MOUNTAIN TEA, The Creative

MOUNTAIN TEA is walking the I Ching for four months, learning to rebuild from what is being torn apart. Finding direction in the Tao. To hopefully do as Sonya Renee Taylor suggests, "We will not go back to normal. Normal never was. Our pre-corona existence was not normal other than we normalized greed, inequity, exhaustion, depletion, extraction, disconnection, confusion, rage, hoarding, hate and lack. We should not long to return, my friends. We are being given the opportunity to stitch a new garment. One that fits all of humanity and nature." To do as Juli Vincent Gambullo suggests, "Take a deep breath, ignore the deafening noise, and think deeply about what you want to put back into your life. This is our chance to define a new version of normal, a rare and truly sacred (yes, sacred) opportunity to get rid of the bullshit and to only bring back what works for us, what makes our lives richer, what makes our kids happier, what makes us truly proud." 

I have recently found Café au Soul, a wonderful online source for the I Ching. For Qian, The Creative, Hexagram 1 says, “Meeting the world of events, you may believe that you have nothing to do with what is unfolding. There is an inconsistency of belief, each time you take responsibility for your success, but blame events for your failure. To discover Tao's fundamental harmony you must first uncover your connection to what unfolds.” What do we have to do with the coronavirus, with the rising and spreading of disease? 

I am following Coronavirus reports on WHO, Al Jazeera, the BBC, CNN and the NYTimes, trying to understanding the underlying troubles the pandemic is revealing, who is suffering, who is benefitting, who is taking responsibility, who is blaming, the politics this virus is feeding. My mother has not been not in contact with her children for 9 days. We contacted a neighbor to check on her. She reports seeing my mother coming and going. Perhaps my mother oblivious to the pandemic? Not everyone deals with disaster the same way.

It is time to begin what we believe we cannot achieve, but dream of doing. “When this energy of empowerment remains dormant in the psyche we can give our power away. This suppressed energy funds the Shadow in dreams, a great source of our original power. We therefore project and encounter it in others until we can own it and become fully empowered. If you currently feel held back or victimized, remove the shackles because they are merely self limiting beliefs.” (Cafeausoul.com)

Reports are coming out that Black Americans are suffering higher fatalities, not surprising to anyone who knows about health disparities in the USA. "Epidemics follow social fractures. If you have society that is fractured, or fracturing, you know that's where the disease is going to go," says Mindy Thompson Fullilove, professor of urban policy and health at The New School in NYC. “In health disparities, the fault lines are not merely racial.” I read that there are no fault lines in Vermont or New Hampshire. The nearest fault line is thousands of miles away in the Atlantic Ocean and yet New England and Eastern Canada have seen magnitude 5 and 6 earthquakes. When we dream, we must dream together, harnesses the entirety of humankind.

I had a strong hike Monday, walking Hexagram #1, Ch’ien (Qian), The Creative. By Monday evening it was apparent something was wrong with my toes. I’d applied a new product to them Sunday evening, something a pharmacist recommended. Nothing new, just trying something for thickening nails. Last year I applied tea tree oil, which seemed to be making a difference slowly. This new product is meant to clear up the condition in 7 applications. Speed. Chemicals. A friend bought it for me. I applied it to my nails, under my nails and the surrounding skin as instructed, once and only to my big toes. By the end of my hike Monday, I was experiencing nail pain. I figured my feet were swollen from the hike and my nails sore from hitting the tips of my shoes. It’s happened before on downhills in southern CA where summer temps are high.

Tuesday evening, my big toes were too tender to touch, the skin around them burned. I was walking funny and could not wear socks or shoes. A blister was forming under both nail beds, forcing the nail up. Ouch! The next two days it worsened, then slowly improved.

It is Friday. One of my blisters broke last night, painfully. The weather is stunning and cool. The trail is teasing. I do not want a quick solution at the expense of my health or the health of our planet. I have been resting and caring for my toes. My new pack arrived, my other gear is on the way. Tomorrow I will walk again and hopefully push through Pisgah State Park.

 The deaths are mounting in NYC, unclaimed bodies are being buried on Hart Island. My brother and his fiancée live in lower Manhattan, several other dear friends in Brooklyn, Astoria, the Bronx. I myself was living in NYC in November, looking for housing after a year abroad. I did not find anything I could afford so started looking further north. Perhaps that was a blessing, as I believe my immunity compromised from a low igA finally diagnosed in Mongolia. I am still recovering perhaps from a combination of over working and repeated exposure to chemicals from past employment in shipyards, woodshops, fabrication shops.

In the past the mountains have cured me. I believe they can cure me again. In 2005 I spent a summer as a climbing ranger on Mt Rainier after two years in NYC and quickly recovered from the chronic headaches I was experiencing in graduate school where I was working full time, going to school full time, under sleeping and subsisting on a diet of bagels, pizza and popcorn. Within two weeks I was hiking vigorously, 18+ miles per day.

The master says: “you cannot plant a large tree within a small pot.” Plant yourself in an environment of expansion. Open yourself to wonder because what you experience is only limited by your beliefs. To be successful, you must ensure that any self doubt or insecurity is eliminated.  (CaféauSoul.com).