Seeing the Forest for the Trees

Fresh Horseradish for the seder plate. It will 

give your sinuses a spring cleaning!

It's definitely springtime. This weekend many people were celebrating two festivals with themes of rebirth and renewal, Passover and Easter. There's real warmth in the sun now, and despite some snow squalls on the East coast, spring is coming without a doubt.

In the Chinese Five Elements system, spring is connected with the element Wood. Wood is connected to movement, growth, vigor, development and assertion of the self. It is like the healthy young sapling, bursting through the earth to reach up for the sky and spread its leaves in the sun. In the body, it is the element of the Liver organ system. The Liver is called "The General who is in charge of Advancing and Retreating." Personally I think of it as The Gambler. To be a healthy and well-balanced person, you gotta know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em. When to walk away, and when to run.

With self-development and health, marshalling the strength and power of our Wood-energy, our General, is vital. We must zealously defend our health, and assert our right to practices and conditions that optimize our physical, mental and spiritual health. But the wise General does not pursue a course of action no matter what. If a strategy is not working, the General reevaluates, gets new information, makes different plans. Sometimes a charge is called for, sometimes diplomacy. (I will restrain myself from making this an overly political entry.) Don't get caught in a trap of rigid thinking with regard to your health. Something that made you feel good last year, or last decade, may not be working now. Allow yourself the flexibility of fresh green wood.

In the Passover Seder, there is a section that reads, "Even if all of us were scholars, all of us sages, all of us elders, all of us learned in Torah, we would still be required to tell the story of the Exodus from Egypt." This year as I sat at the Seder table, I heard "Even if all of us were health gurus, meditating an hour every day, eating all organic seasonal produce, and never missing an exercise session or acupuncture appointment, we would still be on a journey of growth in health, in development." The message in the Passover Seder is that, of course, we are NOT all scholars, perfectly learned, just as we are not yoga masters in perfect radiant health. And even if we were, we would still not have arrived. The Wood energy never stops growing, developing, pushing forward. Spring comes every year.

With blessings for a Season of rebirth and renewal,
Kirsten

Coming next time: The Health Toolbox: Making time for health when you have time for nothing.