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Saturday, August 2, 2025
An Exploration of Heart Shock
Tuesday, July 29, 2025
Insights of a Senior Acupuncturist by Miriam Lee
The damp heat has been so heavy and thick that it has kept me inside a bit more the past fews days. During this second intense heat wave of the Summer, I have been staying cool and revisiting one of my favourite treasures. Miraim Lee, a legend in the Acupuncture and Chinese medicine world wrote a beautiful synopsis of treatment strategies and case studies in the book Insights of a Senior Acupuncturist. Published by Blue Poppy Press.
This book has been with me for years and has called me many times when there is a little gem to be revealed. This week, I asked the book to extend a gift and I was guided to page 100 and extracted a luminous pearl.
"At any stage, Zu San Li (St 36), He Gu (LI 4), Qu Chi (LI 11), and Lie Que (Lu 7) will help calm the patient and restore balance to the internal organs so that the heart can again house the spirit."
With this extreme heat, the Heart, the Emperor is sometimes overwhelmed and harassed by extreme temperatures. It can feel heavy, shaky, overextended and feel as though it is energetically spinning out of its natural placement and express as being off center. As we are all navigating so many external changes and challenges, it is sometimes difficult to integrate the messaging of the immediate needs of the Heart. When this happens in my own world, I do my best to slow down and sometimes stop what I am doing and rest. Lie on the cool floor, place my legs up a wall, or find a space to be still. The more I can practice this process the more I try to hold the field for my patients in sessions.
As I read through the system that Miriam used in her practice, I just came across this sentiment...
"To prevent disease and establish vitality, both the acupuncturist and the patient must use the whole universe wisely." pg 36
And so we try. I could sit with this sentiment for hours, it is such a rich and layered proposition.
I created this image with sunflowers, echinacea and a little peeper frog layered with a watercolour that I painted imagining the image as a metaphor for the medicine. So many nuances of beauty and stillness gently intertwined with one another, layers of Summer colors over texture and elements.
Wednesday, April 30, 2025
Return of the Hummingbirds
Wednesday, March 12, 2025
The Healing Presence of Hummingbirds
I am delighted to participate in a conversation tomorrow night as a part of the Port Jefferson Documentary Series. The film celebrates the work of Terry Masear, a rather magical woman who takes care of injured hummingbirds. When I received a call from the organizers of the series, I knew immediately that I needed to attend and participate. My friends Patricia Paladines and Dr. Carl Safina will also be attending. I will be sharing some of my hummingbird images taken over the years.
I feel that there is a curious symbiosis between Terry's experiences and one of my own.
During my recovery from Lyme disease, I had the most extraordinary visitor here for over five months. A rufous hummingbird found her way into my garden and wintered over. Her presence was kept quiet, outside of a few friends, neighbours, and patients. I wanted to protect her from over exposure. She was fed warm nectar during the winter months, and survived every possible weather challenge. She ate ants and caught gnats in the air while constantly drinking from several feeders that were maintained to keep her alive.
Over the course of her stay she remained close to the front door of my office in the shelter of a large Rhododendron tree. When the wind was howling from the Northeast and the cold temperatures plummeted, she sought refuge in boxwoods. All the while I was aware that this was a once in a lifetime experience. She stayed perched, facing the sun and welcoming my patients into my healing space. We all observed in wonder, awe and delight. During my most challenging days, I felt as though a guardian angel had descended from the heavens and offered me divine support.
Wednesday, February 12, 2025
For the Love of Botany
I am back to the drawing board of botanical art and all of the detailed nuances of creating in this modality. It began with a strong handmade leather bound book of beautiful hot press paper. Each week I make entries, based on what I see in the garden, on my walks or from the ocean and bay beaches. It has been a serious and committed act of self care, ritual and discipline. I began the first week of March 2024. During a long and arduous battle with Lyme disease and co-infections of Babesia and Erlichiosis, my body has craved simple and kind goodness from every facet of life. In June, it will be two years since I have been fighting the good fight. My immune system went into shock and required care and deep rest. It has been a journey. As anyone who has experienced these diseases, parts of us go into what I describe as the underworld. We are held hostage by the immediate needs or our immunity as we fight internal battles in terrain that we did not even know existed in our bodies.
Core memories of comfort, kindness and safety have kept my internal compass orienting towards healing and recovery. My earliest memories of my life include color, in the form of pencils, paper and the smells of the beautiful colors in the forms of wax crayons and paints of all kinds. My mother was an artist, and so in my healing from two simultaneous tick bites my nervous system has craved the old, the familiar and the beauty of art.
Monday, August 14, 2023
Fire and Water
In Chinese medicine we often see shock trauma as a separation of the elements of Fire and Water. During this distancing, the two elements we are often left feeling lost, dissociated and disconnected from our authentic selves. The ideal outcome in such an instance is to have immediate support and resources to be able to come back into regulation and for Fire and Water to become more integrated so that they may fall into their natural rhythm.
When this rhythm is re-established in the body, we are more inclined to find relationships with the other elements of Earth, Metal and Wood.
The five elements create an intricate and meaningful web of ebbs and flows of energy through the organs, meridians and inner channels. There are multiple layers of information that are all reliant on the smooth flow of consistent Qi and Blood. When shock energy meets our physiology, these micro currents and reserves can be disrupted and injured. Staying cognisant of these possible disruptions is important because if we are aware that we are in a state of disregualtion, then we can lean into repair and resourcing to come back into more balance and ultimately health.
I wonder what might unfold if we were able to lean into more awareness of Fire and Water within our own bodies and see what the possibilities might be as we fine tune our capacities to self regulate, and therefore find our internal compasses that illuminate our paths back to safety, balance and coherence.
Saturday, July 2, 2022
The Magnificent Great Crested Fly Catchers (Myiarchus crinitus)
The elusive fly catchers are feverishly feeding the chicks that reside in an older blue wooden bird house. The handmade structure is covered by a mature hydrangea and is tucked away in under a tall magnolia tree. Over the years there have been various residents who made this little wooden sanctuary their home, but this year, it has been a treat to see the flycatchers come and go, perch on the magnolia branches and bring back dragonflies, crickets and other insects for their clutch. The male and female work with incredible precision, elegance and have a remarkable cadence. I love their distinct calls and their chartreuse feathers. I also love that they can catch such large flying insects and bring them back to the nest in their beaks with such speed and accuracy.
They have been safely hidden for weeks now and as they enter the bigger world, they will blend beautifully with the safety and background of the yellow, green and brown tones of the oak forest.