As the frozen night air nipped at our faces, Maya and I nestled together, surrounded by an igloo of jackets, scarves, pants, hats and mittens. Stars shone overhead, like icy diamonds, sharing a frozen light from long, long ago. We sat and watched as that empty stillness settled onto the ground, slowly spreading out with the silent stealth of fog. The very sound of our breath was snatched from our mouths, disappearing into a voiceless world. The memory of Spring and all thought of dancing barefoot in the sun were also swallowed and buried, deep within the heart of the “not-doing” that is winter.

The movements of the T’ai Chi form are rooted in the concept of “wu wei”, “not-doing”. In the T’ai Chi Classics, the ancient writings that have guided the development of the art through the years, there is a saying:

“Be as still as a mountain, move like a great river.”

In T’ai Chi we must take the quiet of winter into our own hearts and listen…. for Spring, for movement, for the timing of, “when” … when to move. We listen for what Professor Cheng called “right timing”. The question of when and how to move in T’ai Chi, is answered in this quieting of the mind and listening with the heart. In the T’ai Chi Classics this is what is meant by “Be as still as a mountain”. We listen for the timing that allows us to stay connected to the ease within the movement, to the “flow”… what the Classics describe as “move like a great river”. It is essentially a question of stillness, of “not-doing” anything that disrupts our connection to that flow. In the words of the great Chinese philosopher, Lao Tzu, “In doing nothing, nothing is left undone”.

It is not the frontal cortex that decides when to move in T’ai Chi. We cannot reason our way to the timing of the flow. In T’ai Chi the “T” in “think” is too late. We have to feel, to listen, to be open, to be receptive and to follow. According to Professor Cheng, we need to “invest in loss”, so that we may learn to follow. In my understanding and personal experience, this relates to a loss of ego…to be willing to invest in the loss of subtle and not-so-subtle feelings of self-importance. It relates to the rigidity of my knowledge of how to do this thing we call T’ai Chi. On the brick wall of my self-awareness, right next to the doorway to the flow, there is an indentation. This indentation is where my head has repeatedly insisted is the correct location of that doorway to the flow.

Self-awareness comes with reflection. Just like looking at the surface of a lake, we need quiet and inactivity to see an accurate reflection…in a word, we need Winter.

One of the things I love about T’ai Chi is that what I learn in practicing the form is so transferrable to my life. That night, on a cold hillside with my daughter, was an example of “right-timing” in my life. In the “not-doing” of sitting in the snow, watching as day turned to night, I felt nurtured by my connection to my little Maya. I also felt connected to that cold silence that surrounded us. Little, tiny us, Maya and Michael, somewhere on the surface of the planet earth, sitting on a hillside in the dead of winter, aware and feeling connected to each other, to the season, to the world, to the setting sun, to the stars and to that within which it all resides.

The great physicist, Stephen Hawkings, was once asked if knowing that the Universe is so vast and limitless, with seemingly countless numbers of galaxies, stars and planets, made him feel small and insignificant. He replied that what he found amazing was that something so small and insignificant as one human being could comprehend something so vast and limitless as the Universe.

Practicing T’ai Chi with a quiet heart/mind carries within it the possibility of opening and connecting that same heart/mind to the body, to the emotions, to others, to the world and, in the immortal words of Dr. Seuss, to all that lies “On Beyond Zebra”.

I am looking forward to the coming session. I hope that you can join me.

All the best,

Michael

PS That little Maya is not so little anymore. She is graduating from college this May. That night on the hill with her was first held in my heart sixteen years ago.

The past year has collectively challenged us with a period of greater adversity and fewer economic blessings. Our financial world has lost a reliable stability; consumption of the earth’s resources continues toward an uncertain outcome. These same kinds of challenges appear in our clinic when a patient hears of a difficult diagnosis or is overwhelmed with a life-altering event.

In times of uncertainty, we can look to Nature and the cycle of seasons for guidance. Winter, a time of consolidation and diminishing light, offers a moment to stop, take a step back from the internal shifting sands; become still and listen to the sounds in our own depths. It is in the stillness that we begin to listen and in the listening, we hear our own wisdom.

Winter teaches that when everything looks dead and hopeless, barren of all possibility, there lies underneath the frozen snow, seeds and bulbs and pods and insects and larvae waiting. They wait until their time. They don’t force anything. They don’t frantically flit about trying to avoid the waiting and the silence and the cold. They rest and they wait. In winter, life is about waiting rather than hopelessness.

