February 11, 2025 • 42 mins
What if we could harness the wisdom of nature to transform our lives?
Join us as we explore this intriguing question with our esteemed guest, Dr. Paul Wang, whose expertise in Chinese medicine and Daoism guides us through the profound themes of grief, gratitude, and self-care. Reflecting on the recent natural disasters in Los Angeles, we delve into the crucial importance of aligning with nature and fostering a sense of collective well-being. Discover the tools of pausing, noticing, and community as we navigate the challenges of rebuilding and reimagining our connection with the environment.
As we venture into the intriguing realm of cosmic and personal cycles, prepare to be captivated by the solar polar flip and its potential effects on our natural world. This cosmic event sets the stage for a broader conversation on life's small signals—those subtle cues that can have a significant impact if left unaddressed. With the help of the Gratitude Blooming Card deck, we reflect on the importance of friendship as a source of resilience and balance, drawing parallels to our personal experiences of feeling overwhelmed and the necessity of self-care to prevent burnout.
We then transition into a vibrant exploration of friendship as an ecosystem, reflecting on the diversity of human experiences and the interconnectedness of our relationships. The colorful nasturtium flowers serve as a metaphor for the beauty and complexity of our communities, while ancient symbols like the Rod of Asclepius remind us of the healing power of companionship. As we embrace the sweetness and bitterness of life, we invite you to tune into your own seeds of intention, nurturing them as we all prepare for the growth and transformation that lies ahead.
If you'd like to practice seasonal living with us to navigate change and challenge with more wholeness, sign up for our new online Change Well Series launching Feb 23 to Mar 16, 2025.
Together, we will embark on a special journey to prepare for the spring cycle through physical, mental, emotional and spiritual alchemy.
REGISTER HERE:
https://www.gratitudeblooming.com/changewell
---
Create an intentional practice with your own Gratitude Blooming card deck, notecards, candle and much much more at our shop at www.gratitudeblooming.com.
Learn more about our co-hosts and special guest for Season 4:
Co-host Belinda Liu | Hestia Retreat Centers
Co-host Omar Brownson | Trickster's Guide to Immortality on Substack
Special Guest Dr. Paul Wang | The Dao Center
If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to leave us a 5-star rating and review. Your feedback is valuable to us and helps us grow.
Share your thoughts and comments by emailing us at hello@gratitudeblooming.com. We love hearing from our listeners!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hello Belinda.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Hey.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Omar, welcome to another episode of Grad 2
Blooming Gong hei fat choy.
We are on the verge of a newseason, a new Chinese New Year,
and just so much change ishappening, both beautiful and
tremendously difficult.
(00:28):
I want to just start byacknowledging that our largest
group of listeners are in LosAngeles, where I also live, and
we've just been going through itbetween the fires and now, just
literally two weeks later,we're now dealing with floods
and mudslides.
And so you know, you haveinvited us, belinda, to really
(00:51):
think about seasonal living, andit's not just a nice to have,
it really is showing us that ifwe are not living with the
cycles of nature, there's likedramatic consequences.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Yeah, it's been interesting to tune into the
land at this time and I was justhaving a conversation with our
land steward in Mount Shasta andshe was sharing that there's an
early cedar bloom because itwas raining and then really warm
for a series of days, and noweveryone has allergies in the
middle of winter for a series ofdays, and now everyone has
(01:27):
allergies in the middle ofwinter and here on Big Island,
hawaii, pele has been eruptingoff and on for the past month.
So I really feel like nature isspeaking very loudly right now
and you know, can we pause tohear?
You know, what is she trying totell us?
Speaker 1 (01:42):
What do you think she is trying to tell us?
As you've because you've justcome off a sabbatical I have
been in kind of disasterresponse mode.
I mean, we've has been able tokind of take an intentional
(02:06):
moment and really hear whatyou're listening to.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Well before I left on my sabbatical, omar, I remember
we held a grief and gratitudecircle for the community in LA
and I remember that moment ofjust feeling this immense grief
in my heart and feeling likepart of that is my own grief and
also just the density of anintensity of the grief that's
(02:34):
very present right now.
So much loss, and it wasbeautiful to take time for a
week to just pause and just bewith myself and be with
different lands here on thisisland.
And I do sense that there's alot of messages around.
(02:55):
You know, how are we going tostay centered and anchored
during a time of massive change?
And that level of change is notgoing away.
She's almost saying, hey, I'mpreparing you for what's coming,
and that sounds really scaryand overwhelming on one hand,
and on the other hand, it's like, wow, we get to practice
withholding that and beingavailable to change in a new
(03:20):
kind of way and at a differentscale.
So I'm curious, omar, for you,like how has that been for you
in a very real sense?
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Well, yeah, I, just as you were talking about
pausing, which you know issomething that has been at the
core, really, of GratitudeBlooming, is just pausing and
listening.
You know, I just can't help butremember that part of what
brought you and I together wasthe pandemic and holding space
every week, and it was all thosestories you know, literally
(03:54):
people calling from hospice tostrangers coming together and
because in 2020, it felt likethere was just like a new
disaster every week, whether itwas sort of biological, social,
political, economic, and allthat then became the genesis for
this podcast, and that wasreally then the first season of
(04:15):
the podcast.
And now, as we're entering tothe fourth season of our podcast
and really inviting the greatDr Paul Wong into this space
with us, I just I don't thinkthe tools have changed.
The tools are still relevant,right, Like the tools of pausing
(04:37):
, the tools of noticing, thetools of listening, the tools of
being in community, you know,continue to still be important.
That was one of the takeawaysfrom our grief and gratitude
circle was we pulled theself-care card and, you know and
it just made me kind of createa slight riff on Reverend Angel
(04:58):
Kyoto Williams, who says that nochange is possible without
interchange, no change matterswithout collective change.
But when we pulled thatself-care card, it really made
me think that no change ispossible without self-care and
no change matters without caringfor others.
And in this time we are beingcalled on to care for others,
(05:21):
and it's so hard to do whenyou're in a disaster like your
field of vision just narrows.
And you know the Zen teacher,Norma Wong, who has been a
multiple time guests on ourpodcast.
She reached out to me andreminded me of the Lahaina fires
in Maui.
That was just 18 months ago andagain devastating and like in
(05:43):
my my mind.
I didn't even put those twotogether because I was just like
packing my go bag and makingsure that, just in case we need
to leave, that we were ready todo so.
But these disasters aren'tnecessarily a surprise either.
Right, and so you know we haveto both hold so tenderly the
(06:07):
loss of people's homes, theirmemories, everything that they
cherished and valued, and alsorecognize that how are we living
, you know, and really ask thatquestion, Because right now
everyone is saying rebuild,rebuild, rebuild.
But we know that if we justrebuild what was way, we can't
(06:27):
just rebuild what was, but eveninstinctually, kind of like, we
know that we have to rebuild ina different kind of way.
And so, how do you know, how dowe pause, you know, with
empathy, to recognize theimportance of this kind of
living with nature.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
And I just love that we're investing this season of
the podcast to really leaninginto that question and really we
have more questions thananswers but just having the
space with you, our listeners,to just be with these questions
and take that pause for what'semerging, and especially with
(07:07):
that lens of nature.
And I love that.
Dr Paul Wong, you're going tobe with us on this journey
because you have been studyingChinese medicine, You're a
student of the Tao, youliterally are part of a lineage
that is thousands of years oldthat starts from really nature
(07:27):
being the guide, and so I'd lovefor you to share what does this
time of the year represent andwhat is nature trying to tell us
right now, in particular, inthis moment?
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Thank you to Omar and Belinda for the invitation to
synergize and co-create here.
