Learn Reiki

One of the coolest things Dan and I have done together is spent a snowy February weekend in New Hampshire learning and receiving Reiki from John Harvey Gray and Lourdes Gray.

Reiki is a form of hands on healing that is very beautiful.

John Harvey Gray is over 90 and is one of the original twenty two Reiki masters to be initiated in the West. Lourdes Gray works very closely with John and is a wonderful teacher.

We stayed at the Ashburn House in Fitzwilliam, NH. Again, such amazing, gorgeous breakfasts!

Dan and I Reiki each other and Oskar all the time. It is always there for my patients and me in my acupuncture practice.

It's especially great to have Reiki when you have a child.

Dan and I studied the second Reiki course with Lynn Margileth in New York.

Anyone can learn and receive it.

First Month of Pregnancy: Conception

To enter the gate of inexhaustibility
And to roam in the fields of infinity.
I shall mingle my light with that of the sun and moon,
And will become eternal with heaven and earth.

Chuang Tzu, translated by Mair.

About one year ago, Oskar was conceived, when the Yin and Yang of Dan and me met within my womb.

"In the midst of the darkness there is a point of divine living potential which comes forth from the Dao, merging from out of the infinite space of the Wuji (primordial universe)."

During the first month of pregnancy, the mother cares for the embryo, nurturing the first spark of life. Her spirit enters through the umbilical cord to foster the development of the embryo's spirit, heritage, and physical form.

Expectant mothers would do well to nourish their spirits during the first month.

(From: Sui Dynasty Imperial Physician Chao Yuan Fang as written in Energetic Anatomy and Physiology (Chinese Medical Qigong Therapy, Volume 1) by Jerry Alan Johnson)

My Favorite Nursing Bra

My friend Emily turned me on to the Belabumbum lotus lace seamless nursing bra, my favorite! My other nursing bras from Medela are like maximum security prisons, they keep everything in but leave a lot to be desired in comfort and style. This one is so comfortable and beautiful, a hard to find combination in nursing bras.

Capucine, where Emily took me, is the best new mom boutique I have ever been in! From their website:

"As a woman, you're conditioned to feel as if you must choose between sexiness and maternity. Well, the time has come to let go of this old attitude about motherhood and experience the magic of looking like a Goddess at Capucine boutique. We will keep you in top fashion form with beautiful, original clothing pieces gathered from all around the world."

Hello.

Autobiography of a Spiritually Incorrect Mystic

"In those first, early years I was so lonely that I started enjoying it--and it is really a joy. So it was not a curse to me, it proved a blessing. I started enjoying it, and I started feeling self-sufficient; I was not dependent on anybody...

I can still see myself in those earliest years, just sitting. We had a beautiful spot where our house was, just in front of a lake. Far away for miles, the lake... and it was so beautiful and so silent. Only once in a while would you see a line of white cranes flying, or making love calls, and the peace would be disturbed; otherwise, it was the most perfect place for meditation. And when a love call from a bird would disturb the peace... after his call the peace would deepen...

The lake was full of lotus flowers, and I would sit for hours so self-confident, as if the world did not matter: the lotuses, the white cranes, and the silence..."

This is how Osho describes his first seven years, seven being significant in so many other ways, seven (or eight) being the cycle of human development in East Asian medicine, the cycle of child development from Steiner's perspective. No wonder, then, that Osho became fully who he was. Always authentic.

"I am wild, and I will remain wild."

This is one of my favorite books!

Green Hope Farm Flower Essences

I love Green Hope Farm's flower essences. They are so beautiful and powerful. A few drops in drinking water, a few drops in the bath, a few drops directly onto my tongue when I really feel the call... whenever I mix up my shea butter, I add in a few drops.

At Green Hope Farm, they use Red Shiso as a stabilizer instead of alcohol, which is wonderful.

Some of my favorite combinations:

Babies of Light
Centered Birth
Golden Armor
Hesperides' Gift
Precious Blood
To Hear the Angels Sing
To Thine Own Self Be True
Watch Your Back

Here is an amazing list of all the ways in which flower essences can be of benefit.

(Image from Green Hope Farm's website.)

Temple Lodging in Koya San, Japan

Koya San, Japan is the seat of the Shingon sect of Japanese Buddhism and is shaped like a lotus flower, eight peaks surrounding a valley.

In November of 2007, I and four of my friends bathed like sardines packed in spring water at Shojoshin-in, a temple in Koya San. We were on a study trip with our teacher, Kiiko Matsumoto, to study with her teacher Kawaii Sensei and some of her colleagues, lead by the fearless Emilie Connor. It was an amazing experience, especially on the bathing front!

At Shojoshin-in, we stayed in traditional Japanese style on tatami mats, wearing yukata, sitting for morning meditation with the monks, and enjoying amazing, gorgeously-set vegetarian meals.

These images are from http://shojoshin-in.blogspot.com/.

Oskar's First Fall Equinox

We went to Brooklyn Bridge Park and made time with Mother Earth.