Waiting can take courage. Courage is not about puffing up our chest and bashing through mindlessly. Courage in its highest form anchors us in faith; knowing that all things, all moments, all emotions, all circumstances, all lives are temporary.

I have a pregnant patient who found herself all alone when her labor began. She was in her car and stuck in traffic with no place to go. No phone, no one to hold her hand. She pulled off to a parking lot and began to panic. The next round of contractions took hold and she screamed. Some seed of wisdom popped up on her next inspiration and told her that panicking wouldn’t help. She fell silent, went deep and was blanketed with stillness. She moved herself to the passenger seat, propped her feet on the dashboard and waited for the next wave. There was a moment of silence and of breath. Then, like a tsunami, a power so deep in her gathered and rose and pushed her baby out with such force that she barely caught him. In one big wave, out came her healthy son, surprised and crying. My patient held him close and in the silence of her car, in the most intimate moment with her new son, she knew that all would be well.

Courage is a byproduct of wisdom; that deep, silent connection to the Great Mystery that calls us to listen, to become receptive and to wait. Wisdom is the steadfast knowing that in this present moment all is well. Fear projects into the darkness of the future with no light. Wisdom calls us to now and now and now.

So when the news projects the end of life as we know it, or our bodies call us into a new stage of being and our resources seem depleted, wisdom calls us to take a step back. We can become like a forest after a heavy snow. We can listen and we can wait for wisdom to grace us with hope and the deep knowing that all will be well. We can know with great certainty that we do have the resources to make it to spring and that, yes, spring will come.

CROSSINGS CORE PHILOSOPHY

To provide care and learning that is:

Holistic : We seek to be Whole

Things cannot be broken apart. Body, mind and spirit are intrinsically interconnected. Things can be treated or spoken of in isolation but they still have an effect elsewhere even though we may be unaware of how. Our role in the clinic and the classroom is to foster this interconnection of body, mind, spirit and the inseparability of human nature.

Relational: We seek to be awake to nature, to each other and to the world in which we live

We are all waves in the same ocean. What we put in the ocean matters. Disconnection is an illusion and the effects of separation reach us all. Our role in the clinic and the classroom is to foster an openness and interconnection to all of life and to each other.

Inclusive: We seek to be responsible instead of reactive; open to movement and perspectives

We live in the paradox of light and dark. Differences are inevitable and can be viewed as complementary or oppositional. Our role in the clinic and classroom is to foster open perspectives and communication, learning to appreciate the uniqueness of each other’s gifts.

Unpredictable: We seek to stay open to mystery

Life is not concluded; creation is not finished. There is always an element of potentiality, uncertainty. While we may strive for stability; too much is stifling and nature will always upend it. The truth is that we live on an immaterial foundation which is always moving. In the clinic and classroom our role is to foster a capacity to be in the unknowing with ourselves, our patients and students.

Sufficient: We seek to be sufficient in living

Nature provides unlimited gifts for living. There is enough for all of us if shared and distributed wisely. Our competition is to work together, not against each other.  Our role in the clinic and classroom is to foster sufficiency rather than scarcity; and to allow our living to be fully alive.

In Chinese medicine of 5,000 years ago and increasingly today in Western cardiovascular research there is a link between relationship health and heart health.  Simply stated, people fare better when they are in the experience of a loving relationship.  So if this is so then why can they be so hard to come by.  Why don’t we just live and stay in what we know is good for us?

While relationships can be the most joyful aspect of being alive; at other times they can be the most confusing and painful.  A favorite in the Crossings bookstore, “When the Past is Present”:  Healing the Emotional Wounds that Sabotage Our Relationships,” is an excellent book to help point the way through the illusions that cause us pain and distance when we relate. As the author David Ricchi points out, how we react or respond in relationship is often a replay of our past.  We all have a tendency to transfer potent feelings, needs, expectations, and beliefs from childhood or from former relationships onto the people in our daily lives, whether they are intimate partners, friends, or acquaintances.  When we do so we are no longer in relationship with the person in front of us but rather with our unfinished past.

“When the Past is Present” helps us to become more aware of heart openness as a deepening process of growth.  Through attention to our own reactions and cultivation of present awareness we allow ourselves to release projections and illusions that we place on one another until we come face to face with another human being.  This can be a painful process but as we endure with one another compatibility begins to happen in every sense of the word.

Another recommendation is “Passionate Marriage”.  Its main theme is that what keeps a relationship healthy and alive is the difficult task of individuating oneself within an intimate partnership.  Rave reviewers said:  “Opened my eyes significantly; changed the direction of my marriage.”