Integrating and just feelinginto all that you've shared is
fire is a major theme and maybeI'll start just to keep it
simple to unpack that weconsider it as an element in
(08:06):
both the eastern and westernelemental system.
There's fire and it's also veryalchemical and definition of
that here is sort of process oftransformation which we always
are in, you know, 24, 7 that'sthe hour of days and and days of
the week, but also every minute, every second, every nanosecond
(08:30):
.
There's that process of alchemyand it's either conscious or
unconscious and I think for mostof us it's, it's not conscious
and it's it's.
It's an alchemical process,maybe leading to something
(08:58):
that's not healthy or notserving bolt right to uh like I
witnessed a big island which wasso profound that the fire
portal of lava that comesthrough a volcano and the very
beating of our hearts consideredfire element in chinese
medicine and its qualities ofand most spiritual paths of
(09:20):
illumination and awakening andrealization and also home like a
fireplace, so that kind ofwarmth even of our metabolism.
So just offering some framesand we're at the cusp of the
year of the snake, which takesthis quality of fire and, to be
(09:45):
a little bit technical, we cansay there's the yin fire aspect,
which is the light waking up,as we've seen for the last years
, but maybe culminating to acertain stage of realization of
what is, and even what we'veseen, is necessary to allow to
(10:05):
break down right.
And then that pause is that, isthat snake coiling and waiting
for the right moment, thatpatience and observation.
And then the young fire aspectis that explosion, right, that
kind of more centrifugal aspectof fire energy, is that moving
out and acting and doing, whichtaps into the current season
that we're crossing into, whichis spring.
(10:27):
And the last thing I want tooffer in this section is that
we're also in another fire cycle, which happens every 11 years,
or 22 years, depending on howyou think of it, which is the
solar polar flip.
Every 11 years it happens, say,north Pole becomes South Pole
over a period of 11 years andthen another 11 years it flips
(10:50):
back and North Pole becomesNorth again, relatively speaking
.
So we're peaking, we're at themidpoint of one of those polar
flips and that's marked by manymore sunspots, which are these
kind of ignition points, andsome of you may have noticed or
heard right, there's been moreaurora borealis, which is
(11:10):
another kind of fire or lightenergy that's.
That's come through the polesof our of our planet, and you
can see them much closer to theequator.
Before you had to go towardsthe poles to witness that.
So that energy is increasingand peaking in July, where
there'll be over 100 sunspots.
So that energy is sociological,political, alchemical,
(11:33):
cosmological, terrestrial, likeI said, with the Earth,
volcanoes erupting.
So, yeah, that's what I wouldkind of call in this moment to
play with.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Just as you were describing the different fire
elements from the Pali volcanothat's erupting to our own
heartbeats as a symbol of fire.
I was having dinner on Saturdaynight with a friend who's also a
councilman here and he'sactually gone to the disasters
which you're not really able toget access to because they're
(12:04):
still closed off, and he saidthat one of the challenges with
the fires is that these emberswill take off and they can go
like a mile and a half, stilllit, right Through these like 70
mile per hour winds.
And what's really causing a lotof the fire sort of spreading is
(12:27):
that those little embers aregetting caught in attic vents
and it's then the attic ventsthat then catches the insulation
and the insulation then sort ofspreads and then that fire kind
of spreads.
And so just I want to callattention to that because I
think sometimes we forget howimportant the small things are.
(12:48):
Right, like this little embercan fly a mile and a half, stay
lit and then cause more fire,and and and there's a a good and
a half stay lit and then causemore fire, and there's a good
and a bad, if you will, in thatright.
Obviously we've seen the bad ofjust people losing their homes.
But maybe the good in that as apractice is like what are those
(13:09):
small practices that help uskind of build the resilience,
the ability to adapt to thesechanges?
Speaker 2 (13:19):
So yeah, I'm curious if there was an inquiry for us
in this moment, for this season,what are we tuning into?
I mean, for me it's like how tobe with this heaviness and this
overwhelm.
I think before I took mysabbatical I was really feeling
that intensity of the heavinessand this overwhelm.
You know, I think before I tookmy sabbatical I was really
feeling that intensity of likethe heaviness and knowing that
(13:43):
like if I just kept going, Iremember picking that self-care
card and being like, wow, if Idon't stop right now, I'm not
going to be able to continue.
And there is feels like thereis a bit of that like how do we
tune into when we start to getoverloaded or when something's
out of alignment, right, like,how do we pay attention to those
(14:03):
alerts before they become likehuge disasters, you know,
internally or externally?
So that's what's coming up forme.
I'm curious, what about forboth of you?
You know, we're all indifferent places, on different
lands, so it's kind of cool tohold, you know, our own
questions around this.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
I'm wondering if this is a question that we asked to
the Gratitude Blooming Card deckand use that as the jumping off
point.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Sounds good.
Yeah, does that question feelresonant for you both?
Speaker 3 (14:35):
Yeah, let's consult the Oracle which may be coming.
Does that question feelresonant for you?
Speaker 1 (14:38):
both.
Yeah, let's consult the Oracle,which may be coming soon
Gratitude Blooming Oracle.
We're working on an onlinechatbot with the gratitude cards
, so stay tuned, all right.
So, belinda, do you want torestate your question just one
more time?
We have the card deck up Again,these 39 cards that just have
(14:59):
really helped us weather,literally weather so many
different storms over the lastfour or five years that we have
been working together.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
I guess the simple question I would say is just how
do we recognize when we areoverloaded, when we need to stop
and realign or change something, before the change kind of
overwhelms us like a wave and wejust get destroyed by it?
(15:27):
So how do we pay attention tothe off balance?
How would you say that, Omar?
You're so good at simplifyingthe intent.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
What I'm hearing you say is like how do we notice the
small things before they becomebig things?
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Yes, exactly, big things, big problems.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Things being a euphemism for problems.
So we generally are not tooworried when small things become
great, awesome things for ourlives.
So I will scroll again throughthe seven rows and six columns
and just let me know Paul orBelinda when to pause.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Yeah, Paul, I think you should pick as our guest.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Let's pause right there.
Okay, this one, yes, rightthere.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
All right, this is about paying attention to the
small things before they becomebig things.
Hmm, card number 32,represented by the nasturtium.
And so when Arlene illustratedthis flower, the word friendship
came to her, and the prompt isthink of a friendship you
(16:50):
cherish.
What makes that friendship sospecial to you?
And when we look at the art,we're looking really at we have
almost what I'd say nine petalsof the nasturtium and then maybe
like three or four flowers allconnected across these, maybe
(17:10):
two or three vines.
It's a really plant thatspreads out over the ground.
It's a really plant that, like,spreads out over the ground.
So what do you think this cardmeans?
Paying attention to the smallthings before they become big
things well, I loved that I went.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
I went to off-grid Farm this week on the eastern
side of the Big Island, reallynear the southern tip, where you
can see the sunrise, and therewas nasturtium growing on this
farm and what was reallybeautiful about it was there
were different kinds of flowers.
It was there were differentkinds of flowers it was.
(17:59):
There was like an orange one, areally bright red and then a
yellow, and I was like, wow, howcool is it that you get this
diversity of the same flower butin different shades, and they
are very bushy and very kind oflike a viney network.
And it makes me realize thatsometimes you can't rely on
(18:23):
yourself to have that triggeralert go off, like you need
other people to be a mirror foryou around you know, hey,
something's wrong, like you needto take a pause, you need to
take care of yourself.
And I felt that in the griefand gratitude circle, honestly,
like it was a moment to be withother people and feel the grief
(18:47):
in myself that was so strongthat then I kind of unleashed a
lot more of my own personalgrief and I think I would have
bottled that up if I was just bymyself navigating my life in
isolation.
