Tide Pools

First Year, Synthesized

2010-08-27T18:12:00.000-07:00

As I complete my first year of my education, I feel so blessed to be where I am and can only hope my intention and commitment will carry me far, to wherever I am meant to be.

Prayers of Learning:

To know as best I can the complex garden of the human map to serve my patients’ needs—to humble myself before the work already done and learn for myself by heart-sought experience.

To understand my roots: their trails, their origins, how deep do they dwell—whether they have enveloped me via veins of blood, eras of life, goals of mind, or paths of spirit, they are those that came before me to enable this and every moment.

To measure out the time and place to blaze my own fresh trail—to part from the crowd with integrity and respect not only to advance myself, but to further honor the world I walk as I build landmarks to my own discoveries.

To seek quiet, constant conversation with my heart enough to know its questions and to remember that some answers were never meant to come— to know each question as its own journey’s step, regardless of its called response.

To find, moment by moment, both from within and from without, the wisdom to move harmoniously through the macrocosms—to hold the knowledge close and let it guide my microcosms to continually embody truth.

Experiencing the Lung

2010-07-19T18:02:00.001-07:00

In learning about the deeper symbolism of the (Taiyin hand channel) Lung system these past few weeks, I have grown suddenly grateful for my own set of lungs. I have begun to recognize the value of a controlled and discerning movement, having previously paid little attention to Metal in favor of the seemingly softer and more malleable phase elements. However, I am coming to recognize in my own body and life that without the solid framework provided at the top of my trunk, any malleability could potentially shatter me. Ode to the Lung and lungs...

First and foremost, the Lung/lungs help us breathe. Breathing is life. Medically speaking, a life is measured from first breath to last. Even beyond the basic necessity of the inhale/exhale respirations of the lungs that keep us alive, Lung function enables us to take part in our surroundings every moment. In a O2-CO2 gas exchange with plants, we breathe environment into self, and then release it, only to repeat the cycle again and again.

In Chinese physiology, the Lung serves as a lid on the body with the role of showering down Qi/mist/vital force over the rest of the organs. Its delicate strength allows it to keep the denser jing/water/essence from the Kidney from escaping, and its misting downward cools and calms the shen/fire/spirit of the Heart. The Lung rules the skin, the nose, and the body hair -- all of which exist as our permeable surfaces and embody Lung function.

We invite the air inward, and then flush it out. If we hold air/breath in, we feel light-headed, high, and too full of life until we pass out -- if we keep air/breath out, we do not even give ourselves the chance to live. What expands, must contract. Otherwise we either float away or sink into nothingness. The Lung is about judicious balance, and like all organ systems can serve as a teacher.

We cannot choose which molecules are safe to inhale and which are not, and so we must rely on the ability of the lungs to take in all surroundings, hold each piece in scrutiny, and release what is harmful. This job leaves the lungs vulnerable to invading pathogens, and yet they retain a fortitude that enables them to lead the body's life experience. If we hold respect for the delicate strength not only of our physical lungs, but of our perception and instinctive judgment, we can move through life with purpose and balance.

I try to remember that breathing is a full-body experience, if I only allow it to be.

Prelude/Interlude

2010-07-12T22:57:00.000-07:00

Creative Block? :

backup of images, phrases

words without an outlet

imagination constipation

heartmind waves lost in translation

between the source and the voice

too few or too many ideas flowing

swirling, swimming graceful figure 8s

lemniscates toward internal infinity

until a Heimlich of the soul dislodges

what was stuck in mental centrifugal force

so its imperfect light can shine external

exhaled from endless warmth within

which only feels its fullest truth

when emptying

From an Ocean of Knowledge

2010-07-09T03:14:00.001-07:00

In the last six months, I have become a student of classical Chinese medicine. I have found Classical Chinese medicine to be so much more than an ancient science and art that forms the foundation for acupuncture-moxa techniques, Chinese herbal medicine, and various forms of bodywork. It has enlivened a world-view within me of Nature as foundation and ultimate guide. The focus of the medicine and its true practitioners remains, as it has for these thousands of years, on the understanding and healing of self based on the basic principles of life. Nature, as the source of all life, can be our greatest teacher. As our daily selves and lives become more and more electronically hand-held and we passively retreat further from Nature, the active return to one's self becomes elusive, and yet all the more needed.

Then why a blog?

The discipline has revealed itself to me as an ocean: a fluid resource with undefined edges and an expansive, receiving nature. It invites our participation as groups and individuals, for it can only grow from the voices added to it. As waves of learning from this source crash onto rocky shores of consciousness, they leave tidepools -- microcosms of abundant life to grow in the wakes of their waters. It is within these that I aim to explore the phenomena large and small that can arise from a single lesson, speech, or idea relating to classical Chinese medicine. This blog is my voice in response to how the medicine speaks to me.