Treasure Maps
The universe has a funny way of showing you the way.
For me, it was an anthropology student’s dissertation poster.
I was taking a break from the death and dying demonstration during my two-week course at the University of New Mexico’s Curanderismo seminar, wandering the halls of the Anthropology building.
At that moment, I was thinking about how I wanted to see more presentations about how food is medicine and how we can cure our bodies by what we consume.
Tacked behind a glass display case was a 2 x 4 foot poster postulating the prevalence of hypertension, fatty liver disease, obesity, and gall bladder issues in people of Spanish-speaking descent in the Southwest United States.
Essentially, me. Essentially, my people.
I’ve read scientific posters before. I know how to navigate the prescribing information of a pharmaceutical product. They’re not the sexiest form of literature, but when the topic is good, they sing.
This one sung for me. It sung, “Look over here! This is your future!”
The poster was almost like a health report for my large extended family. So many of us suffer from obesity and the health problems that follow. I, in fact, was borderline pre-diabetic about a year ago, but I’m not overweight.
The poster theorized that we’re pre-disposed for these conditions given our genetic admixture of Southwest and Northern Mexican indigenous and Iberian European heritages. This combination, plus, the foods we’ve been eating for centuries have been a recipe for health problems. It was as if my pathway into curanderismo was, well, singing to me.
Later that night, when I was settling into bed, I received a text message from my very good friend and functional medicine doctor. Basically the guy who brought me back from the brink of poor health with his food sensitivity diagnostics and supplements.
His text said, “I wanted to ask if you would consider helping me launch my new supplement for fatty liver disease into the Latino community.”
Whoosh! The universe had opened yet another door for me in that moment.
Call them coincidences, synchronicities, signs. Whatever they are, we must pay attention to them. They are like the treasure maps of lives, guiding us to happiness, fortune, and perhaps, the lives we’re supposed to live.
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Photo by Natalia Yakovleva on Unsplash