This is one of the many reasons I love you. I am tired of the politeness. We came here to have a full human experience not a robotic Stepford Wives, overly contained, sub-human existence. I feel your rage it meets mine head-on.
Love your take on this!!! When I first came to acupuncture, I memorized the five element correspondences like a good monkey, but the longer I study it, the more spectacularly complex and elegant the system becomes. I respect the medicine more and more the longer I’m in it, and some days I can’t believe the level of wisdom and nuance. Thank you for adding another layer.
Offering this in hopes it will also contribute. When I teach five element, I talk about frustration being the driving force for change. (If our parents didn’t drive us crazy, we would all live in their basements. But when it gets bad enough, we change and move out.) Wood is about envisioning what might be (as the Winter seed) and then pushing the shit/dirt/fertilization of our Yin time of Winter stasis out of the way to get there. As you say, that takes rage. If we can’t transform frustration into action, into rage—if every time we turn around the door just keeps getting slammed in our face—we feel hopeless and become depressed.
LOVE THIS: "Take all that rage, dump it into your Heart, and then send it up the spine like the brawny mast of a sail, navigating in the dead of night, against the wind and odds, in fucking rough water. Go."
This one cuts through me. I just had a baby and watching his first head-lifts out into the world is crazy to watch. Taking that in, plus the world, and Spring’s blossoms…
I have such an immense connection with this shared perspective. Combustion as a means of fueling us forward. We cannot utilize our energy for change if we’re constantly dumping water on the potential of a combustion reaction and convincing ourselves and others that complacency and patience are always best practice . That being said, I do believe that our combustion-reaction, generated energy is best utilized with intention and a direction in mind. Let us point our rage-explosion in the direction of the winds of change and set fire to all that no longer serves true humanity.
Thank you for this beautiful collection of words and acu-points.
This is so fucking on point! Thank you for this take on healthy rage!! I am tired of having my outrage at the many varied injustices of life - especially as they ramp up to levels rarely seen before - seen as pathology or inappropriate! Rage on people!!!
This is amazing. I remember a teacher I studied with after acupuncture school explained that the emotion of Spring was "uprush" - the tree's desire to grow. I always equated it with cartoons, when the character is going nuts and the top of their head blows up into the sky. That's certainly how I've been feeling with all that's going on. Being a parent to a trans 18 year old definitely makes me feel UPRUSHY in these times.
This is one of the best things I've read in a long time, and it's giving me new hope and fire, and contributing to how I live out my purpose. THANK YOU.
As a therapist I agree with everything you say about rage— patients are sometimes surprised when I allow and encourage them to be angry about something. Anger is powerful, cathartic and motivating. It’s absolutely necessary to acknowledge this when healing, instead of numbing, quelling and compartmentalizing uncomfortable emotions. Thank you so much for this.
This is one of the many reasons I love you. I am tired of the politeness. We came here to have a full human experience not a robotic Stepford Wives, overly contained, sub-human existence. I feel your rage it meets mine head-on.
YES Fuck Yeah! Thank you Russel!
Love your take on this!!! When I first came to acupuncture, I memorized the five element correspondences like a good monkey, but the longer I study it, the more spectacularly complex and elegant the system becomes. I respect the medicine more and more the longer I’m in it, and some days I can’t believe the level of wisdom and nuance. Thank you for adding another layer.
Offering this in hopes it will also contribute. When I teach five element, I talk about frustration being the driving force for change. (If our parents didn’t drive us crazy, we would all live in their basements. But when it gets bad enough, we change and move out.) Wood is about envisioning what might be (as the Winter seed) and then pushing the shit/dirt/fertilization of our Yin time of Winter stasis out of the way to get there. As you say, that takes rage. If we can’t transform frustration into action, into rage—if every time we turn around the door just keeps getting slammed in our face—we feel hopeless and become depressed.
LOVE THIS: "Take all that rage, dump it into your Heart, and then send it up the spine like the brawny mast of a sail, navigating in the dead of night, against the wind and odds, in fucking rough water. Go."
This one cuts through me. I just had a baby and watching his first head-lifts out into the world is crazy to watch. Taking that in, plus the world, and Spring’s blossoms…
The seed cracking open, tearing itself apart, and pushing itself through freeze to grasp the Sun is rage. All bloom is defiance. - YES YES YES
I have such an immense connection with this shared perspective. Combustion as a means of fueling us forward. We cannot utilize our energy for change if we’re constantly dumping water on the potential of a combustion reaction and convincing ourselves and others that complacency and patience are always best practice . That being said, I do believe that our combustion-reaction, generated energy is best utilized with intention and a direction in mind. Let us point our rage-explosion in the direction of the winds of change and set fire to all that no longer serves true humanity.
Thank you for this beautiful collection of words and acu-points.
This is so fucking on point! Thank you for this take on healthy rage!! I am tired of having my outrage at the many varied injustices of life - especially as they ramp up to levels rarely seen before - seen as pathology or inappropriate! Rage on people!!!
This is amazing. I remember a teacher I studied with after acupuncture school explained that the emotion of Spring was "uprush" - the tree's desire to grow. I always equated it with cartoons, when the character is going nuts and the top of their head blows up into the sky. That's certainly how I've been feeling with all that's going on. Being a parent to a trans 18 year old definitely makes me feel UPRUSHY in these times.
This is one of the best things I've read in a long time, and it's giving me new hope and fire, and contributing to how I live out my purpose. THANK YOU.
As a therapist I agree with everything you say about rage— patients are sometimes surprised when I allow and encourage them to be angry about something. Anger is powerful, cathartic and motivating. It’s absolutely necessary to acknowledge this when healing, instead of numbing, quelling and compartmentalizing uncomfortable emotions. Thank you so much for this.
Thank you to Yvonne Farrell for posting your column on her page, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this writing. 100% spot on.
Oh hell yeah
Yes! Let’s go!