And so I'm just so grateful tobe with Omar, you and Paul, like
(19:10):
in this moment together whereit's like like it feels less
daunting navigating this unknown, knowing that there is going to
be so much unexpected changecoming up and not even knowing
the magnitude of that, but justto be like, oh, I'm not alone in
that unknown, it feels a lotless scary.
(19:32):
Um, so I feel like it's reallyimportant, like, who do we
surround ourselves with at thistime?
Like what are we amplifyingtogether?
Like, are we amplifying fearand paranoia and scarcity?
Are we amplifying, you know,inquiry, curiosity, like love,
compassion.
So so to me, that's what comesup is like what are we choosing
(19:54):
to to be around?
You know what kind of energy.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
Yeah, I have the opportunity, as a doctor of
Chinese medicine and teacher, tohave a lot of people, I can
reflect on their stories and I'mhonored that they share and
trust me with the depth andbreadth of their seasons and how
they're being seasoned by life.
And yeah, you mentionedloneliness, which is an ongoing
(20:24):
sort of pandemic of loneliness,especially well, not just with
the elders, now, it's even likeyounger people that I witness.
And so I think one thing that Icultivate almost as a
preventative medicine, notwaiting for the crisis or
disaster or emergency to, likeOmar was saying, prepare your go
bag, so to speak.
So part of self-cultivation orself-care cultivation is
(20:50):
preparing that go bag, so tospeak.
Wherever you are, your resource, and that's great.
Some of us have the opportunityto befriend the others around us
.
You have your spiritualcommunity, your family, you know
siblings or cousins or whateverare chosen.
You know sort of not blood,blood family, but sort of your
(21:13):
sacred culture, let's's say.
And that's great, like the more, like befriending that you can
cultivate, I think can reallyinoculate you against those
threshold moments right Ofbreakdown.
And I think the inquiry for meis, like I talk a lot about the
intro relationships withinoneself, like what is the
(21:34):
friendship quality between yourmind and your body?
I talk a lot about theintra-relationships within
oneself Like what is thefriendship quality between your
mind and your body, between yourheart and your lungs, let's say
your cardiorespiratory system?
Are they dancing well together,your heartbeat and your breath,
and also your brain brainwaves?
Are you in sync with your innercommunity, up to the trillions
(21:54):
of cells that are human and thetrillions more that are part of
the microbiome or even thevirome?
And so I think, at least in myframe, it's the befriending of
the opposites, and not asoppositional but maybe frenemies
, like a healthy relationship.
You're not completely similar,You're not both yin or both yang
(22:17):
, but there is a yin-yangdynamic where there's honoring
and admiration and that kind ofspark of the differences and the
simultaneous cultivation of thecenter that holds in that
tension of opposites, thatcreative tension of opposites.
So one image that I thought ofat the end of the dragon year.
(22:43):
In the Chinese image, I think inarchetype archetypically is
actually in martial arts there'sa Qingdong Baiwei, which is the
green dragon, whips its tailand that's the end of the dragon
dragon year, which is aboutthis time, and the beginning of
the xiaolong, the little dragon,of the, of the snake, which is
(23:03):
more internal but containstremendous power that moves
inside rather than outside likethe dragon.
And so the friendship thatbefriending I want to tie in is
is the symbol of the snake onthe staff, the, the rod of
asclepius, the greek god, son ofapollo, of healing, which is
(23:26):
that rod that represents thatwhich never changes, that which
is always grounded, like belindatalked about, taking that
sabbatical to ground and alsomark the most high.
So that static part,befriending something which is
unconditional Some call it, giveit some spiritual name, like
(23:47):
God or Tao or something likethat and also tapping into that
snake energy Otherwise it wouldbe too static.
So that dance of the static andthe dynamic, befriending those
two, the yin and yang, thenembodying it right and then
embracing it until it emanatesfrom the inside out, and then
(24:08):
hopefully, you have a reserve ofthat kind of energy to move
with stillness and hopefully 99%of the time.
Right, it doesn't have to be inthese major disaster situations
like I've been to in sort ofmedical mission, where you see
so much destruction anddevastation.
And I've been grateful becausemy sort of cycle or one of my
(24:32):
identities very powerfully isnot just the you know for almost
five decades that I've been inthis body, but I have a
spiritual body that I'mconnected to that has been
around for 2000 years.
If there's a sort of I don'twant to prescribe something, but
something that I found reallyuseful is you have to ground in
(24:53):
something, whether it's aspiritual lineage, whether it's
a goddess or a mother nature,something that you can rely on,
that you can find stability andanchor into before shit hits the
fan, so to speak.
And yeah, it's served me well,well, and I hope that we can
share around that, strategiesaround that or practices around
(25:15):
that, to help um, inoculatepeople with that, with that yin
yang kind of synergy, and dance,dance these waves and these,
like I said, these superimposedfire cycle ignitions, that that
is that's happening, bothcosmologically and socially and
(25:36):
even physiologically, andfinding ways to practice it.
You know, breath by breath,heartbeat by heartbeat, there's,
there is that fire energy there.
You don't have to wait untilthis big fire out there to to
master uh, fire alchemy.
Every, every breath has fire init.
Every thought has a fire aspectto it.
If you think of fire as one ofthe four seasons, that's
(25:58):
beautiful.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
As I listen to you both in terms of Melinda's
network that the art looks likeand Pauly's invoking this staff,
that sort of provides somecontinuity.
You know, I just think about mySaturday night where we went
out with longtime friends it wasthe councilman and our other
(26:22):
friend, kathy, and who she and Ihave worked together in lots of
different ways and just howspecial that moment felt for us.
He's obviously been in disasterresponse, like front lines um
of it, and with our families wewent to this balloon museum and
(26:45):
it's all these sort of like 15,20 different art exhibits that
are like interactive, like yougo into this like huge pool of
black balls and you can justlike be a little bit of a kid
again.
And it was just such this likerelief of just like oh, okay, we
can hold the serious things,but we can also we have to
(27:06):
remember to like just take abreak and like there's whimsy
matters too.
And I think part of the themeof the show is there's no limits
with art, right, we can imaginedifferent possibilities, and I
think part of what we are beinginvited to in this moment is to
imagine a different way ofliving.
And so I think the other thingis, I'm looking at the art and
(27:30):
I'm seeing these big kind oflily pad leaves, and that's what
I think is so beautiful aboutthe nasturtium is that it really
elevates the leaves as opposedto the flowers.
Most flowers you focus on theflower and the petals and the
leaves are in the background,whereas the nasturtium it flips
it and those petals kind of looklike circles it and those
(27:53):
petals kind of look like circles.
And one of the conversationsthat I had today with folks up
at Commonweal whose mission ishealing hearts and healing the
planet, and they hold healingcircles and they're like we
don't need just like a red crossthat's going to respond to
disaster with shelter and waterand food.
We need all those thingsabsolutely, but we also need
(28:17):
social infrastructure to helppeople hold space.
And that's what the grief andgratitude circle was a part of.
And so I was like we shouldcreate a circle of circles.
You know, and that's kind ofwhat this Nisrishium looks like
to me is this circle of circlesand how they are all sort of
connected.
And then, just the last thingI'll just say about friendship.
I think of the great writer CSLewis, and he talked a lot about
(28:42):
friendship, really in contrastto lovers, and the classic image
that he talked about is likelovers they face each other,
like their eyes are looking ateach other, whereas friends are
looking forward together.
And that's like one of the bigdifferences between a lover and
(29:04):
a friend is that with friends,you're just what are we looking
forward to?
You're more likely to beholding arms than gazing into
each other's eyes, and so Ithink maybe, going back to your
theme, belinda, of how do wenotice the small things before
they become big things is thatwhen you have friends looking
(29:26):
forward, you have more eyeslooking forward, right, like
there's more of you to noticewhat is going on, and I think
that's really the power offriendship, the power of
community.
