Sick of Sickness

It has been a bit sunnier around Terrace Lake this week. Muddy, but at least, more sunshine has come our way. Unfortunately, I was unable to take it in. I have not felt well. Downright crummy in fact. Something I ate went very wrong. Well, it had been Fat Tuesday. With Mardi Gras madness in the air, questionable combinations of delights were ingested. Ah me. I have paid. A night doubled up in a fetal position was the beginning of my Lent. This week I have been a little punk baby girl curled up on the couch, lathered in essential oils with me oolong and Olympics nursing my soul(speed skating and ice dancing rule. Go Speed Racer!). Despite my bag of healing tricks, by Thursday it had gone into my lungs and I was unable to teach the evening yoga class. Friday morning I called my Doctor of Chinese Medicine. Praise be, they could get me in.

"Your central axis, lungs, spleen, kidneys are out of wack," Fred said, reading my pulses.
"Urhgg," me moaning and coughing.
"We'll get you fixed up kiddo."

According to Chinese Medicine there is harmony in the system when all functions in body and mind are in accord with each other as well as with the environment. All in accord with a sense of ease and vitality. But it is a transcient state, for, according to the I Ching, "everything observable by the senses is subject to change and therefore in motion." This motion creates cycles of change or transformation. In nature, in humans. The Classic goes on the say, "One can learn to navigate treacherous currents by conducting themselves in harmony with prevailing processes of transformation - and thus weather the storms of life."

According to Doctor Fred, I created a storm, weakening my digestive system, the spleen and stomach, as well as putting stress upon my kidneys. And the lungs got caught in battle. In the Chinese system, the spleen or earth element is the mother of the lungs or metal element, and the lungs are the mother of the kidneys, or water element. It is seen as an inter-connected system. When one organ or energy system is in distress it creates a chain reaction, and malfunction in other parts of the body. It then all needs to be brought back to balance.

Lao-tze, tells us:
For all things there is a time for going ahead, and a time for following behind;
A time for slow-breathing and a time for fast breathing;
A time to grow in strength and a time to decay;
A time to be up and a time to be down;
Therefore, the sage avoids all extremes, excesses and extravagance.

Too late. A long winter of extreme cold and damp accompanied with comfort food eating and a month of being "up" at mardi gras parties has, at last, put me "down". Time for me to take a good look, (sigh...again), physically, emotionally and evironmentally, at how to avoid, or at least, lesson the effects of the extremes and extravagances of modern life which bring about unease and imbalance.

By the end of the treatment, my belly was already feeling happier.

"This would be a good time to do a cleanse," Fred said, noting we have entered into the spring season, according to the Chinese calendar. Spring is always a good time to cleanse the system of toxins built up from the last season.Thanksgiving, Christmas, the long winter blah eating rampages all need to be cleansed away to allow the new cycle to bring fresh energy and resolve for healthy eating and wholesome outdoor activity. I doubt anyone will need to be coaxed out-a-doors this year. We await the coming of the Warmth and Light.

The Tao Te Ching tells us;
Only when we are sick of our sickness shall we cease to be sick.
The Sage is not sick, being sick of sickness;
This is the secret of health."

I am sick of my sickness. The treatment has helped restore balance. And the sickness has helped restore resolve for harmony in body, mind, spirit and environment.


Deb out. Be well.

footnote:

Here is a simple and effective cleanse for the Spring. Drink it first thing in the morning for a week.

In a large glass prepare: 4 oz water/ 4 oz apple juice (organic, unfiltered is best); juice from half a lemon; pinch of cayene and ground ginger; one teaspoon olive oil.

Drink for six days in the morning. On the seventh day, add one Tablespoon of olive oil and also add one Tablespoon of maple syrup. Drink it in the morning and also at night.

Another tip. Beets are a good cleanser for the blood. Cook or juice some up. Yum Yum Beets.

Parsley tea clears the urinary track of bateria, infection and heat. Also is a good source for vitamin C, A and D, as well as a source of potassium (helpful in lowering blood pressure), calcium and folic acid. As well, it is a bitter herb (which we do not get enough of in the American diet)....get to know parsley...it is your friend

The Clear and Shinning Song of the Groundhog

It is another grey, wet, icey, slushy day at Terrace Lake.
Cold, thick, slushey snow drips from the sky, from the trees, filling the hollows, soaking the ground. The saturated ground.

It has been a long cold winter.
A winter for the history books.
The frozen tundra and monstrous ice plowed mountains have gradually melted away, creating a spongey, wet, mudddy bog.

Which has presented an ongoing challenge for my New Year's resolution. To walk every day. Twice a day if I rock.
My course is the walking way around the lake, Terrace Lake upon which I live. Me and my people as well as a gaggle of neighbors who all share a sweet wandering path around the elevan acre lake in the suberbs of south KC.
A nice way to raise the heart rate, walk the dogs, tire out the grandchildren, clear the mind. Connect with Nature.

We have come to this. We make dates wtih Nature. So far we have drifted.

And with this winter weather my resolution has drifted at times; tested by high snow drifts, howling winds, icey paths, thick fog, and spongey bogs.

It has been a long cold winter. And it is not over yet. Not till the groundhog sings.

Unless, of course, one is reckoning by the Chinese calendar. Based upon the sun and moon cycles, the former divides the year into twenty four periods called "energy nodes". Each of these nodes, or periods has a name corresponding to the change in the weather; "Great Heat", "Small Cold", "Awakening of the Insects".

The energy node called ch'ing-ming, "Clear and Shinning", marks the Chinese New Year and the Spring festival, celebrating the arrival of spring. It falls 105 days after the winter soltice, on the first day of the first lunar month of the calendar. Falling this year on February 15, it marks the renewal of spring as well as the renewal of the hearth fire.

Hearth fire is right. "Grey and Sleeting" seems a more appropriate discription.

I guess it is a faith kinda thing.

From beneath this icey, soaked tundra, spring will emerge again. The yang energy will rise to fire lagging spirits, fanciful fairy gardens, happy gatherings and friendly frolickings with Nature. Naturally.

But for now I need my icey New Year's Resolve and dates with Nature to walk my way around that Lake. Hoping to soon hear the clear and shinning song of the groundhog.