The essays on this site were written by David Mark Dressler. Most were from a collection he put together in 2017, some of which were written long before that.
David died on October 11, 2020 after a three-year battle with cancer. I will link to his obituary when it is public. Meanwhile, you can read “Remembering David Dressler” at the Registered Massage Therapy Association of BC’s Facebook page, which is a slightly modified version of that sent to them by a fellow registered massage therapist.
About a week before David passed on, David’s essay, “The Long Way Home” (originally untitled), suddenly displayed itself on my computer screen when I was looking for a completely different file. In fact, I did not even see the file opening; the page was just there, showing itself when I closed the window I had been reading. Granted, I have inadvertently opened the wrong file before, but this file was so relevant to my thoughts about David at the time that I had to think this was no accident.
I felt I should read it to him, but frankly, I was afraid he would not be up for it. He was in pain, fatigued, and seemed to feel betrayed by everyone around him and perhaps the Universe most especially. He also did not listen to anyone for very long.
Two days later, I told him this document had mysteriously opened and I wanted to read it to him. His answer? “I don’t care.” I figured that was as close to “yes” as I would get, so I read it.
Once I began reading, David was quite attentive, which surprised me. Moved by the content, he said, “That’s good. I want you to publish it.” And so I have.
“Starlight,” the most recent work here, was written in early January 2019. David had sent it to a close circle of email friends, including me, but I had forgotten about it. A few months after he had written it, David was particularly melancholy while with one of those friends, and she felt moved to read his writing back to him. This caused a dramatic shift in his mood, as he reconnected with what he felt when he had written it. “Coincidentally,” this friend ran across this piece again the night before David died, so of course she shared it with me when I mentioned that I was going to publish some of David’s essays. My eyes tear up every time I read it, because it touches a very deep part of my being.
Dear David, may your readers be inspired as I have been and feel our hearts open to your heartfelt words. Wherever your new journey takes you, live long, live well, and prosper!
Margaret Blauvelt
October 29, 2020
A note regarding the dates: Often David did not include one, so I looked for the earliest email and/or electronic file date and used that. He could have written any given article much earlier but at least we know the latest he could have written it. The (usually short) articles dated 18 June 2017 were all from a PowerPoint draft presentation that David wanted reformatted and published, which unfortunately was never completed – until I just posted them here.