So place both books next to your novel at the beach and return home to see your relationships in a new light.  And your heart health too!

In the physical body we may find that symptoms surface in our contractile tissues, namely, the ligaments and tendons, with tautness or pain;  or our eyes with cloudy vision and watering; or the menstrual cycle with pain and cramping; or digestive functions with bloating, acid regurgitation, or flank pain.  These and many other physical disturbances can arise when our liver and gall bladder aren’t riding the winds so smoothly.

In the emotional body, the rising forces call us to express self esteem, creativity and often a new direction.  When these are blocked we may experience anger or frustration until we push our way through the outworn habits of our thinking mind to open new doors.

In our spirit, spring renews and brings hope, lifting us from a stance of “I can’t” to “I can”.  Set an intention and see where it goes.  Commitment is at the heart of this seasonal force, so grab the wind at your back and ride!

If you want to learn more about aspects of this seasonal energy see the following article written by a Crossings practitioner on Anger/Creativity and Fertility.

The past year has collectively challenged us with a period of greater adversity and fewer economic blessings.  Our financial world has lost a reliable stability; and consumption of the earth’s resources continues toward an uncertain outcome.  These same kinds of challenges appear in our clinic when a patient hears of a difficult diagnosis or is overwhelmed with a life-altering event.

In times of uncertainty, we can look to Nature and the cycle of seasons for guidance.  Winter, a time of consolidation and diminishing light, offers a moment to stop, take a step back from the internal shifting sands; become still and listen to the sounds in our own depths.  It is in the stillness that we begin to listen and in the listening, we hear our own wisdom.

Winter teaches that when everything looks dead and hopeless, barren of all possibility, there lies underneath the frozen snow, seeds and bulbs and pods and insects and larvae waiting.  They wait until their time.  They don’t force anything.  They don’t frantically flit about trying to avoid the waiting and the silence and the cold.  They rest and they wait.  In winter, life is about waiting rather than hopelessness.

Waiting can take courage. Courage is not about puffing up our chest and bashing through mindlessly. Courage in its highest form anchors us in faith; knowing that all things, all moments, all emotions, all circumstances, all lives are temporary.

I have a pregnant patient who found herself all alone when her labor began.  She was in her car and stuck in traffic with no place to go.  No phone, no one to hold her hand.  She pulled off to a parking lot and began to panic.  The next round of contractions took hold and she screamed. Some seed of wisdom popped up on her next inspiration and told her that panicking wouldn’t help. She fell silent, went deep and was blanketed with stillness.  She moved herself to the passenger seat, propped her feet on the dashboard and waited for the next wave. There was a moment of silence and of breath.  Then, like a tsunami, a power so deep in her gathered and rose and pushed her baby out with such force that she barely caught him. In one big wave, out came her healthy son, surprised and crying.  My patient held him close and in the silence of her car, in the most intimate moment with her new son, she knew that all would be well.

Courage is a byproduct of wisdom; that deep, silent connection to the Great Mystery that calls us to listen, to become receptive and to wait.  Wisdom is the steadfast knowing that in this present moment all is well.  Fear projects into the darkness of the future with no light.  Wisdom calls us to now and now and now.

So when the news projects the end of life as we know it or our bodies call us into a new stage of being, and our resources seem depleted, wisdom calls us to take a step back. We can become like a forest after a heavy snow.  We can listen and we can wait for wisdom to grace us with hope and the deep knowing that all will be well.  We can know with great certainty that we do have the resources to make it to spring and that, yes, spring will come.

Marie E. Connor, M.Ac., L.Ac

Warm up for winter while protecting your immune system

Miso soup with scallions is one of the oldest recipes for cold symptoms.  Simply boil 2 cups of water and add one tablespoon of red soybean paste and throw in a few scallions. You’ll have yourself a delicious and nutritious warming soup that will boost your system and even ease your cold symptoms.

Ginger Tea and Ginger baths are easy ways to warm up deeply, especially when it feels as if your bones are cold.  Keep a pot of boiling water with fresh ginger slices going on the stove.  Drink a cup of tea with a little honey and pour the rest in a bath of the hottest water you can stand.  The ginger helps the heat penetrate deeply.  (Caution: not recommended for those with high blood pressure)

Take salads out of your diet and switch to steamed vegetables.  Salads and raw vegetables cool our systems.  Winter is a time of year to keep warm. Soups, stews and steamed vegetables will keep our thermostats working smoothly.

