05/25/2025
I have the honor and privilege of volunteering my massage therapy services at the Memorial Day National Convention this weekend in Arlington!
TAPS is an incredible organization that helps support the survivors, friends, and family of service members who have passed on due to military service. They offer crisis management, resources for families, and an incredible community of peer mentors that help people cope with their losses in a way that makes sense.
This is a somber weekend for me as I reflect on my own loss, but also pride in the duty I feel to carry on the strength and fortitude displayed by all of these wonderful people! To share a little about my story - my father passed away in 2017 due to adult leukemia resulting from water contamination at Camp LeJeune. It was a sudden and devastating illness. TAPS had offered me acne my family lots of ways to cope and integrate what this loss taught me. In volunteering this weekend, I hope to channel the charity, kindness, service, and love that my father demonstrated through my whole life. Additionally, this is a great time to practice trauma and grief-aware massage therapy and share the healing power of human touch with our attendees.
I wish everyone touched by this holiday a gentle, fulfilling, and peaceful weekend, however challenging it may be.