Ancient Medicine Modern World

My friend Ronny says that the camp counselors get beat to the bone, but the kids have a ball, and never have clue they are held up with invisible wings.

Today for the first time in weeks there is not a thread of responsibility woven into my life, and a temperatureless fall morning next to the Jiang River its water sliding southward accompanied by the chug of the occasional fishing skiff, and an opportunity to move my overdue body through the form of Northern Wu Taichi is as welcome as water after a thirst.

The first international Classic Formula class in Nanjing with Dr Huang has wound its course. Nourishing as a long cooked soup, where flavors slip and blend into a more complex creation, the knowledge and skill of Huang, combined with the experience and inquiry of the practitioners who travel from a world away created two weeks of rich exchange that will be a benefit drunk by our patients. While it was my intentions and effort that built the frame, and strung the weft. And my ability to shuttle between languages helped to weave the tapestry that was to unfold, however as the vehicle I didn’t so often get to see or experience the collage of thread and connection that are the tapestry itself.

Of course, there were moments of recognition when new understandings would bloom as I floated between languages, threads of former conversations would glow and then burst into understanding. But, most of the time my thoughts were engaged in slipping the sounds of Chinese into English, the content of those words slid like water around smooth rocks. My language skills are not yet to the point where I can inhabit both the slip of the water, and the ripples of the stream.

But, others did ride that flow, and the learning was profound. The questions asked, reasoned and practical. I’ve a deep admiration of those who made this trip, and opened their minds to another way of considering some of the standard and not-so standard workhorse formulas from our pharmacies of cures.

A complete lack of structure, and perspective are a good cure for weariness.
And this weariness was worth the effort.