We know that also, community isso resilient.
I've never received so many textmessages from so many friends
(29:48):
people literally I haven'ttalked to since college is from
so many friends.
People literally I haven'ttalked to since college reached
out to see how I was doing.
And so there's this deepnetwork of friends, and it's
maybe not the 2000 year lineagethat you get to pull on pole,
but there was like a 30 yearlineage of friendship that
showed up and super grateful forthat.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Well, I love that we get to kind of invite in that
spirit of self-friendship andfriendship with others in this
moment of transition.
You know, in many, manydifferent levels, there is just
this immense change in the airas we go from season to season
(30:34):
Winter is very different thanspring, and so I would love to
invite us to really feel thatconnection that Paul was
inviting to ground intosomething bigger than ourselves,
and also this connection, areminder that we're not alone.
You know in what we'renavigating.
(30:55):
And, omar, I loved how, in ourgrief and gratitude circle, we
played the song of the card andjust really felt into our hearts
together the spirit of thatplant.
And I did check we have thefriendship song.
So I was thinking it might benice for us to kind of be with
(31:18):
the music and just imaginingthat alignment and that
grounding, as well as thatexpansion out like the
nasturtium.
How does that feel as apractice?
Does anyone want to addanything to that for our
listeners as like a littletakeaway?
Speaker 1 (31:33):
I'll just say real quickly I'll let you jump in,
paul but, like you said,self-friendship, belinda and
that's literally the definitionof compassion, or
self-compassion is to be afriend to yourself, and so I
love that you sort of invokethat.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
that friendship isn't just with other people, but
it's also the compassion that wecultivate for ourselves yeah,
if I may add one more aspect tothe more ingredient to the pot
is is back to, nasturtium is oneof my best friends in nature.
So plant friends, not just thehomo sapiens, um, it's that,
(32:11):
it's edible, it's one of theflowers that our plants are very
clear that it's to recognizeand therefore safe.
Not recommending anything butfor myself, I usually, in this
case I guess, eat my friend andenjoy the flavor which is a bit
bitter, and enjoy the flavorwhich is a bit bitter and I want
(32:32):
to make a tie-in to Chinesemedicine, since I'm a doctor of
that is the bitter flavoractually is cooling and clearing
.
And if you expand that idea ofbitter, it's like bitter endings
even too right orsemi-bittersweet, perhaps even
in the word friend, right, maybesome of the most fond
friendships are have alreadyended right, but they really
(32:53):
affected you and you reallychanged a lot, or you hold
something within your heart thatwas quite profound from that,
that friendship that ended.
And part of that comes fromtasting the bitterness, not just
the you know, always sweetsaccharine vibes and uh.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
so yeah, I would love to sit in that and marinate in
that with the friendshipsoundtrack with you both this
was our collaboration with uh,the musician and artist, uh
ariel low, and they createdthree albums Garden of Joy,
(33:32):
garden of Curiosity and Gardenof Healing.
This song, friendship, is offof our Garden of Joy album,
which you can find on AppleSpotify, and really the
invitation as you listen to thissong, which is just it's a
short song, a minute and 22seconds is maybe notice where in
(33:54):
your body you feel this song.
Thank you.
(35:21):
So where did you hear the song?
Speaker 2 (35:25):
Somewhere in between my belly and my heart space.
There was something just supersweet and simple about the
chords.
I don't think I've really zonedin on this particular song
before.
I've always heard it as a wholealbum and it was so tender.
Speaker 3 (35:47):
What about you?
Speaker 2 (35:48):
guys.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
Yeah, me as well.
It's interesting that I spokeof that bittersweet.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
It's like melty dark chocolate.
Speaker 3 (35:59):
And I felt it in the middle of the center channel of
my body around the heart.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
Well, you'll appreciate this, belinda.
I felt it in my feet, thebottom of my feet, which is
always like your sort of likego-to meditation, is to pay
attention to your feet, and Ijust it felt like walking on a
forest floor that is like haslike a certain sort of density
(36:29):
of leaves or like moss, wherethere's just sort of like a
squishiness to it, but you'restill being really held by earth
, and so I just I felt that sortof gentle being gently held by
the earth.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
So I love that earth, friendship, spirit earth.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
There we go.
You know, Paul, it's, it'sgreat to have this collaboration
with you, you know, because youare able to pull from, you know
, the three M's of medicine,sort of the sort of the mental
work, the sort of the mysticalwork, I think medical, mystical.
(37:10):
What am I saying?
Speaker 3 (37:12):
Also the martial arts .
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
Martial, there we go.
Speaker 3 (37:14):
I knew I was going to say that it's okay, all the M's
, yeah, m and M.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
And so you know, I think this is a regular sort of
practice that we now want tokind of bring to our listeners
and try to do this every month.
So for this month, you know,also starts with M.
Is there something that youinvite folks to really pay
attention to?
Speaker 3 (37:38):
Yeah, so I talked about the fire, that's more the
year, that is, that we'retransitioning into the month
which begins the spring seasonand also the halfway point of
this space-time calendar of theequinoxes and solstices.
So halfway between the last,which was the winter solstice,
(38:02):
and the spring equinox is comingup in bulk in some traditions.
Right, lee lee twin in thechinese tradition is that
sprouting energy, or the energyof germination, and if we add a
little bit more alchemy, it'sthat wood and fire dynamic right
that moment.
When does that happen?
Like we've, I know, in mountshasta the last time I tried to
(38:26):
ignite some wood, right, and ittakes focus, right, it takes
intention and sensitivity to theelements, like you know, with
the match or with the paper,right, and so I think that's the
good threshold for us to tapinto in this month.
It's like, whether you see it aslike wood poof, right, sparking
, or right underground, nothingseems to be happening.
(38:46):
But maybe meditate, what arethe deeper seeds that you've
actually been kind ofgerminating and then reaching
that breakthrough point,sprouting into the surface, and
maybe that represents somethingaround your health, right, or
your finances, or yourrelationships or your
friendships to tap into, becausethat's present in in the, the
(39:08):
surroundings, the environment,and so if there is something
right, that that you want tocurate around germination of a
seed, what is that mostmeaningful?
I like to say maybe, uh, letsome of the other ones lie
fallow, maybe for the next, next, uh, ignition moment.
But what is the most meaningful, like like omar invited, like
(39:29):
that you feel in your body thatyou want to bring out, that to
tie into the other thing is thatalso is most serving to your
circles, concentric circles.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
I love that you've invited this, and the image that
came to me almost immediatelywas the it's called the Mataliha
poppy, and it only germinatesafter a fire, because it's a
rhizome that sort of sits reallykind of below the soil and it's
(40:03):
this beautiful.
It's got like these whitepetals and this like yellow egg
yolk center, so it almost lookslike a fried egg, and so I just
I love that sort of reminderthat you know fire is not just
destructive, we know it is, butwe also know that parts of
nature only actually come aliveafter this fire, and so I feel
(40:25):
like this, it's like a perfectinvitation for us to focus on
Any thing for you, belinda.
Speaker 2 (40:37):
Well, I'm just really grateful that we have this
moment of pause every month nowfor this fourth season of our
podcast we're now over 120episodes and just to
collectively pay attention towhat's happening in the natural
world.
And we will be collaboratingwith Grad 2, blooming and Dr
Paul's organization, dowology,on a seasonal series where we
(40:59):
get to really lean into thatmore preparing for the season
ahead.
So we'll be launching thatcoming up next month.
As Dr Paul was saying, just howdo we prepare for spring in our
bodies, in our emotional bodies, in our physical bodies, in our
mental bodies, in our spiritualbodies?
