feet feet feet

Next on my very informal review of a few alternative healing therapies is reflexology, a therapeutic foot massage. Reflexology, or something close to it, was used both in ancient Egypt and ancient China.  Like many other alternative therapies it is a therapy that has been around for quite some time and we are re/discovering it in our search for less invasive, more gentle, and less expensive treatment methods than the allopathic (conventional) medical system.  Reflexology is a massage therapy and energy healing system applied to specific points under the feet and based on the assumption that specific areas of the foot soles relate to specific organs and areas of the body.  

Similar to acupuncture, reflexology too aims to rebalance the body's energy flow, which in turn promotes healing.  Most of all reflexology is extremely relaxing.  If you believe nothing else about it, you will come out of a one-hour session very relaxed and content.

For more information check out the Reflexology Association of America, the New York State Reflexology Association and the American Reflexology Certification Board.

the sacredness of things

Mass production takes the sacredness and magic out of things.  It makes them cheap.  One-of-a-kind things, like artwork or a hand made craft or a knitted sweater, or even an apple pie made from scratch, are infused with the imprint of the maker.  Such an item has a totally different energy than say that cheap plastic mug with its advertising logo, which ends up first as a pencil cup (although, annoyingly, it keeps tipping over), or as a brush cup (the weight of the water keeps it standing), but then inevitably gets thrown away or at least recycled.

Why do you hesitate to throw away your high schooler's clay bowl she made in 3rd grade?  Why can't I get myself to throw the chocolate rose away my son gave me in 2nd grade for Mother's Day, and which has been sitting in our dining room cabinet for eight years now?  Because these things are infused with significance and meaning.

But I am ruthless with cheap stuff we seem to collect - useless Disney key chains (how many key chains do you need?), plastic Lei from some party long ago which lost their magic the morning after, too many t-shirts with logos and pictures to advertise someone else's cause, plastic toys too ugly and cheap to save for future generations.

Buy less, but buy thoughtful, or make it.

forget your watch

I did not take a watch on our recent camping trip.    It really did not matter what time I woke up and climbed out of the tent, what time I sipped tea and ate breakfast, what time I went biking or ate lunch.  You can actually tell pretty accurately by the sun's standing in the sky and the quality of the sunlight about what time it is  - not that it really matters when you're on vacation.  It is nice to just let yourself float through the day by your feelings of hunger or need for rest or activity. The accounting of time and its equation with money rob time of its magical qualities - and us of our connection with nature.  Charles Eisenstein wrote that John Zerzan thought "Clocks make time scarce and life short."  Remember when childhood summer afternoons stretched languorously and lazily into eternity?  I am sure it has happened to you that you had to get something specific done in a fairly short amount of time - and managed somehow magically to accomplish it within that tight timeframe.   Swedish children's book author Astrid Lindgren wrote in The Children of Noisy Village that it is those endless Christmas Eve afternoons that are responsible for our gray hair because those afternoons stretch on forever and ever and ever.  And you might have seen Salvador Dalí's famous painting of the stretchy clocks.

It's Labor Day  week-end.  Put your watch away and enjoy time without counting it.