The truth is in here somewhere....

It's been quite awhile since I began this blog. I find that I want the entries to be perfect, and thus don't write much. However, I find that if I just jump in, I might not be perfect, but there will at least be something on the page.

Today, I'm taken with how much pathology can look like health. I was out in my garden, pulling weeds. It takes a really trained eye to distinguish between some of the weeds and the desired plants. There is a "bush" growing right from the base of my bluberry bush that looks EXACTLY like the blueberry bush---but it isn't the blueberry. The leaves are the same color, shape and texture. Last year, I didn't find out it wasn't the blueberry bush until AFTER it had sucked all the nourishment out of the soil and grew and grew and eventually took over the blueberry. This year, I'm arguing with myself about poisoning the undesirable visitor so that the berry bush can re-claim it's victory in the garden. I'm also noticing that weeds growing in the groundcover try to mimic their surroundings---sporting the same height, the leaf density, and color, of the intentionally planted landscape. These parasitic plants are masquerading as invited guests so they will be fed and cared for and allowed to flourish!!! So what am I writing this for?

Well, in my acupuncture practice, another colleague brought a patient for a consultation. The patient's complaint was "painfully hot feet and hands." Indeed, her feet were very red and swollen, (and her hands less so) but to the touch, her feet were ICE COLD. To get relief from the subjective feeling of being hot, the patient has been soaking her feet in ice water and packing them with ice packs every night. The other signs observable in this patient resonate with COLD (her pulse, her tongue). The cold is masquerading as heat so that the cold will be "nourished" (fed) by outside pathogenic behaviours of the patient. ("Cold" can be experienced subjectively as "heat"---think: dry ice.) In this case, the treatment for her feet and hands is to warm them up.

When we behave in a way that SEEMS to reflect our needs, can the behavior be "wrong?" Yes indeed. Think of all of us out here that are addicted to sugar or fats. We can SEEM hungry, when in fact it has only been an hour since our last meal, and there is no way we could be legitimately hungry. The pull toward consuming more and more of what we crave is, in itself, an illness. The illness perpetuates itself in the craving. This is also true with those of us addicted to working, caffeine, etc. When we overdo, and can't stop, then the activity itself is perpetuating the problem, just like the over-tired child who just can't go to sleep because he is over-tired. This is when we have to let our common sense intervene, and stop the cycle of getting deeper and deeper into the weeds.

Tending ourselves like a garden, we must be able to recognize which behaviors are the "weeds" needing elimination, and which are the plants needing cultivation. When the Chinese talk of "cultivating the qi" they mean to promote health and discourage un-health. It an be harder than it appears at first blush, because those damned weeds often appear to be healthy plants. But are they?