The Horse

Many years ago, I remember sitting in my favourite restaurant (Mediterraneo Westlands before it sadly closed) and being approached by some people I knew. "We love your articles. They're really great. You make it sound so easy! Yeah, but we don't do anything."

I wasn't sure what to make of that.

Yay me for writing well. Not so yay me that apparently nobody was doing anything.

You can take a horse to water…

I mention this now because I recently got a lovely email from a former patient of mine. Mariana had come in for some general health advice, implemented some of it, and then off she went.

Five years later, I get an email to say, well, I'll let you read it:

"You gave me such good advice but I didn't really want to take all of it. I did what I could back then. When I lost my job, I really began to struggle. One day, I found the reports you had written in my emails. I started to read them. One by one, I saw that you had given me everything I needed to get back on track - with my health and my life. Thank you Sona for your honesty and clarity back then. I am so glad I still had the reports. They have helped me more than you know."

I had always thought the point of good advice was that someone acted on it. Preferably immediately.

Mariana reminded me that sometimes the job is simply to give people something worth coming back to.

We don't always change when we learn something. Sometimes we change when we're finally ready to use what we already know.

Five years later, the horse got thirsty again.