in our gated secured garden, which consisted of a 10x10 slab of fresh laid cement. The feeling of the day was defeated. I had officially been beaten down by the city, I had to leave my AWESOME job as a color expert for the Chicago market/ well paid makeup artist flying all around the midwest staying in the finest hotels, eating in the finest restaraunts, schmoozing and hobnobbing with the most beautiful and well connected people....Yet... I never saw my kids, never made out in movie theatres with my husband, or even had any friends who were more than "party friends" around me. I had lost all all my value by looking for a more expensive fancier life. This was my waking moment! ALONE in the city with so many people around me , standing right next to my children yet feeling miles away from them. My husband and I now drowning in debt when we used to be swimming in love. Our cup was running over with it and I felt like I had poured it all out now!
I was missing my 2 sisters terribly as well as my AWESOME very eccentric parents..Devistated, DEFEATED! And I hear a womans voice hollar at me "hey, u ok?". "Yep" I returned, not really wanting to be bothered. "It's Easter, why are u sitting all alone?" she said. I looked up to see a tall asian woman with a good deal of bruises yelling down to me from 3 or 4 stories up. "it's Easter?!?" OMG, I forgot it was even Easter, that's how self consumed I had become! "Get up here and have dinner with us, I have some friends over and 2 little girls for your kids to play with"she yelled. This woman was Juanna Rumble from the Windy City Rollers rollers derby team. I grabbed my husband and the kids and crashed there party and had a time I will never forget, This woman became a very special friend of mine, I don't think she even knows how much her kindness meant as I am not the greatest at showing my feelings sometimes.
In the end we ended up moving back to the comfort of LeClaire Iowa where myself and my 2 sistersTara and Annie started a roller derby team "the Big Mouth Mickies". This is our way of paying it forward, we spend long hours and many sleepless nights planning, coaching and strategizing asd well as being the shoulder our girls need to cry on or cheering them up when they are down or just making sure they don't spend Easter alone. We recieve no financial compensation however once again we are swimming in love and our cups runneth over!
My life has never been better, I love my derby girls and they give me exactly what I give them, true friendship and a hand to hold through the rough patches.
Doctor Kitzman comes into the picture at this point as he is our teams doctor and donates all his time for free, to make sure we are well and cared for. We apreciate this so much as most of us on the team are of little means and could not otherwise afford such services. The one thing that sticks out most in my mind though is the last summer. My husband and myself have been trying to heal from the stress of the moving and ..well, it got the best of us last summer and we seperated. To our childerns dismay!
It was a terrible experience, the most painful of my life thus far. I came to Dr.Kitzman for an adjustment and started crying, he tenderly reassured me that this will pass and gave me an acupuncture session to help, in turn I offered him a massage (I am a massage therapist) and by my 2 nd session I was back together with my husband and we are both the happiest we have ever been together. it wasnt an easy fix, it took a GREAT deal of hard work and compassion on both sides, but I do believe the acupuncture session was the reason I wanted to fix it. I had one full hour to carefully meditate on my situation and do it with an open mind, not clouded with negativity or fear. An oprotunity to focus on the positive for one hour changed the whole course of my life, as well as my childrens lives.
So in closing , Paying it forward isn't just a one time thing. It has a way of coming full circle again and again, right when you need it most. I intend to keep the circle going !
Thanks Juanna, Chad, Jay, tara, Annie, and my derby sisters!
Mad derby love,
Dannie Diesel (Danielle Colby)
Big Mouth Mickies roller derby
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
I am simply paying a favor forward that was given to me. The end of last October I went on a 45 mile hike through slot canyons and desert in northern Arizona. I went with one other person named Eric. Eric and I rented a car from the airport and drove several hours to meet someone who was to pick us up and drop us off at the trail head. Somewhere in the transition from our rental car and our escort, Eric dropped his sleeping bag and it rolled under the car. Our escort drove us 2 more hours and dropped us off in the middle of the desert. It was 10 PM when we finally reached our destination and pitch black. We started to unpack by way of headlamps, and it didn't take long for Eric to realize that he didn't have his sleeping bag. The temperature dropped into the 30s over night where we were and was going to be even cooler once we entered the slot canyon. Needless to say, the first night was a cold one. The next morning we happened to see another couple that was also backpacking through the desert. We took a chance and asked them if they had any extra blankets or a sleeping bag. We knew we were probably out of luck because there is no such thing as extra gear when it comes to backpacking. You carry everything you bring, so you only bring the absolute essentials. Suprisingly, they gave us a sleeping bag. We offered to mail it to them after the 45 mile trek or give them money in exchange but they wouldn't have it. They simply said, "pay it forward."
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