river Jordan's blog

Dear CAN friends,

I have been in Dharamsala, aka "Little Tibet", in the foothills of the Himalayan Mountains of Northern India for the past 6 days. 

I'm taking a vacation with my family. We're going to India for a month - and not a moment too soon with a blast of Arctic air and Seattle's famous liquid sunshine pelting the windows as I type. It's been a long time since I've taken a month off, and I've never taken that length of time without suspending all income streams for the duration.

Yesterday, I noticed it starting to wiggle. The foot rest lever on everybody's favorite Cadillac recliner was acting funny, describing strange arcs as I attempted to maneuver people's feet up and down.

This past weekend I was in Portland, attending Acupuncturists Without Borders "Healing Community Trauma" training. Since its founding by Diana Fried in September of 2005, following Hurricane Katrina, AWB has evolved into one of the leading acupuncture professional groups with a social conscience. 

At 7pm tonight I was pretty pooped. Between 830am and 7pm, I had treated about 38 patients. Another acupunk friend had treated another 8 during one busy stretch in the morning. At one point, seven patients walked through the door simultaneously. Three of them had walkers.

I didn't watch the presidential debate tonight. Instead, I was at a local Tent City (organized homeless encampment), joining with other Tzu Chi volunteers to serve dinner and offer friendship to Tent City residents.

"Habla Espanol/Do you speak Spanish"...I've been getting that question a lot lately.

 "Un poquito/A little bit"...my answer.

 A few days ago...someone called on the phone and started to talk in Spanish...somehow I convinced him to come in, that acupuncture would probably be helpful. Once he was here, I walked down the hall and grabbed Enrique in the Administration office of the Latino Community Center to translate some of the gentleman's concerns to me. But obviously, this method is unreliable. Getting some language software is on my list of things to do...they say just practicing 30 minutes a day over time builds fluency. I have used Rosetta Stone in the past and that is good.

Does anyone hear remember being in high school and wanting desperately to be accepted, if not by adults and teachers, at least by one's peers. It's difficult to shake ourselves free of mental cobwebs of the past, but essential if we wish to move through the world without living inside the cramped box of old programming.

I don't usually cross paths with acupuncturists that I went to school with. Yesterday and today I bumped into two - neither of whom I knew particularly well, but since we share a common path - acupuncture/holistic medicine - I quite naturally reached out to my fellow professionals in a friendly effort to acknowledge our common community.

Like at least one other CAN member, we are experiencing a bit of a slow down here at CommuniChi also. April we had 378 appointments - an all time high for us in 15 months of being open. May we were down to 300. This month, we are on pace for 250 to 300.

It would be easy to follow the conditioned mind that can only accept life when it is following "MY plan", but as someone mentioned, running on the hampster wheel, trying to figure out "what's wrong" is a pretty cramped headspace to be in. I prefer to simply show up to life and keep looking at what is right and putting all my energy there.

Hospital closures are no longer limited to New Orleans:

New York Times story. 

This story reminds me of my trip to an emergency room at UCLA Hospital in 1989. An elderly wanderer friend without health insurance was in need of urgent care. It was a 12 hour wait before he was finally seen. 

Dental hygienists in Alaska helping people, saving taxpayer dollars, and the ADA frowns.....calling it a public health issue while dentists in the public sector say it's nothing more than turf protectionism:

Full Story. 

(New York Times) 

18 Veterans are committing suicide every day according to this story in the NYT.

Community acupuncture clinics can save lives now. The challenge is connecting with the Vets, which means doing outreach in our community. There is a lot more to be said on this topic, but clear thinking and rest is needed before action. I needed to say at least this much before going horizontal for the night. 

A week or so ago, the thought suddenly occured to me that my patient profile had radically shifted from my days as a boutique acupuncturist. On this particular morning, we had three patients - one was a middle aged woman who had been sleeping in her car for years. Another was a black man living in a Tent City. A third was a single mother working at a job she hated and generally struggling to get by. The two women have since become regulars and the one who sleeps in her car seems to catch up on her sleep in our recliner.

Children’s books are teaching me a
lot these days. Domitila is a Mexican Cinderella story. My five year
old seems to be able sniff these classics out as soon as she enters the
library. Smart girl - gives me a lot of hope for our future. Domitila’s
mother puts love into everything she does, even cooking with scruffy
cactus plants from the desert, transforming them into a delicacy
(nopales). Domitila learns her mother’s art and impresses the
governor’s son who endures great sacrifice, trying to find the
mysterious servant who can reveal the secret. Meanwhile, the evil
stepsister and her mother try to trick our heroine and her father with
delicacies made from stolen food - but the taste is horrible. We love
these stories and honor their wisdom. Why is it often difficult for us
to live by them?

I think it was Lisa who said something like "altruism is the core of our practice as acupuncturists." (My paraphrase.)

Master Cheng Yen, the founder of Tzu Chi - the Buddhist Compassion Relief Foundation expressed this principle similarly. In explaining to her followers in TIMA - the Tzu Chi International Medicational Association - she said that it is not technical skill nor vast knowledge which is most important, but a kind heart.

Although I often egoistically view myself as a typical overbooked do-gooder, modern day multi tasker, after I received 3 separate requests to attend the Seattle TIMA's bi-monthly meeting - including a visit to a local homeless tent city to assess needs and coordinate care - I knew I could not refuse.