Dear all,
I've missed you! I'm hoping/planning to return to the clinic on Monday August 18- sort of a "soft reopening" with slightly limited hours to start. I'm not quite ready to offer massage or combo sessions again yet, so stay tuned for that development, but do please let me know if you'd like to get on my calendar for acupuncture. I'd love to see you!
And thank you, thank you, thank you!!!- for the amazing outpouring of support and love and good healing wishes and blessings and envisioning and care and kind words... wow! I feel so incredibly lucky and honored. It truly makes such a difference in my own healing journey, and gives me a renewed and transformed understanding of how instrumental and important these gifts and presence are for healing in general.
In addition to all of this wonderful support and love and nourishment and presence from community, dear friends, and family, I've been so grateful for my beautiful backyard trees (see below) and the lovely garden my husband has created- though I've missed my nature walks, I'm so thankful that I have a little nature right here to sustain and delight me.
And I also want to share a couple of other thoughts I've had these past couple of weeks.
My orthopedic surgeon said to me at our first meeting, "I always tell people, this is not your fault." Goodness. I hadn't even considered that I was thinking in these terms, but once he said it I realized how important it was to hear that. The following week, after surgery, as I was sitting in the backyard and practicing opening to receive the glorious healing qi everpresent in life, I realized that some feeling of guilt (and probably worry, too) was getting in the way of that flow. I had to remind myself, we are all inherently deserving, and not only that, already connected to this gorgeous resource, once we can release those obstacles. I share these thoughts with you in case you too might be harboring any sort of subconsious feeling of guilt or responsibility or undeservingness that might be getting in your way. And also knowing that this resource is unlimited- we can receive health and healing for ourselves while still sending it as best we can to all the people and places who may need it even more. (There is so very much heartbreak and devastation... and also there is love and care and hopes and actions for peace and justice and healing...)
Relatedly- I've been endeavoring to learn and practice rest in a different way. Both exploring what it feels like to really deeply rest and relax while awake (it feels really good, when I can get there), and also (paradoxically?) letting go of the idea of "productive" rest, finding freedom in whatever kind of rest feels good to me. I've also been drawn to Tricia Hersey's work from The Nap Ministry, who talks about rest as a healing and liberatory spiritual practice. And caught a moment of the documentary The Hidden Life of Trees (it's also a book) when he was talking about how the trees that live the longest grow really really slowly. I'm trying to remember that as part of me wants to rush through this process.
Next, I feel called to share a bit about Helichrysum (helichrysum means “golden sun” in Latin), also known as Straw Flower, Immortelle, and Everlasting. It's growing in our home garden right now, and I was also recently given a beautiful bouquet by my dear friend Denise Arline. Helichrysum (seen above; usually the essential oil or hydrosol is used- externally, but some cultures do use the golden flower for tea) brings the energy of transformation and regeneration. It tells us, "you are already healed; you are already whole." It is known for healing trauma (both emotional and physical, as it also helps to heal wounds, repairs the skin, and alleviates pain), harmonizing the emotions, opening the heart, and bringing comfort, peace, courage, strength, and calm. Some traditions also use it to restore the liver and benefit the lymphatic and respiratory systems.
Stillpoint Aromatics has this to say about Helichrysum:
Helichrysum holds memory—not just cellular, but soul memory. Born from rocky, battered ground. This is the flower that refuses to die. Her scent is strange, alive, unforgettable—like memory itself. She teaches how to hold pain and light in the same breath. Energetic signature: Healing emotional scar tissue. Resurrection through soft resilience.
Last but not least, we are in Earth Time on the seasonal calendar. It really is a time for grounding, returning to center, slowing down. For celebrating summer harvests, gratitude, savoring sweetness, being thankful for all of our gifts. For caring for ourselves, as well as others. It can be a time of both creativity and receiving. For acknowledging the reciprocal nature of our relationship with Earth. For remembering we are part of Earth, there is no separation, we are Earthlings.
Okay, I think that's it for me for now.
Much love and healing blessings to you,
Shoshana