And I feel like when I watchwhat's happening in the natural
(41:21):
world with the plants, like theyare always evolving and
adapting on all those levelsalmost, and it's just happening
very naturally on all thoselevels almost, and it's just
happening very naturally,whereas it's just a lot harder.
As a human, we like to have somethings stay the same, so they
feel familiar, but then itbecomes stagnant sometimes, and
then that's when things start tokind of fall apart, and so I'm
(41:45):
just excited to invite in alittle bit of that breaking
through the falling apart, the,the like what can happen when we
let the change through.
So, yeah, we're really excitedto share more about that.
As, uh, as we launch, we'll adda link to the um, the
(42:06):
registration there on thepodcast episodes.
Yeah, omar, any anything elseto close, Just as you were
sharing.
Speaker 1 (42:14):
what immediately came to me is that, in nature, the
word friendship is ecosystem,and so it's just like how do we
be in an ecosystem together?
Speaker 2 (42:26):
That's a beautiful inquiry for season four.
How do we be in the ecosystem?
What is the ecosystem.
Speaker 1 (42:37):
Well, stay tuned and we look forward to more
conversations, cheers, cheers.
Speaker 3 (42:42):
Thank you all.
Hello Belinda.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Hey.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Omar, welcome to another episode of Grad 2
Blooming Gong hei fat choy.
We are on the verge of a newseason, a new Chinese New Year,
and just so much change ishappening, both beautiful and
tremendously difficult.
(00:28):
I want to just start byacknowledging that our largest
group of listeners are in LosAngeles, where I also live, and
we've just been going through itbetween the fires and now, just
literally two weeks later,we're now dealing with floods
and mudslides.
And so you know, you haveinvited us, belinda, to really
(00:51):
think about seasonal living, andit's not just a nice to have,
it really is showing us that ifwe are not living with the
cycles of nature, there's likedramatic consequences.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Yeah, it's been interesting to tune into the
land at this time and I was justhaving a conversation with our
land steward in Mount Shasta andshe was sharing that there's an
early cedar bloom because itwas raining and then really warm
for a series of days, and noweveryone has allergies in the
middle of winter for a series ofdays, and now everyone has
(01:27):
allergies in the middle ofwinter and here on Big Island,
hawaii, pele has been eruptingoff and on for the past month.
So I really feel like nature isspeaking very loudly right now
and you know, can we pause tohear?
You know, what is she trying totell us?
Speaker 1 (01:42):
What do you think she is trying to tell us?
As you've because you've justcome off a sabbatical I have
been in kind of disasterresponse mode.
I mean, we've has been able tokind of take an intentional
(02:06):
moment and really hear whatyou're listening to.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Well before I left on my sabbatical, omar, I remember
we held a grief and gratitudecircle for the community in LA
and I remember that moment ofjust feeling this immense grief
in my heart and feeling likepart of that is my own grief and
also just the density of anintensity of the grief that's
(02:34):
very present right now.
So much loss, and it wasbeautiful to take time for a
week to just pause and just bewith myself and be with
different lands here on thisisland.
And I do sense that there's alot of messages around.
(02:55):
You know, how are we going tostay centered and anchored
during a time of massive change?
And that level of change is notgoing away.
She's almost saying, hey, I'mpreparing you for what's coming,
and that sounds really scaryand overwhelming on one hand,
and on the other hand, it's like, wow, we get to practice
withholding that and beingavailable to change in a new
(03:20):
kind of way and at a differentscale.
So I'm curious, omar, for you,like how has that been for you
in a very real sense?
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Well, yeah, I, just as you were talking about
pausing, which you know issomething that has been at the
core, really, of GratitudeBlooming, is just pausing and
listening.
You know, I just can't help butremember that part of what
brought you and I together wasthe pandemic and holding space
every week, and it was all thosestories you know, literally
(03:54):
people calling from hospice tostrangers coming together and
because in 2020, it felt likethere was just like a new
disaster every week, whether itwas sort of biological, social,
political, economic, and allthat then became the genesis for
this podcast, and that wasreally then the first season of
(04:15):
the podcast.
And now, as we're entering tothe fourth season of our podcast
and really inviting the greatDr Paul Wong into this space
with us, I just I don't thinkthe tools have changed.
The tools are still relevant,right, Like the tools of pausing
(04:37):
, the tools of noticing, thetools of listening, the tools of
being in community, you know,continue to still be important.
That was one of the takeawaysfrom our grief and gratitude
circle was we pulled theself-care card and, you know and
it just made me kind of createa slight riff on Reverend Angel
(04:58):
Kyoto Williams, who says that nochange is possible without
interchange, no change matterswithout collective change.
But when we pulled thatself-care card, it really made
me think that no change ispossible without self-care and
no change matters without caringfor others.
And in this time we are beingcalled on to care for others,
(05:21):
and it's so hard to do whenyou're in a disaster like your
field of vision just narrows.
And you know the Zen teacher,Norma Wong, who has been a
multiple time guests on ourpodcast.
She reached out to me andreminded me of the Lahaina fires
in Maui.
That was just 18 months ago andagain devastating and like in
(05:43):
my my mind.
I didn't even put those twotogether because I was just like
packing my go bag and makingsure that, just in case we need
to leave, that we were ready todo so.
But these disasters aren'tnecessarily a surprise either.
Right, and so you know we haveto both hold so tenderly the
(06:07):
loss of people's homes, theirmemories, everything that they
cherished and valued, and alsorecognize that how are we living
, you know, and really ask thatquestion, Because right now
everyone is saying rebuild,rebuild, rebuild.
But we know that if we justrebuild what was way, we can't
(06:27):
just rebuild what was, but eveninstinctually, kind of like, we
know that we have to rebuild ina different kind of way.
And so, how do you know, how dowe pause, you know, with
empathy, to recognize theimportance of this kind of
living with nature.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
And I just love that we're investing this season of
the podcast to really leaninginto that question and really we
have more questions thananswers but just having the
space with you, our listeners,to just be with these questions
and take that pause for what'semerging, and especially with
(07:07):
that lens of nature.
And I love that.
Dr Paul Wong, you're going tobe with us on this journey
because you have been studyingChinese medicine, You're a
student of the Tao, youliterally are part of a lineage
that is thousands of years oldthat starts from really nature
(07:27):
being the guide, and so I'd lovefor you to share what does this
time of the year represent andwhat is nature trying to tell us
right now, in particular, inthis moment?
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Thank you to Omar and Belinda for the invitation to
synergize and co-create here.
Integrating and just feelinginto all that you've shared is
fire is a major theme and maybeI'll start just to keep it
simple to unpack that weconsider it as an element in
(08:06):
both the eastern and westernelemental system.
There's fire and it's also veryalchemical and definition of
that here is sort of process oftransformation which we always
are in, you know, 24, 7 that'sthe hour of days and and days of
the week, but also every minute, every second, every nanosecond
(08:30):
.
There's that process of alchemyand it's either conscious or
unconscious and I think for mostof us it's, it's not conscious
and it's it's.
It's an alchemical process,maybe leading to something
(08:58):
that's not healthy or notserving bolt right to uh like I
witnessed a big island which wasso profound that the fire
portal of lava that comesthrough a volcano and the very
beating of our hearts consideredfire element in chinese
medicine and its qualities ofand most spiritual paths of
(09:20):
illumination and awakening andrealization and also home like a
fireplace, so that kind ofwarmth even of our metabolism.
So just offering some framesand we're at the cusp of the
year of the snake, which takesthis quality of fire and, to be
(09:45):
a little bit technical, we cansay there's the yin fire aspect,
which is the light waking up,as we've seen for the last years
, but maybe culminating to acertain stage of realization of
what is, and even what we'veseen, is necessary to allow to
(10:05):
break down right.
