My dear friend John Fox is a medicine man of sorts. He created The Institute for Poetic Medicine to share his calling. His gift is poetry and he gives it to all sorts of people. People with cancer, people in prison, children, on and on. I met him when my husband was getting treatment for his cancer. He gave a program at The Wellness Community in Atlanta. He drew us around him in a circle and led us in reading and writing poetry. The group came alive as one by one, we stood and read what we had written. Everyone was listening to us, to our innermost words!
Since then I have been honored to attend quite a few of his Poetic Medicine sessions. Each one is different, but John is always the same. Hard to say what makes him so special. He is gifted with humility and the ability to deeply listen to those who come to him. I see him as a shaman, for sure. My late friend Agata facilitated his work when she was alive, as she did the work of Theo Paredes. Shamans are able to travel between the worlds and bring gifts of healing. Agata herself was a shaman and she is working from the other side now, I imagine.
On Sunday, Rob helped John with the projector part of his presentation and did a beautiful job. Afterwards, we went out for cocoa with Susan of Decatur Healing Arts and another friend. It was a very special day. Rob got to pick John up at the airport and drop him off where he was staying. A few years back, Rob joined John on a trip to the Canyon de Chelly for a Poetic Medicine trip there. It was life-changing for him.
I am grateful to know John Fox. Men like him are rare. I will put a link to his website so you can explore it.