Before my husband died he laid on his death bed waiting for the life support to be removed. He knew he would be dead within hours upon the removal of the machines keeping him alive. He told me that he wanted me to have a good life. He told me to trust Brigham Christianson at Fidelity to help with the finances and he told me to trust Andrew Miguel Mesa to help me care take our property and he encouraged me to trust him to help my body heal from the stress of grief. After his death Bob continued to communicate to both myself and Miguel. Bob had arranged payment for me to have 80 sessions with Miguel! Not only is Miguel helping me heal he is also writing a book about the journey. Here is Miguel’s website; the man my husband set up to help me get my life back together again.
www.apushasta.com
Here is Andrew Miguel Mesa’s first chapter of his book
copyright 2026
HEALING A HEALER
I dedicate this book to the
People of firmly established
practices which have
cultivated true authenticity,
making for a better present
moment & unhinged
spontaneity. Good humor
and the key to happiness,
Love and Generosity.
WHAT EXACTLY IS GETTING BETTER ?
I have to tell you I wouldn’t be thinking this question at all
had it not been for my own interests in being better at
things. Not in the sense of better than others at doing a
thing, but rather to improve on myself. To get better at
whatever it is that I am capable of growing into. Simply put,
Im good at a lot of things, but how is it that I can get better?
Since I was a kid building model rockets, model cars and
planes and scale trains, with my dad or putting together my
first skateboard it always engaged my mind to be building
things. From Shop class in high school to my first job after
high school as a construction laborer.
For most of my life, as far back as I can remember, I’ve
loved taking things apart and putting them back together,I
love fixing things. I fix my own car, bathroom remodels,
hang doors, renovations of all kinds from rooftops to
kitchens, you name it and I’ve probably fixed it one time or
another or took it apart, rebuilt it and put it back together,
renewed And running again. From resurfacing snowboards
and skis to resurfacing decks and railings. I’ve built dinning
room tables with leaves and converted a school bus into a
cabin twice. I’ve turned Natural rock into fine jewelry.
Transformed front yard dirt patches, into perenial flower
gardens and giant stone labyrinths.
I’ve been involved in construction from my first job after
high school, to still now in my fourties’ being in the
handyman, home improvement business. I’m also an
apprentice, member in the Laborers International Union of
Northern America. I’ve been doing some jobs lately to make
a whole bunch of things “ better”.. To make things better for
my clients and friends, in and around the home, has got me
thinking…, It’s continued to amaze me that so many people
would hire me to fix there things around the house, but very
rare did they hire me to fix there aches, pains, headaches,
indigestion, stiff joints and backs, stuck energy, pain in their
belly or tightness in their muscles, maybe because they
never knew I could, I mean, I rarely mention to people that
I’m a trained bodywork therapist. Or that I have a degree
from The international School of Shiatsu.
As a trained Asian Bodywork therapist, specifically in
Shiatsu, a 5000+ year system from which acupuncture is
based on, I plan to do what Bob did, value his gifts, namely
talent, what he saw in me..
That’s what brings us to our story, a story about working
with the hands, not to fix things or houses or engines or
anything else in the way a laborers or mechanic or
carpenter, but to help a person get better.
CHAPTER 1
WHO’S BOB?
Our story begins with a promise, that after we have
completed this journey, we will all be a changed. This
quest, may have never been possible without the life &
death of a friend of mine, his name was Bob.
Truthfully, I barley knew him, we only spent a few hours
together. Bob didn’t get along with too many folks and far
less got along with him, yet somehow he and I got along
good and he hired me for some small projects around the
house and paid me well.
We were able to make a solid connection. I didn’t see it at
the time, nor did I act on the fact that Bob did want to
spend some time together with me. We all had lunch
together one Sunday but Life had me all tied up to a pattern
that gave me little, to no freedom, a co-dependency
relationship.
