Hello, my friend!
As I finished up with my clients on Friday, somebody told me that we were getting 43 inches of snow, high winds, and cold enough to explode trees. While so many people rushed to the grocery store for essentials like salted caramel ice cream, I began to think about how we prepare for uncertainty and what these situations say about us.
👇 In today's email:
- This week's inspiration: The Small Kindnesses That Saved My Week
- Latest blog post: The Benefits of Chinese Herbal Medicine for Women's Wellness
- What I'm listening to: "Thank You" by Abao and Yo-Yo Ma
The Small Kindnesses That Saved My Week
I've Got to Say, It's Been a Week
If you're a thoughtful, feeling person aware of what's happening in the world—with probably a handful of your own problems—life at the moment is a challenge, to say the least.
However, there were many little gifts this week that were such a balm. A little bit like glistening dew seeping into earth, but in this case, kindness and conversations seeped into the perforations of my heart. Although small, cumulatively they were like little sparkles reflecting on water.
This morning, while ice-skating on a neighbor's pond (actually, I was more pushing a Swedish sled with one of my vibrant 78-year-old neighbors as she exclaimed "Mush, mush!"), we were covered in the lightest little bits of snow. She regaled me with a story from the previous evening when she invited her girlfriend over for champagne to welcome the storm.
Other clients this weekend are having IVF transfers, hanging out enjoying the quiet of the storm with battery-operated socks to stay nice and cozy, warm blankets, with a host of non-scary Netflix shows. In my preparation, I joyously baked bread and went to the Redwood Library, the nation's oldest private library, and selected 7-8 books – discovering that one of the books was first checked out in 1924!
The Moments That Held Me
My friend dropped off a large format photograph he took in the Cook Islands of a mother whale with her tail fin gliding gently over the back of her adolescent as if for protection.
Another beautiful moment was a conversation with my friend John Steele, one of the most knowledgeable people in the United States about aromatherapy. During my drive home underneath the stars, I asked him what essential oils were needed for our time—to soothe our hearts and souls. He told me about Angelica seed oil for its help with PTSD. He also mentioned vetiver co-distilled with Golden Champa—the vetiver descends the qi out of the head and, coincidentally, into the genitals, while the Golden Champa opens the crown chakra to let light come through.
He also told me of a wildcrafted co-distilled blend of a desert flower called stapelia, carefully clipped from where it naturally emerged in the desert, conscientiously not taking too much. He said it was co-distilled with some kind of pine from the southwest to make an essential oil that smelled of the desert. I couldn't help but wonder how this would soothe my clients in such the opposite climate—here in Newport, we're at sea level, it's winter, it's damp, it's cold. Perhaps the smells of the desert would be exactly what we need.
Other kindnesses came in the form of bumping into my favorite librarian, who in her plummy British accent asked me to go have tea and discuss poetry—which, of course, I would love to do. Another friend drove sixty miles out of her way for hot ramen on the coldest of nights.
These are some of the things that soothed me this week.
All these sweet things that happened have to do with the connection of heart: what is good, what is pure, what is honest, what is kind. In a world that is not showing that to be the path forward, we know it is the only path forward. It is our true humanity—it is what sustains us, it is what defines us, what makes things good, even in the most troubled week.
The Benefits of Chinese Herbal Medicine for Women's Wellness
In 2002, I began graduate school in Chinese medicine. While, of course, I was going to become an acupuncturist, I also got my degree in Chinese herbal medicine.
Truth be told, I don't know how I would have survived all of these years without the help of a little bit of chemistry—in this case, herbal medicine. It has been the thing that has kept me
on track, calm, sleeping and making my night sweats disappear.
But it's also been a gift to my family for my son who had issues with asthma when he was young. And other children who've needed hormonal balancing along the way. Also, over almost 20 years, hundreds and hundreds of my patients have enjoyed Chinese herbal medicine to help steady their boat and make their life feel more comfortable both physically and emotionally.
I'm happy to say that I'm launching a line of Chinese medicine under my name that should be coming in the months to come. I'm excited to share that with you, more to come as everything progresses.
"Thank You" by Abao and Yo-Yo Ma
This song, "Thank You," I've been going back to again and again over these recent months. But this week I truly appreciated it, helping me, on the deepest level, align with all the gifts and things that are okay.
It features an indigenous Taiwanese artist named Aljenljeng Tjaluvie, known professionally as Abao. She sings in the Paiwan language along with Yo-Yo Ma on his album called Notes for the Future. Notes for the Future brings together artists from five continents to explore our fears and hopes, reminding us that the future is ours to shape, together.
May you find your own small kindnesses this week.
Dr. Cat