Flesh and Blood Again

It has been a long week. For most of it, I've been sick.

The Sufi acupuncturist says I am suffering from autumnal dry heat. Oh yeah. I surely am. Dry cough, a fever, but most notable: a heaviness that was not exhaustion. Exhaustion is a condition I think of as a vacuum, a nothing, no energy at all. Exhaustion is depletion. What I suffered from was quite different. This week's heaviness felt metallic. I felt as if I were made of iron. I felt like a large cube of rusty iron. It was not pleasant. If I'd had any energy, I would have worried. I did as little as possible during the days, slept hard and long at night, but woke up as heavy as the day before. Odd. At last I got in to see the Sufi acupuncturist, the only health care professional I know who would completely understand my symptoms.

Fortunately, the miracle of Chinese medicine has set me to rights, even though I had to drink a truly terrible tea in addition to the acupuncture. It was worth it. I am restored. Thank god for the Sufi acupuncturist! I am grateful.

The leaves are turning and the days have been alternately pewter, with roiling clouds and bitter winds, or bright and sunny with shocking blue skies. It's 6:23 in DC, almost dark already. It is autumn, alright.

In spite of the dry heat, my body's way of dancing in shamanic alignment with the shift in seasons, I love autumn.

Shalom.