I’ll tell you now, he may have seen something in me that I
had not yet recognized, and therefore I couldn’t see in him,
what he saw in me. Bob saw something, and what he saw
may have been more from a feeling than with his eyes. He
didn’t have the best eye sight and the glasses that he wore,
they were very thick, coke bottles with darkening lenses. He
was short and stout, and even though he spent much of his
life on the west coast sounded like he could have been from
and Italian neighborhood in Queens New York. He had a
keen sense of style from his checkered Alpaca sweater, to
his cherry red Mazda Miata, a classic 1991 convertible
roadster. Although this story is not about Bob, or me, it’s
more about what Bob left for us to look after in his absence.
Which brings us to the main character in this Novel, Robin.
Bob’s now Widow and heroine of this journey. Courageous
and brave her story of recovery and becoming after the
departure of her dear husband and best friend Bob.
What I am hoping to share in this story is what happens to
his wife Robin, during the course of receiving 80 Shiatsu
sessions over the course of about two years time. It’s a story
about her journey with Shiatsu as the medium, that she will
receive over the course of about two years, that’s our
commitment.
This is a story of life after death, To become closer with this
inevitable future that we all share, to die one day.
Until that day comes I wanna live as best as possible,
working to better my health and lifestyle as best I can. To
make as much positive change as possible for the good of
my family, my daughter and my community.
If there is one thing I can see that would truly be
something that I can do to bring that change into being, the
make things better, it’s Shiatsu.
In writing this journal of healing and discovering, a
documentation of the process in giving 80 hours of Shiatsu
sessions to one person, who has done so much to give to
others, that now it’s her turn to receive. I hope to honor a
man named Bob Bordonaro’s Legacy and venerate the
success of his life. so for now I’ll put down my hammer and
my saw to share with you a story of Shiatsu.
So let us begin our documentary of 80 Sessions….
Session number one.
I have really only been giving shiatsu for about twenty
years. I have treated a few hundred people and most have
been single, one time, treatments. One Reason why I’m so
excited about this treatment schedule is that we plan to
have 80 sessions over the course of a year and a half,
weekly.
Our first session was about an hour and a half, on a
Wednesday at 4 pm.it was a typical Mt. Shasta fall day. A bit
rainy and the first of a short cold snap that is a clear
indication the fall has begun, the first rain of the season.
We got right into it, with out too much chat, I appreciate
that about this work. It requires a brief introduction and a
check in, how things feel today or any priority we may want
to address in the session. Set up the futon, put together the
body cushions and she hoped down and stared by laying
face up. As it was our first session I started a general whole
body outline, knowing she had some neck issues I planned
to spend a good amount of time focusing on that area. I
moved around as I do, in a crawling, on my knees, with An
upright body posture that is a fundamental of Shiatsu that
gives the practitioner a good center of gravity and core
strength, with my movements being guided by my navel ,
belly region, called the “ Hara” in Japanese, or lower “Dan
Tuen” in Chinese.
When I moved to the area about her head and applied
gentle traction on her neck, immediately her body twitched
in a direction that showed be exactly where her stress was.
Literally as soon as I engaged her fascia, the soft connective
tissue of the body, she rippled like an electric shock had hit
her, from her neck all the way down to her left foot.
Her internal healing system is really active, making her own
micro adjustments and corrections. Once given the
freedom to do so, she got to it!
Some people may not ever have that freedom in the body,
or at least not for many many treatment. So it’s safe to say
this is gonna be interesting and incredibly cathartic for
Robin.
As we continued our session I moved around her in a
clockwise rotation. Again when I applied traction on her
ankles, with a slight pull, she went electric. Short twitch
here and there looking in from the outside look tiny, but
inside the body these kind of movements are gigantic
electrical impulses that can make for some very strong
changes.
I think it’s clear to me now, Robin has a very active internal
healing system. She’s a live wire and a powerful woman in
her own 90lb way.
I got back around to the place on the left side of the futon
that I had begun and had Robin go ahead and turn over, to
face down. Lots of activity here, her spine and central
nervous system is truly online.
STAY TUNED FOR MORE……