My 11-year-old audio-engineer son, Logan, and I just returned home from an amazing weekend in New Jersey after taking our Spinal Column Radio podcast studio on the road.

Marking our third time now to the long-standing New Beginnings Chiropractic Philosophy Weekends, we were invited to interview more than 21 fantastic chiropractors, cover a 60-minute speed coaching event, and conduct a battery of “man on the street” interviews. By all measures, it was a successful weekend! And then it was time for us to come home. And to do so, we had a battle on our hands.

Now, before I continue with the story, it’s important that you appreciate something. In chiropractic, we operate off the foundational premise that our bodies are self-healing and self-regulating. It’s how we were designed by God. And it’s this “special something” that He imputed into us that we chiropractors recognize as the “intelligence” of the body. We call it Innate Intelligence. Sometimes we will truncate it and simply refer to it as “Innate” ­— or even more succinctly with the letter “N” and the numeral “8”: N8.

Our job as chiropractors is to make sure this Innate Intelligence is able to fully express itself without interference or interruption. Because it is then that optimal living can be fully realized.  So, you’ll understand when I tell you that when I think of N8, I think of God.

Back to our story. Returning from our podcast weekend in New Jersey was no easy feat as the Eastern Seaboard was up against an early winter storm — a storm that captured the attention of television stations up and down the coast. Would we be able to make the drive to the airport? And if we did, would we even be able to take off? Would we ever make it home?

With an hour’s drive (in good weather) ahead of us, we battled 40 mph winds, dropping temperatures, rain, sleet, snow, and sheets of ice. There were downed limbs and power outages.  Our non-stop flight was delayed and, because of the weather, had to stop in Chicago to pick up another crew member. More delays. Then we hit turbulence, the kind that makes you want to lose your lunch. I tell you all of this not to gain sympathy, but to impress upon you that getting home was difficult. It was work.

I breathed a sigh of relief as our plane touched down in Seattle. It felt good knowing that we had made it safe and sound. With so many intense variables in our journey home, one wrong move could have told a different story. But yet, we made it. And then it all became blatantly clear as our plane came to a stop — at none other than gate N8.

— Dr. Thomas R. Lamar is a chiropractor at Anchor Chiropractic in the Health Services Center and is the host of SpinalColumnRadio.com. You can contact him at (360) 297-8111 or drlamar@aol.com.