And then that pause is that, isthat snake coiling and waiting
for the right moment, thatpatience and observation.
And then the young fire aspectis that explosion, right, that
kind of more centrifugal aspectof fire energy, is that moving
out and acting and doing, whichtaps into the current season
that we're crossing into, whichis spring.
(10:27):
And the last thing I want tooffer in this section is that
we're also in another fire cycle, which happens every 11 years,
or 22 years, depending on howyou think of it, which is the
solar polar flip.
Every 11 years it happens, say,north Pole becomes South Pole
over a period of 11 years andthen another 11 years it flips
(10:50):
back and North Pole becomesNorth again, relatively speaking
.
So we're peaking, we're at themidpoint of one of those polar
flips and that's marked by manymore sunspots, which are these
kind of ignition points, andsome of you may have noticed or
heard right, there's been moreaurora borealis, which is
(11:10):
another kind of fire or lightenergy that's.
That's come through the polesof our of our planet, and you
can see them much closer to theequator.
Before you had to go towardsthe poles to witness that.
So that energy is increasingand peaking in July, where
there'll be over 100 sunspots.
So that energy is sociological,political, alchemical,
(11:33):
cosmological, terrestrial, likeI said, with the Earth,
volcanoes erupting.
So, yeah, that's what I wouldkind of call in this moment to
play with.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Just as you were describing the different fire
elements from the Pali volcanothat's erupting to our own
heartbeats as a symbol of fire.
I was having dinner on Saturdaynight with a friend who's also a
councilman here and he'sactually gone to the disasters
which you're not really able toget access to because they're
(12:04):
still closed off, and he saidthat one of the challenges with
the fires is that these emberswill take off and they can go
like a mile and a half, stilllit, right Through these like 70
mile per hour winds.
And what's really causing a lotof the fire sort of spreading is
(12:27):
that those little embers aregetting caught in attic vents
and it's then the attic ventsthat then catches the insulation
and the insulation then sort ofspreads and then that fire kind
of spreads.
And so just I want to callattention to that because I
think sometimes we forget howimportant the small things are.
(12:48):
Right, like this little embercan fly a mile and a half, stay
lit and then cause more fire,and and and there's a a good and
a half stay lit and then causemore fire, and there's a good
and a bad, if you will, in thatright.
Obviously we've seen the bad ofjust people losing their homes.
But maybe the good in that as apractice is like what are those
(13:09):
small practices that help uskind of build the resilience,
the ability to adapt to thesechanges?
Speaker 2 (13:19):
So yeah, I'm curious if there was an inquiry for us
in this moment, for this season,what are we tuning into?
I mean, for me it's like how tobe with this heaviness and this
overwhelm.
I think before I took mysabbatical I was really feeling
that intensity of the heavinessand this overwhelm.
You know, I think before I tookmy sabbatical I was really
feeling that intensity of likethe heaviness and knowing that
(13:43):
like if I just kept going, Iremember picking that self-care
card and being like, wow, if Idon't stop right now, I'm not
going to be able to continue.
And there is feels like thereis a bit of that like how do we
tune into when we start to getoverloaded or when something's
out of alignment, right, like,how do we pay attention to those
(14:03):
alerts before they become likehuge disasters, you know,
internally or externally?
So that's what's coming up forme.
I'm curious, what about forboth of you?
You know, we're all indifferent places, on different
lands, so it's kind of cool tohold, you know, our own
questions around this.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
I'm wondering if this is a question that we asked to
the Gratitude Blooming Card deckand use that as the jumping off
point.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Sounds good.
Yeah, does that question feelresonant for you both?
Speaker 3 (14:35):
Yeah, let's consult the Oracle which may be coming.
Does that question feelresonant for you?
Speaker 1 (14:38):
both.
Yeah, let's consult the Oracle,which may be coming soon
Gratitude Blooming Oracle.
We're working on an onlinechatbot with the gratitude cards
, so stay tuned, all right.
So, belinda, do you want torestate your question just one
more time?
We have the card deck up Again,these 39 cards that just have
(14:59):
really helped us weather,literally weather so many
different storms over the lastfour or five years that we have
been working together.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
I guess the simple question I would say is just how
do we recognize when we areoverloaded, when we need to stop
and realign or change something, before the change kind of
overwhelms us like a wave and wejust get destroyed by it?
(15:27):
So how do we pay attention tothe off balance?
How would you say that, Omar?
You're so good at simplifyingthe intent.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
What I'm hearing you say is like how do we notice the
small things before they becomebig things?
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Yes, exactly, big things, big problems.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Things being a euphemism for problems.
So we generally are not tooworried when small things become
great, awesome things for ourlives.
So I will scroll again throughthe seven rows and six columns
and just let me know Paul orBelinda when to pause.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Yeah, Paul, I think you should pick as our guest.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Let's pause right there.
Okay, this one, yes, rightthere.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
All right, this is about paying attention to the
small things before they becomebig things.
Hmm, card number 32,represented by the nasturtium.
And so when Arlene illustratedthis flower, the word friendship
came to her, and the prompt isthink of a friendship you
(16:50):
cherish.
What makes that friendship sospecial to you?
And when we look at the art,we're looking really at we have
almost what I'd say nine petalsof the nasturtium and then maybe
like three or four flowers allconnected across these, maybe
(17:10):
two or three vines.
It's a really plant thatspreads out over the ground.
It's a really plant that, like,spreads out over the ground.
So what do you think this cardmeans?
Paying attention to the smallthings before they become big
things well, I loved that I went.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
I went to off-grid Farm this week on the eastern
side of the Big Island, reallynear the southern tip, where you
can see the sunrise, and therewas nasturtium growing on this
farm and what was reallybeautiful about it was there
were different kinds of flowers.
It was there were differentkinds of flowers it was.
(17:59):
There was like an orange one, areally bright red and then a
yellow, and I was like, wow, howcool is it that you get this
diversity of the same flower butin different shades, and they
are very bushy and very kind oflike a viney network.
And it makes me realize thatsometimes you can't rely on
(18:23):
yourself to have that triggeralert go off, like you need
other people to be a mirror foryou around you know, hey,
something's wrong, like you needto take a pause, you need to
take care of yourself.
And I felt that in the griefand gratitude circle, honestly,
like it was a moment to be withother people and feel the grief
(18:47):
in myself that was so strongthat then I kind of unleashed a
lot more of my own personalgrief and I think I would have
bottled that up if I was just bymyself navigating my life in
isolation.
And so I'm just so grateful tobe with Omar, you and Paul, like
(19:10):
in this moment together whereit's like like it feels less
daunting navigating this unknown, knowing that there is going to
be so much unexpected changecoming up and not even knowing
the magnitude of that, but justto be like, oh, I'm not alone in
that unknown, it feels a lotless scary.
(19:32):
Um, so I feel like it's reallyimportant, like, who do we
surround ourselves with at thistime?
Like what are we amplifyingtogether?
Like, are we amplifying fearand paranoia and scarcity?
Are we amplifying, you know,inquiry, curiosity, like love,
compassion.
So so to me, that's what comesup is like what are we choosing
(19:54):
to to be around?
You know what kind of energy.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
Yeah, I have the opportunity, as a doctor of
Chinese medicine and teacher, tohave a lot of people, I can
reflect on their stories and I'mhonored that they share and
trust me with the depth andbreadth of their seasons and how
they're being seasoned by life.
And yeah, you mentionedloneliness, which is an ongoing
(20:24):
sort of pandemic of loneliness,especially well, not just with
the elders, now, it's even likeyounger people that I witness.
And so I think one thing that Icultivate almost as a
preventative medicine, notwaiting for the crisis or
disaster or emergency to, likeOmar was saying, prepare your go
bag, so to speak.
