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Chinglish Chick and I had a zen weekend involving fasting, acupuncture and getting our Chi moving. Dr Dow, a veritable Chinese medicine doctor from Beijing, visits CC's mum's best friend for Buddhist purification rituals twice yearly. He treats practioners and from 7am to 7pm daily on four makeshift acupuncture tables ie the kitchen table covered with holly hobbit bedsheets and a pillow etc. For the fully initiated, the cleansing ceremony consists of five days of acupuncture along with a five-day fast involving drinking only hot water with honey and one red date per day. As novitiates, CC and I didn't quite make it that far.
For the curious here is the weekend in a nutshell:
One bowl of fishball soup from the local noodle joint for Nahawna
One mocha ice cream from JP Licks for Chinglish Chick (it tasted like soya sauce so technically it's still in keeping with the Zen weekend theme)
Two days of acupuncture where the only thing that was flowing faster than our Chi was the cash leaving our pocketbooks into the adept hands of Dr Dow.
Three diagnoses of blocked Chi between the two of us: A weak left side for Chinglish Chick and liver heat and lower back dampness for me.Five translations required for a conversation between me and the acupuncture practitioner: Mandarin -> Cantonese -> English -> Cantonese -> Mandarin. Needless to say our exchanges were brief.Eight a lucky number in China. Also the number of days of relentless rain in Boston and the temperature outside.
Thirteen hours of fasting. That's right we didn't last a full day. In fact we only made it down the steps and around the corner from our last treatment before scoffing down a mini hazelnut tart each.
Last year was a tough year and I'm not sure what to make of it. Many times over the course of the year, in an attempt to boost my spirits, people have fished out the old adage "What ever doesn't kill you will make you stronger." I don't believe it for a minute. I think this year has killed a large part of my spirit and I don't feel any stronger for it. The only thing that I'm certain of is that next year has to be better because it can't possibly be any worse.
In spite of all the nastiness that has plagued me, I have much to be thankful for especially my friends who were angels. I'm also excessively thankful that this will be my last year of school. I always try to be upbeat about still being in school because the end was nowhere in site, but frankly I hate it and have felt that way for a long time. This last year, all family issues aside, personified everything detestable about formal education without even giving a glimmer of the good side of school. Now that I'm almost finished, I don't feel bad saying it out loud. In fact it feels quite good. Anyway here are my lists of the good and bad of the last year and year to come.
Some horrible things about last year . . .1. Loss2. Family politics3. Still being a studentSome fabulous things about the past year . . .1. A new addition to the family2. Fabulous, supportive, beautiful friendsThings to look forward to next year . . .1. Finishing school forever2. Moving back to Canadia3. Being able to choose how I spend my time (well only somewhat, but I'll take it)
Okay, so possibly my favourite radio station, CBC Radio 1, is having one of their regular summer competitions. This one is fabulous: selecting the seven wonders of Canada. http://www.cbc.ca/sevenwonders/Top on my list is the Sleeping Giant, a peninsula that looks like a man lying down in Thunder Bay on Lake Superior. My bias is obvious but it has a good story too. Ojibwe legend has it that Nana Bijou (of no relation to me) lay down in Thunder Bay (the bay on Lake Superior after which the city was named) to protect the silver mines from being cleaned out by the Europeans (in its prime, Silver Islet, was the leading producer of silver.)
Here are my picks for the remaining six wonders, in no particular order:The Bay of FundyThe IglooInukshuksHaida Gwali, Queen Charlotte IslandsOld Quebec CitySinging Sands Beach, PEI
