CELEBRATING LOU DESABLA
Tributes
of the most pivotal events in my life would never have happened. In the early ‘90s, Pathways published my interview with Steven Halpern, an old college friend who had become a leading light in the New Age Music field. A staffer at the National Botanic Garden read the inter - view and called my office (I had moved from DC to Virginia Beach), asking where she could find Steven’s music. I referred her to the Yes Bookstore in Georgetown. And then she asked, “Do you ever give talks?” That led directly to my becoming the first chiropractor ever to speak at the National Museum of Health and Medicine at a confer - ence sponsored by the Botanic Garden, the Museum, the then brand- new NIH Office of Alternative Medicine (now the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health), and the National Wellness Coalition. And that, in turn, led to my being the first member of my profession to speak at the National Institutes of Health. Having those on my resumé enabled me to write for major alternative and comple- mentary health publications and textbooks, and helped qualify me to pursue a deeply fulfilling academic career in which I’m still involved full-time. For all of that, I am eternally indebted to Lou, my brother and my friend. I am also grateful to Lou for the part he played in my beloved wife Beth Lily Redwood and I meeting. We both volunteered at one of the Natural Living Expos that Lou organized and met briefly. When we got together after my first marriage ended, Lou shared kind, encouraging words to each of us about the other. We’ve now been happily married for 32 years. I’m still having difficulty getting my heart and mind around the idea that my dear friend Lou is gone. I’m deeply grateful that our paths crossed those many years ago, and that he was the catalyst for so much of the happiness, meaning and fulfillment in my life. Daniel Redwood, DC, is director of the nutrition and functional medicine program at the University of Western States in Portland, Oregon. He is also a singer-songwrit - er whose music website is www.danielredwoodsongs.com. His writing was published in every issue of Pathways for nearly 40 years.
FROM: DAN REDWOOD My friend Lou deSabla was kind, caring, thoughtful and charismat - ic. His smile lit up a room. He always sought to bring out the best in people. His influence on my life was profound and wide-ranging. I’m blessed to have known him. We met in late 1980 when he answered an ad I placed looking for a dependable person to take over my lease for the tiny 275-square- foot office space in Falls Church where I started my first chiropractic practice earlier that year. I needed to move to larger quarters; Lou was selling health insurance for teachers and needed to rent an office to meet with clients. We resolved the rental arrangement in a few minutes and then eased into a long conversation about our lives. We talked about how we had been affected by the Vietnam War, the latest advancements in holistic health, and the counterculture in its many manifestations. We were kindred spirits. Looking back on it, that conversation continued for the next four decades. I helped Lou with some back pain soon after we met. A year or so later, he called me to say that he was taking over Pathways (which then weighed in at maybe a dozen pages per issue) and that he hoped I would write an article about chiropractic and holistic health care. I jumped at the chance. Over the next 30-something years, I wrote over a hundred articles for Pathways. These included several dozen long-form interviews (many of them republished elsewhere in Pathways’ sister publications) with cultural leaders and writers I deeply respected. I interviewed Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, Deepak Chopra, Andrew Weil, James Gordon, John Bradshaw, Larry Dossey, Charles Thomas Cayce, Rachel Naomi Remen, Sam Keen, Ram Dass, Michael Meade, and many more. For a while, I also wrote book reviews and music reviews, and my library grew with the arrival of wonderful new books and music CDs. If Lou hadn’t given me the opportunity to be part of Pathways, many
82—PATHWAYS—Spring 24
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