So part of self-cultivation orself-care cultivation is
(20:50):
preparing that go bag, so tospeak.
Wherever you are, your resource, and that's great.
Some of us have the opportunityto befriend the others around us
.
You have your spiritualcommunity, your family, you know
siblings or cousins or whateverare chosen.
You know sort of not blood,blood family, but sort of your
(21:13):
sacred culture, let's's say.
And that's great, like the more, like befriending that you can
cultivate, I think can reallyinoculate you against those
threshold moments right Ofbreakdown.
And I think the inquiry for meis, like I talk a lot about the
intro relationships withinoneself, like what is the
(21:34):
friendship quality between yourmind and your body?
I talk a lot about theintra-relationships within
oneself Like what is thefriendship quality between your
mind and your body, between yourheart and your lungs, let's say
your cardiorespiratory system?
Are they dancing well together,your heartbeat and your breath,
and also your brain brainwaves?
Are you in sync with your innercommunity, up to the trillions
(21:54):
of cells that are human and thetrillions more that are part of
the microbiome or even thevirome?
And so I think, at least in myframe, it's the befriending of
the opposites, and not asoppositional but maybe frenemies
, like a healthy relationship.
You're not completely similar,You're not both yin or both yang
(22:17):
, but there is a yin-yangdynamic where there's honoring
and admiration and that kind ofspark of the differences and the
simultaneous cultivation of thecenter that holds in that
tension of opposites, thatcreative tension of opposites.
So one image that I thought ofat the end of the dragon year.
(22:43):
In the Chinese image, I think inarchetype archetypically is
actually in martial arts there'sa Qingdong Baiwei, which is the
green dragon, whips its tailand that's the end of the dragon
dragon year, which is aboutthis time, and the beginning of
the xiaolong, the little dragon,of the, of the snake, which is
(23:03):
more internal but containstremendous power that moves
inside rather than outside likethe dragon.
And so the friendship thatbefriending I want to tie in is
is the symbol of the snake onthe staff, the, the rod of
asclepius, the greek god, son ofapollo, of healing, which is
(23:26):
that rod that represents thatwhich never changes, that which
is always grounded, like belindatalked about, taking that
sabbatical to ground and alsomark the most high.
So that static part,befriending something which is
unconditional Some call it, giveit some spiritual name, like
(23:47):
God or Tao or something likethat and also tapping into that
snake energy Otherwise it wouldbe too static.
So that dance of the static andthe dynamic, befriending those
two, the yin and yang, thenembodying it right and then
embracing it until it emanatesfrom the inside out, and then
(24:08):
hopefully, you have a reserve ofthat kind of energy to move
with stillness and hopefully 99%of the time.
Right, it doesn't have to be inthese major disaster situations
like I've been to in sort ofmedical mission, where you see
so much destruction anddevastation.
And I've been grateful becausemy sort of cycle or one of my
(24:32):
identities very powerfully isnot just the you know for almost
five decades that I've been inthis body, but I have a
spiritual body that I'mconnected to that has been
around for 2000 years.
If there's a sort of I don'twant to prescribe something, but
something that I found reallyuseful is you have to ground in
(24:53):
something, whether it's aspiritual lineage, whether it's
a goddess or a mother nature,something that you can rely on,
that you can find stability andanchor into before shit hits the
fan, so to speak.
And yeah, it's served me well,well, and I hope that we can
share around that, strategiesaround that or practices around
(25:15):
that, to help um, inoculatepeople with that, with that yin
yang kind of synergy, and dance,dance these waves and these,
like I said, these superimposedfire cycle ignitions, that that
is that's happening, bothcosmologically and socially and
(25:36):
even physiologically, andfinding ways to practice it.
You know, breath by breath,heartbeat by heartbeat, there's,
there is that fire energy there.
You don't have to wait untilthis big fire out there to to
master uh, fire alchemy.
Every, every breath has fire init.
Every thought has a fire aspectto it.
If you think of fire as one ofthe four seasons, that's
(25:58):
beautiful.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
As I listen to you both in terms of Melinda's
network that the art looks likeand Pauly's invoking this staff,
that sort of provides somecontinuity.
You know, I just think about mySaturday night where we went
out with longtime friends it wasthe councilman and our other
(26:22):
friend, kathy, and who she and Ihave worked together in lots of
different ways and just howspecial that moment felt for us.
He's obviously been in disasterresponse, like front lines um
of it, and with our families wewent to this balloon museum and
(26:45):
it's all these sort of like 15,20 different art exhibits that
are like interactive, like yougo into this like huge pool of
black balls and you can justlike be a little bit of a kid
again.
And it was just such this likerelief of just like oh, okay, we
can hold the serious things,but we can also we have to
(27:06):
remember to like just take abreak and like there's whimsy
matters too.
And I think part of the themeof the show is there's no limits
with art, right, we can imaginedifferent possibilities, and I
think part of what we are beinginvited to in this moment is to
imagine a different way ofliving.
And so I think the other thingis, I'm looking at the art and
(27:30):
I'm seeing these big kind oflily pad leaves, and that's what
I think is so beautiful aboutthe nasturtium is that it really
elevates the leaves as opposedto the flowers.
Most flowers you focus on theflower and the petals and the
leaves are in the background,whereas the nasturtium it flips
it and those petals kind of looklike circles it and those
(27:53):
petals kind of look like circles.
And one of the conversationsthat I had today with folks up
at Commonweal whose mission ishealing hearts and healing the
planet, and they hold healingcircles and they're like we
don't need just like a red crossthat's going to respond to
disaster with shelter and waterand food.
We need all those thingsabsolutely, but we also need
(28:17):
social infrastructure to helppeople hold space.
And that's what the grief andgratitude circle was a part of.
And so I was like we shouldcreate a circle of circles.
You know, and that's kind ofwhat this Nisrishium looks like
to me is this circle of circlesand how they are all sort of
connected.
And then, just the last thingI'll just say about friendship.
I think of the great writer CSLewis, and he talked a lot about
(28:42):
friendship, really in contrastto lovers, and the classic image
that he talked about is likelovers they face each other,
like their eyes are looking ateach other, whereas friends are
looking forward together.
And that's like one of the bigdifferences between a lover and
(29:04):
a friend is that with friends,you're just what are we looking
forward to?
You're more likely to beholding arms than gazing into
each other's eyes, and so Ithink maybe, going back to your
theme, belinda, of how do wenotice the small things before
they become big things is thatwhen you have friends looking
(29:26):
forward, you have more eyeslooking forward, right, like
there's more of you to noticewhat is going on, and I think
that's really the power offriendship, the power of
community.
We know that also, community isso resilient.
I've never received so many textmessages from so many friends
(29:48):
people literally I haven'ttalked to since college is from
so many friends.
People literally I haven'ttalked to since college reached
out to see how I was doing.
And so there's this deepnetwork of friends, and it's
maybe not the 2000 year lineagethat you get to pull on pole,
but there was like a 30 yearlineage of friendship that
showed up and super grateful forthat.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Well, I love that we get to kind of invite in that
spirit of self-friendship andfriendship with others in this
moment of transition.
You know, in many, manydifferent levels, there is just
this immense change in the airas we go from season to season
(30:34):
Winter is very different thanspring, and so I would love to
invite us to really feel thatconnection that Paul was
inviting to ground intosomething bigger than ourselves,
and also this connection, areminder that we're not alone.
You know in what we'renavigating.
(30:55):
And, omar, I loved how, in ourgrief and gratitude circle, we
played the song of the card andjust really felt into our hearts
together the spirit of thatplant.
And I did check we have thefriendship song.
