Playing Basketball with Innate

By Stew Bittman, D.C.

I haven’t touched a basketball in over 4 years (believe it or not I was once a bit of a legend, right out of the New York City school yards), and for the past few months Innate has been nudging me back onto the court. So far, I’ve managed to avoid it, citing age and bad knees and oxygen tanks and some other truly empowering excuses. Well, Innate has most recently pulled out the two by four. On consecutive days this week, I ran into 3 guys from my last basketball team, none of whom I had seen since our last game, over 4 years ago. Okay Innate, I’m heading out on the court. Coincidence, you say? I chuckle at the thot. Law, I say. Simply the way It works. Manifestation, synchronicity, connection; call it what you will. All I know is that my life is run more and more by something way beyond my puny intellect. Something that flies in the face of logic and of everything I learned in school. Something that appears more and more as I open my heart. Something that dances with all of creation. Something we call Innate.

This past April was marked by the manifestation of several of my dreams. It was incredibly busy and incredibly balanced. It was also incredibly fulfilling and incredibly humbling. And it was all incredibly perfect (that’s the last “incredibly”, I promise). The humbling part happened because I think I got a little cocky. After a series of personal triumphs, even tho I was aware of my ego beginning to prance around a bit and I kept an eye on it, I know I forgot to fully acknowledge the Source of my triumphs. Here’s what happened. For the past 4 years, I had spoken at the local community college’s Earth Day event. A rather small venue, but always fun. The large event in town for Earth Day, in which the entire community gets involved, happens 2 days later at the Middle School, and I’d always wanted to get on the stage for that one. This year, for some reason (could it be that last year I kind of got down on the educational system?), I wasn’t invited to speak at the college. I put out a silent intention to speak at the Middle School. The morning of the big event, one of my practice folks, who was involved in planning it, called and said, “Dr. Stew, we messed up and left an hour unplanned, could you possibly speak at 1 PM?” My ego went into full-scale self-celebration. “Can you believe how I manifested that? Now the whole town gets to hear me! What a month!”

Needless to say, it was a major fiasco. My mike kept cutting out, we tried 3 different ones, and no one really wanted to listen anyway, being more interested in low flow toilets and xerotrophic gardening and sustainable forest management and stuff. I attempted to shout my way into everyone’s attention, pleading that we’d repeat Earth Day for another 333 years until we learned to heal ourselves, and I basically came off as a raving lunatic. I knew a bunch of people there, and several of them came to hug me after I gave up, but I know they simply felt sorry for me. Well, my ego began it’s old pattern of second-guessing itself and beating me up and wanting to dig a hole somewhere and have me crawl into it, and I finally woke up. It was all perfect. I realized that I had given it my best shot and that perhaps one person got the message, and I learned some invaluable lessons about humility and about how truly loving this Universe is.

Jim Parker used to repeat a line that I believe DD Palmer first came up with. “Take no credit; take no blame.” I realize this applies not only to my adjusting, but also to my life. And I like the part about not taking the blame a lot better than the credit part. I take responsibility, never blame. And I allow myself to take some credit. I take credit for asking for what I want instead of what I don’t want. I take credit for the courage and awareness to make right choices and to sing my song. I take credit for the discipline to do the work, as a disciple to Innate, to allow myself to be used as an instrument, to allow myself to surrender to the perfection of life’s flow, and to allow myself to manifest my birthright of abundance and joy and love. The rest is not only out of my hands, it is out of my mind. Out of my mind and in my heart is where I choose to be. As a chiropractor, being in my heart brings the world and me closer to wholeness. Being in my heart brings me the experience of love, given and received. Being in my heart brings me a clearer view of the big picture. And being in my heart will be bringing me onto the basketball court really soon. Let’s hope it holds up out there.

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Dr. Stew Bittman is one of the speakers who will be at FOCUS on May 18th & 19th in Newport Beach, California. Won’t you join us? Make a commitment to chiropractic, get on the phone and register today. (570) 476-7557

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