Saturday, January 27, 2007

baths and dogs

I went to work today (9-5) and at 4 pm my friends Gosia, Patrycja, Ania Porazka and Kasia came to have dinner and after I finished work we all went to walk around Soho area a little (we found a really cool store with Asian art - many beautiful works of folk art) and then up Broadway. It was a very nice day and nice evening. To finish the day in a relaxing way I prepared a bath with sea salts when I got home. Last week I floaded the neighbors downstairs when I did it - the water pipe under my bathtub broke. It was one of these funny situations when the neighbor rang the bell, I was silent for a moment sending repelent energy to whoever was behind the door to leave me in peace, but the door-bell got so intense that I had to open, dripping wet (like a mermaid or, perhaps, a Venus coming out of the sea-foam...) opened the door and examined the cause of the leak with the neighbor... It was reapired during the weak and I could take a bath again. While lying in the water, aromatic candle flickering, soft music playing in the background, I was thinking about how I enjoy being alone in this apartment... I love the company of people, meeting with them and spending time with them, however, I really enjoy this space of my own where I can separate myself from the rest of the world for some time and be reduced to just... breathing... space... But after that thought another came and it was a thought of my dogs when they were with me here. And I decided that if I miss any being in my apartment it is the dogs. A thought came to my mind how when I was lying in the bathtub when they were here, my elbow (Mr. Olecranon to be precise) protruding from the bathtub, once in a while one of the dogs would come and check on me, lick my elbow and go away, to a different room. Or how when I woke up sick they would not wake me up, the usual ritual of tails wagging and ready to go out, but instead walked on tiptoe and waited until I dragged myself out of the bed to go out for a short pee-walk instead of the regular walk. And then Eureka! I realized why my relationship with the dogs is so special. And why of all the things, activities and whatever you can find in this world my favorite activity always was a walk with the dogs. Here is why. When I take my dogs for a walk in the forest, lets say the forest behind my parent's house in Poland since that was what I did during the summer, the dogs run around on their own, they meet their doggie friends, look for interesting smells. They have their own things to do: looking for trees to pee on, finding new trails, observing insects, squirrels and birds, etc., etc. I have my own things to do: admiring nature, thinking (or not thinking, depending on the mood), talking to people we meet along the way, etc., etc. We do our own things but we never loose sight of each other - if we do, dogs come and check what I do or I call them to see if all is fine. Sometimes we play together, sometimes we are in our own worlds, but in any case we remain close. This I would call the true friendship or a basis of a true relationship. In this friendship there's never the sense of urgency or "neediness" to be with the other being. And also: silly things happen sometimes but grudges are never held for a long time, or jeleousy, or any negative feelings. The relationship I had with all my dogs, and the dogs I met and got friendly with (like the dogs in Goa, for example) were of this type. Dogs are just very smart and they possess what many humans have lost - the playfulness needed in life to make the heart light and free of lingering bed feelings - the true sense of living in the present. And they also have the sense of independence, the good type of independence which is not the selfish type of independence. If dogs are not of this playfull type it's usually because their owners affected them in such way that they lost this primal instinct of living in the present... How do you like this theory? It comes from my observation of people and dogs. And I don't know if I mentioned it before but of all the smells in the world I most like the smell of a dog's paw. It's not something one would use as fragrance for perfumes and such but when I smell my dogs paws they always smell of adventure, of all the places my dogs have been to, the grass they ran on, the moss, the acorns, the moist earth, mushrooms, rain, puddles, sand, etc., etc. If you've never smelled a dog's paw try it one day and see for yourself how amazingly different it is from anything you have ever smelled. Which brings me to the book "Perfume," which I very much liked, even though it is a dark book. Good night.

Saturday, January 20, 2007

Swedish Institute, College of Health Sciences

That is the new school I am attending now. I am so glad I transferred here. I love it already. It is a place good for me. All my teachers are incredible: the type which I like the most i.e. firm but humane; direct, concrete and serious, but witty and having great sense of humor at the same time. No wishy-washy ways as in the old school. It seems that there's also lots more studying from day one. Tests are every week. Anatomy seems better here and geared toward acupuncture practice more, which is very good. I feel that what I learn here is practical knowledge but at the same time everyone pays attention to the Shen or the spirit, understanding that all, health and disease, good and bad, comes from it... It goes along with what I believe so it all makes sense to me. The students are also more mature here than in the old school. We are a group of 12 people (six girls and six boys) and it is a very interesting group with various backgrounds. We dived right into the Chinese theory of acupuncture and we already have point location class so we basically lie down on tables and learn how to locate points on each other's bodies (we use colorful stickers to mark them). When the program is over we'll know almost 400 points on our bodies so our own mothers will know less about our bodies than our classmates. Now we locate points on upper and lower extremities but we'll get to the bare bottoms or basically bare bodies next semester when we get to the points on the trunk. Sounds like fun? Shame is not something one would worry about in a medical school I guess... I also attended the first weekend class of the Chinese herbs with the famous professor and it was incredible. We are fully clothed there and will be just uncovering the bare facts about almost 400 herbs, their properties, how to mix them into formulas, when to gather them, witch parts to use for what ailment, how to store, how to cook, etc. Lots of information to memorize... but the profesor makes it interesting and fun and we treat plants as beings so it is like meeting people and getting friends with them. It's like the anatomy class where all the bones and muscles, and tendons and ligaments, and blood vessles and nerves (why did God have to create man in such a complicated way?!) are friends and we get their names, and say hallo to them (Hallo Latissimus Dorsi, how are you today? All is well Brachioradialis?). That makes learning fun. The administration works much better in the new school as well. I have a feeling that the people who work for the school are really concerned with passing on the knowledge to us and want to take the administrative stuff out of our shoulders so that we can concentrate on studying. I'll be happy here.

The end of the year was fun. My friend Alejandro from Mexico came to visit with his friend Hector and together with other friends we went to Mexico Lindo restaurant, where one of my friends works, to celebrate the New Year's Eve. It was very nice. I spent a day walking with Alejandro and Hector around the city and it made me feel like a tourist and that was nice also. We went to the Metropolitan Museum, to Central Park and along 5th Avenue. Now the vacation is over and it's mostly school and work again. I arranged the schedule at PQ nicely so that I can work there in the morning and the classes are in the evening 6-10 pm. For a period of time I was entertaining the idea of working for a publishing house but I let go of this idea. For the time being I am happy at PQ since I like the staff a lot and some of the regular customers. And, the thing is - I don't know if I would want to be chained to a desk again... I think tis the time in my life to be in motion, except for the time I have to sit firmy on my Gluteus Maximus when I study Mrs muscles and such, and the points. But the studying for Qi Gong is also about movement and I love this class a lot and the practice I do for it at home. I will proscribe the Qi Gong exercises for my patients when the time comes.

Many hugs to all my friends reading the blog. There are, as usually, many things I want to write about, philosophical and medical, but I have so little time... I will write when I find some...