Summer Solstice 2024
An excerpt from my newsletter… Sign up if you want occasional good medicine email qi <3
Hello, Friend
Nigh is the time for your seasonal dose of good medicine and glad tidings. But before we get to anything “good” and “glad,” I think it’s worth acknowledging that Spring 2024 was brutal for a lot of people.
My time in the clinic offers me a unique lens to observe the currents trends of suffering that are going on in my community and in the world at large. Not only do I learn about what is going on in the lives of my patients, I learn about what is happening to their loved ones, I learn about how what is happening in the world is affecting them and their family.
When I wrote about 2024 as the year of the “wood baby dragon” and its promise to deliver us Nature’s Will in chaotic and playful ways, I did not imagine the sheer level of loss and hardship that would occur. I guess when I contemplated “new beginnings,” I did not fully fathom the amount of starting over that would have to happen.
GROWING PAINS
It is easy to imagine that, when growing plants, our budding flowers need occasional trimming to ensure they bloom stronger and more fruitful. What is harder to imagine is just how painful each of those “trimmings” can be — each one represents a dream, hope, or good intention. Just because trimming buds is good for the plant, and even if the plant understands why it’s happening, it doesn’t mean the process isn’t painful.
DIVINE NATURE OF PERFECT HARMONY
“The calm power derived from my daily practice can transform what seems to be a disaster into a blessing. Learn this and I will be qualified to sit in the seat of the Lotus, looking deep within myself.” — Ni Family Taoist Invocation
Perhaps it is less important to understand WHY something happened and more important to consider HOW WE SHOULD RESPOND.
Luckily for us, Nature shows us the way. After Spring comes Summer — A TIME FOR JOY AND LAUGHTER… these are glad tidings, indeed.
I’m excited to share with you a few simple ways to reflect and tap into the natural medicine of summer. A fire (summer) RELEASES the energy of wood (spring). May all our flames burn our worries, transforming them into a dancing flicker of light and warmth. After all — “It’s summertime, and the livins easy… You gonna rise up singin.' Yes, you'll spread your wings and you'll take to the sky. Mm, but 'til that morning, there is nothin' can harm you.”
— with qi, Drew 🌻☯️🔥
