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Healing the Poet
Albuquerque - 1988
By Doc Howard
Many years ago I owned a healing center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This healing center was located in a rough
part of town, off Central Avenue, where most of the street people gathered. It was a daily occurrence that I was
approached to "lend a helping hand," by giving someone a dollar or some spare change. Most of the time I gave what
I could, but after a while, this really got to be old. I changed my approach by requesting a service for this
donation and that is how I met a man I call the "Poet."
I got a knock on my door one afternoon and saw a middle-aged man standing there. He was obviously a street person,
with an disheveled appearance and last nights alcohol still on his breath. It is important to stay out of judgment
with people, but this is real hard sometimes.
He asked if I had any money to spare and I told him, "I'll make you a deal." "You take this large garbage bag and
pick up the trash around these buildings, bring it back to me, and I will give you some money."
About a half hour later he returned and we walked out to put it in the bin in the back. This bin was kept locked
because people had been sleeping in them. He came back into the center with me. I pulled out a $5.00 bill and gave
it to him. "This is too much," he said. "I will just drink it up." I told him he had earned it and I wasn't going
to tell him how to spend it. "I do have something else for you if you would like," I said. I walked over to the
table where I kept a basket of different stones and picked out a black obsidian or sometimes called an Apache Tear.
I explained to him that if one friend gave another friend a Apache Tear that they would always have happiness and
prosperity. He thanked me for the money and the stone and went on his way.
About a month later when I answered the door, there stood the Poet and a friend he had brought. The Poet looked in
much better shape and proceeded to tell me what had happened to him since our last meeting.
His life had improved greatly for him. He said that he had pretty much stopped his drinking and had called his wife
in California. He explained that this was a big breakthrough for him, and that he was going home to his wife that
he had not seen in 5 years. He then told me he was a poet, and his wife had just sent him hundreds of dollars that
his publishers had forwarded to him. He was thrilled about his future and gave me a donation for the center. He
then asked me for another stone for his friend so that he could experience good things in his life. I gave him a
couple and told him to pass one on to another friend.
There are many things that could have contributed to the life changing decisions that the poet made, or maybe it
really was the Apache Tear.
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