A couple of months ago, I decided to move my creative writing over to Substack and start a whole different community of readers and supporters here. The time had come, I felt, to separate those subscribers to my newsletter who were interested in my professional activities related to Chinese medicine (courses, publications, nerdy blogs, translations, text readings etc) from those who might enjoy my personal writings, on farming, sustainability, poetry, food, and whatever else strikes me as helpful to share from my privileged place of peaceful island life. Of course those audiences overlap, and my apologies to those of you who subscribe to both my substack and my professional newsletter for duplicate information. I try and keep it to a minimum.
That said, it is impossible to separate what I do at 6 am from what I do at 9 am, for obvious reasons. Spending this past week as the surrogate mom of 7 baby ducklings is bound to affect the topics I choose for upcoming courses, as does my government’s illegal abduction and incarceration of immigrants for expressing anti-government opinions and other events that shape my personal life. The fact that the mere act of writing this on Substack affects my ability to commit to international lecturing trips and family visits to Germany makes my blood curdle. But heck yeah, this cruelty and greed and ugliness only strengthens my commitment to speak out and do everything in my little old lady power to minimize the harm done by the Tangerine Tyrant and his enablers, and to work towards a world full of love and beauty and kindness.
What does any of this have to do with Postpartum Pampering? Why can’t I just stay in my lane and offer academic courses on traditional Chinese gynecology filled with historical formulas, acupuncture point protocols, and diagnostic tips? And where do the baby ducklings come in?
Well, the new episode of “Pebble in the Cosmic Pond” podcast, which will drop on the new moon, April 28, will explain the duckling connection. Catch it in a few days wherever you get your podcast or check out the podcast website:
I am pretty confident that it will make you smile no matter how bleak you may be feeling. Who can resist the chirping of baby ducklings??? In the meantime, my teaching partner Leo Lok and I have been busy designing an online course on “Postpartum Pampering in Traditional Chinese Medicine,” which we will be teaching throughout the month of June. You can learn more about our latest offering on the public information page for this course:
While this course is intended as a continuing education opportunity for practitioners of Chinese medicine and will focus on diagnoses and solutions rooted in the texts and spirit of traditional Chinese medicine, we warmly welcome anybody with an interest in supporting new mothers (and yes, before you rip my head off, there will be a future statement on my very intentional choice of the word “mother” in this context, so please do not jump to conclusions prematurely). And the intention of this course is to bring this ancient wisdom into the modern context, to benefit and transform both your clinical practices and your personal lives, so we very much intend for it to be relevant and helpful not just to licensed acupuncturists but to any healers out there.
To help us create the most powerful and transformative healing experience possible for everybody involved, Leo and I are delighted to invite any and all of you, over the next few weeks, to a series of free, fun, informative, and heartfelt gatherings of community-building and co-creation on the topic of Postpartum Pampering! We feel great passion for this topic because we believe that mothers need and deserve pampering, envisioned as a soft fluffy blanket of loving care that goes beyond meeting utilitarian reasons and necessities yet is fully informed and guided by millennia of meticulously preserved wisdom and experience of our medical ancestors in Chinese Medicine.
Our first of a number of FREE gatherings happens this Sunday, April 27, at 9:00 - 10:00 AM (Pacific Time) over Zoom. Please come to learn, listen, and participate, and also help us spread the word by sharing this Zoom link widely (https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5159446818?omn=81698166846)…
Leo and I can’t wait to see you there…
"What cloaks of protection, layers of warmth, cushions of comfort, and delightful treats of delicacies can we envision together to honor those in our world who perform the precious service of mothering new life?" ― Sabine Wilms