So I was thinking it might benice for us to kind of be with
(31:18):
the music and just imaginingthat alignment and that
grounding, as well as thatexpansion out like the
nasturtium.
How does that feel as apractice?
Does anyone want to addanything to that for our
listeners as like a littletakeaway?
Speaker 1 (31:33):
I'll just say real quickly I'll let you jump in,
paul but, like you said,self-friendship, belinda and
that's literally the definitionof compassion, or
self-compassion is to be afriend to yourself, and so I
love that you sort of invokethat.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
that friendship isn't just with other people, but
it's also the compassion that wecultivate for ourselves yeah,
if I may add one more aspect tothe more ingredient to the pot
is is back to, nasturtium is oneof my best friends in nature.
So plant friends, not just thehomo sapiens, um, it's that,
(32:11):
it's edible, it's one of theflowers that our plants are very
clear that it's to recognizeand therefore safe.
Not recommending anything butfor myself, I usually, in this
case I guess, eat my friend andenjoy the flavor which is a bit
bitter, and enjoy the flavorwhich is a bit bitter and I want
(32:32):
to make a tie-in to Chinesemedicine, since I'm a doctor of
that is the bitter flavoractually is cooling and clearing
.
And if you expand that idea ofbitter, it's like bitter endings
even too right orsemi-bittersweet, perhaps even
in the word friend, right, maybesome of the most fond
friendships are have alreadyended right, but they really
(32:53):
affected you and you reallychanged a lot, or you hold
something within your heart thatwas quite profound from that,
that friendship that ended.
And part of that comes fromtasting the bitterness, not just
the you know, always sweetsaccharine vibes and uh.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
so yeah, I would love to sit in that and marinate in
that with the friendshipsoundtrack with you both this
was our collaboration with uh,the musician and artist, uh
ariel low, and they createdthree albums Garden of Joy,
(33:32):
garden of Curiosity and Gardenof Healing.
This song, friendship, is offof our Garden of Joy album,
which you can find on AppleSpotify, and really the
invitation as you listen to thissong, which is just it's a
short song, a minute and 22seconds is maybe notice where in
(33:54):
your body you feel this song.
Thank you.
(35:21):
So where did you hear the song?
Speaker 2 (35:25):
Somewhere in between my belly and my heart space.
There was something just supersweet and simple about the
chords.
I don't think I've really zonedin on this particular song
before.
I've always heard it as a wholealbum and it was so tender.
Speaker 3 (35:47):
What about you?
Speaker 2 (35:48):
guys.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
Yeah, me as well.
It's interesting that I spokeof that bittersweet.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
It's like melty dark chocolate.
Speaker 3 (35:59):
And I felt it in the middle of the center channel of
my body around the heart.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
Well, you'll appreciate this, belinda.
I felt it in my feet, thebottom of my feet, which is
always like your sort of likego-to meditation, is to pay
attention to your feet, and Ijust it felt like walking on a
forest floor that is like haslike a certain sort of density
(36:29):
of leaves or like moss, wherethere's just sort of like a
squishiness to it, but you'restill being really held by earth
, and so I just I felt that sortof gentle being gently held by
the earth.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
So I love that earth, friendship, spirit earth.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
There we go.
You know, Paul, it's, it'sgreat to have this collaboration
with you, you know, because youare able to pull from, you know
, the three M's of medicine,sort of the sort of the mental
work, the sort of the mysticalwork, I think medical, mystical.
(37:10):
What am I saying?
Speaker 3 (37:12):
Also the martial arts .
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
Martial, there we go.
Speaker 3 (37:14):
I knew I was going to say that it's okay, all the M's
, yeah, m and M.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
And so you know, I think this is a regular sort of
practice that we now want tokind of bring to our listeners
and try to do this every month.
So for this month, you know,also starts with M.
Is there something that youinvite folks to really pay
attention to?
Speaker 3 (37:38):
Yeah, so I talked about the fire, that's more the
year, that is, that we'retransitioning into the month
which begins the spring seasonand also the halfway point of
this space-time calendar of theequinoxes and solstices.
So halfway between the last,which was the winter solstice,
(38:02):
and the spring equinox is comingup in bulk in some traditions.
Right, lee lee twin in thechinese tradition is that
sprouting energy, or the energyof germination, and if we add a
little bit more alchemy, it'sthat wood and fire dynamic right
that moment.
When does that happen?
Like we've, I know, in mountshasta the last time I tried to
(38:26):
ignite some wood, right, and ittakes focus, right, it takes
intention and sensitivity to theelements, like you know, with
the match or with the paper,right, and so I think that's the
good threshold for us to tapinto in this month.
It's like, whether you see it aslike wood poof, right, sparking
, or right underground, nothingseems to be happening.
(38:46):
But maybe meditate, what arethe deeper seeds that you've
actually been kind ofgerminating and then reaching
that breakthrough point,sprouting into the surface, and
maybe that represents somethingaround your health, right, or
your finances, or yourrelationships or your
friendships to tap into, becausethat's present in in the, the
(39:08):
surroundings, the environment,and so if there is something
right, that that you want tocurate around germination of a
seed, what is that mostmeaningful?
I like to say maybe, uh, letsome of the other ones lie
fallow, maybe for the next, next, uh, ignition moment.
But what is the most meaningful, like like omar invited, like
(39:29):
that you feel in your body thatyou want to bring out, that to
tie into the other thing is thatalso is most serving to your
circles, concentric circles.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
I love that you've invited this, and the image that
came to me almost immediatelywas the it's called the Mataliha
poppy, and it only germinatesafter a fire, because it's a
rhizome that sort of sits reallykind of below the soil and it's
(40:03):
this beautiful.
It's got like these whitepetals and this like yellow egg
yolk center, so it almost lookslike a fried egg, and so I just
I love that sort of reminderthat you know fire is not just
destructive, we know it is, butwe also know that parts of
nature only actually come aliveafter this fire, and so I feel
(40:25):
like this, it's like a perfectinvitation for us to focus on
Any thing for you, belinda.
Speaker 2 (40:37):
Well, I'm just really grateful that we have this
moment of pause every month nowfor this fourth season of our
podcast we're now over 120episodes and just to
collectively pay attention towhat's happening in the natural
world.
And we will be collaboratingwith Grad 2, blooming and Dr
Paul's organization, dowology,on a seasonal series where we
(40:59):
get to really lean into thatmore preparing for the season
ahead.
So we'll be launching thatcoming up next month.
As Dr Paul was saying, just howdo we prepare for spring in our
bodies, in our emotional bodies, in our physical bodies, in our
mental bodies, in our spiritualbodies?
And I feel like when I watchwhat's happening in the natural
(41:21):
world with the plants, like theyare always evolving and
adapting on all those levelsalmost, and it's just happening
very naturally on all thoselevels almost, and it's just
happening very naturally,whereas it's just a lot harder.
As a human, we like to have somethings stay the same, so they
feel familiar, but then itbecomes stagnant sometimes, and
then that's when things start tokind of fall apart, and so I'm
(41:45):
just excited to invite in alittle bit of that breaking
through the falling apart, the,the like what can happen when we
let the change through.
So, yeah, we're really excitedto share more about that.
As, uh, as we launch, we'll adda link to the um, the
(42:06):
registration there on thepodcast episodes.
Yeah, omar, any anything elseto close, Just as you were
sharing.
Speaker 1 (42:14):
what immediately came to me is that, in nature, the
word friendship is ecosystem,and so it's just like how do we
be in an ecosystem together?
Speaker 2 (42:26):
That's a beautiful inquiry for season four.
How do we be in the ecosystem?
What is the ecosystem.
Speaker 1 (42:37):
Well, stay tuned and we look forward to more
conversations, cheers, cheers.
Speaker 3 (42:42):
Thank you all.
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