Later that night, sitting on my front porch I can hear the cricket’s rhythmic call. The soft rain nourishes the last push of the Earth to bear fruit. The harvest is reaching its fullest. In noticing the ripening of the fruit I am grateful for the health of my family and the love of my friends.

The ancient Chinese teach us that health is found by living in alignment with the growth and decline that manifests in the seasonal cycle. Late Summer is a time to receive nourishment, harvest and give thanks for the diverse gifts we have experienced in our year and in our lives. It is a time to begin our slowing down, and certainly to savor the richness of life itself.

You are part of Crossings harvest and have helped to build this circle in the Silver Spring community. The friendships and growth we’ve witnessed in building a foundation of alternative healing in Silver Spring, along with the depth and seasoning of our practitioners, is something we honor, are humbled by, and pledge continued good stewardship.

Integrative medicine is one of the fastest and most sought after areas of growth in the health-care industry today. In increasing numbers, people seek to balance and nourish their health in ways that serve the whole of them. At Crossings, we have cultivated a center that is steeped in the ancient healing traditions, and are blessed to serve the broader Silver Spring community with therapeutic sessions, educational offerings, and a community clinic.

We are proud to offer and present our new website. Browse and find out how Crossings can serve you and the ones you love.

• Get your seasonal acupuncture treatment. Being in balance is one of the best and simplest preventive options available. It is the foundation of any approach you may consider.
• Continue treatment therapies you regularly use to support your well-being: osteopathy, physical therapy, massage. These can play a vital role in boosting your immune system.
• If you decide you need more support, consider Chinese herbal medicine immune boosters; and should you acquire some form of the flu, Chinese herbal medicine acute formulas for symptom relief.
• Homeopathy has a long tradition in treating flu prevention as well as a discussion of the theoretical impact of flu vaccines on the body that you might consider.
• Vaccines made available by CDC are widely available from allopathic physicians and community health clinics and should be considered if you feel that your immune system is particularly vulnerable. (for more information visit www.flu.gov)

Especially during this season, practice common sense remedies that support your health. From the wisdom of Chinese medicine:
• Drink plenty of water
• Be temperate in eating
• Choose extra sleep
• Exercise regularly
• Keep the back of your neck covered when outdoors
• Last but not least, have two good laughs a day to circulate your spirit

From the wisdom of Western medicine:
• Wash hands regularly with soap and warm water
• Cover nose and mouth with tissue when cough or sneeze
• Avoid touching eyes, nose or mouth
• Avoid close contact with someone you know is sick with the flu

If you are unsure of your choice and want more information, have a conversation with your practitioner. Our staff medical doctor is also happy to discuss with you personally the best options for your needs.

With Blessings for a Season of Health and Vitality

The need to transform the way we deliver health care is urgent. Quality is slipping away and costs are overwhelming us. A study released by the Milken Institute in early October 2007 concluded that re-orienting our health system toward preventing rather than treating disease could stave off 40 million cases of cancer, heart disease, and other chronic illnesses during the next fifteen years. (US News and World Report, Nov 5, 2007). To meet the mounting economic challenges our country faces in health care, we are all going to have to take greater responsibility and better care of ourselves and each other.

So “what if” prevention and self care make up the medicine cabinet of our future? What if we focus more on well care and less on disease care?

First, we could learn to pay closer attention to our body/mind and respond earlier with more common sense cost-effective remedies. Imagine your body as a guide encoded with messages you’ve never learned to decipher. For instance, the ancient wisdom of Chinese Medicine teaches that if you are consistently tired or ill at ease every day from 11am-1pm your heart is sending a signal of distress; or if you are waking every night from 1-3am your liver is overworking. Or, if you struggle from chronic back pain, more water and sleep may help you cope. Imagine that you could learn these cues and make use of a simple holistic first-aid kit.

Second, we could learn about the effect of the seasonal cycle on our health and discover that living in sync is one of the best forms of preventive medicine we have. Maximum sleep in winter and sunlight in summer may be the best medicine for our aging bones. (Western science confirms that waking up in the dark morning of winter is harder than in the light of late Spring, and that the sun on our skin feeds our bones with Vitamin D.)

Finally, we could learn to be present to each other in ways that promote healing. Imagine that you can learn to be less reactive to everyday stress just by sitting still and breathing; or soothe a child and loved one with a hand that has learned how to touch.
Imagine that your words can be medicine too. When you say “I love you” a heart is strengthened. When you ask, “How can I help?” a stomach is soothed. When you learn the art of communication, health is strengthened.

The healing arts are the original green medicine—hands, hearts, insight, wisdom. In this new dawn of health care, what if the best of us is yet to come?