Autumn Equinox

At 5:18pm, day and night are in perfect balance at the autumn equinox. A moment later, darkness will gain ground, and the light will begin its waning.

A time to celebrate the earth, as elemental, as great mother, and as home; the harvest: the treasures of the land; and our bodies.

Eat well, fill bellies.

Give thanks today.

Guide to (Child) Health

"Health and the ability to love:

We have said that being healthy means being able to confront the world's phenomena freely and with interest. Two aberrations are possible here--on the one hand, withdrawing from the world in order to brood and believing that the truth that will change the world can be found only within ourselves; on the other hand, succumbing completely to the allure of daily life, increasingly renouncing self-assertion, and being driven by events like a leaf in the wind. Inner integrity in the first instance and self-sacrifice in the second--both positive attributes unless taken to extremes--become unbalanced. Being healthy means being able to make flexible use of our options as the situation demands... We can speak of illness only when people lose self-control or are so fixed within themselves that they can no longer alter their situation by themselves...

Both the self-sacrificer and the egotistical loner lose the ability to love. This ability, however, is the inner foundation of human health. On the one hand, it means being able to take part in the world's affairs with interest, allowing the people and events in our surroundings to become alive in our own souls; on the other it means holding back and allowing others to be free."

From pages 134-135.

Then I Met Lynn

About seven years ago, I hit bottom. Everything that I had carefully and with great determination engineered for a life my whole life was making me miserable. My dream job disappointed me, some undiagnosable gastrointestinal illness afflicted me, and I was alone: my perfect-on-paper boyfriend had quit, and my circle of friends lay fallow.

Then I met Lynn, Pathwork helper, artist, musician, great mother.

It seems like everything in my life has pivoted around my first counseling session with Lynn.

Six months later, I was traveling the world, meeting my husband, traveling some more, preparing to enter a masters program in acupuncture, and making lots of friends.

Now I couldn't imagine being happier or more fulfilled.

Thank you Lynn!

Vietnamese Food

At Nha Trang (87 Baxter Street), this is what we usually order:

Barbeque Beef Appetizer
Salt and Pepper Shrimp
Hollow Vegetable
Lemongrass Chicken
Whole Grilled Fish
Soda Lemonade

Delicious!

(Image from http://www.nychinatown.org/storefronts/baxter/87baxter.html)

Losing Time in Mexico

A few years ago, Dan and I desperately needed to travel... we were long time, but short funds.

This is what we did:
We flew on frequent flier miles to Cozumel.
Stayed at Alicia's B & B (a mere $30 a night then, and Chuco is a master of breakfasts and fresh guacamole).
We snorkled every day.

We were there so long, and we were so lost in vacation, that we seriously lost track of time: we celebrated Dan's birthday for three days because we kept mixing up the date.

Acupuncture in the Blood

I was googling myself: (Nancy Park Acupuncture) and one of the links that came up sent me to my parents!

My favorite part, in my mother's part of the bio: "Our Patients love her gentle hands!"

Some things do run in the family.

I am so tickled!

Oskar's Birth

Oskar was born on Sunday night, May 31st in the water at our home in Brooklyn. I am powerful beyond all my imagining, and it was revealed to me that night. I can't wait to do it again.

Firewalk

At the Goddess Conference this summer, three fires were lit for walking: the maiden, mother, and crone.

Having just borne a child, the mother fire called me.

The ritual for walking across this fire called for an offering to be made, something to feed the fire, something for the fire to consume.

My post-partum period was one of the most difficult of my life. One of the most vicious demons that haunted me was perfectionism. So I offered it, along with some incense, to the mother fire.

And, though I wasn't expecting to find the strength, I walked.

It was exhilarating.

It was a gift.

It was a healing.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

The best in Brooklyn are made at Jacques Torres in Dumbo!
I found the recipe online!

In Manhattan, my favorite are at Petrossian Cafe!

On the Virtues of Taking the Slow Boat

In March of 2003, I left my life behind to travel.

I flew to Bangkok on the 3rd, and by March 27th, I was floating down the Mekong River on the slow boat next to a tall, mysterious fox in navy and green. You have two choices in the northern Thailand crossing into Luang Prabang, Laos: the slow boat takes two days in a leisurely drift, whereas the time taken by the fast boat can be measured in mere hours. With the fast boat, however, they hand you a crash helmet upon boarding, which sufficiently ensures the popularity of the slow boat, no matter the rush.

Within three days of meeting him, I fell treacherously in love.

Esoteric Acupuncture

Today is my first day back to the office since Oskar's birth, and I am excited to be back. I have dearly missed my patients and my work.

There are many styles of acupuncture to practice, and my favorite is esoteric. My first esoteric acupuncture treatment was a pattern called the Spirit Path. The next day, Dan and I conceived Oskar.

When I was pregnant with Oskar, my friend Anna treated me during my final months, and I had so many breathtakingly beautiful experiences on her table. Once, the light of the universe flowed in through my crown chakra and filled my womb. Oskar swam, bathed in starlight. I felt so blessed.

100 Days

One hundred days of Oskar and of motherhood. A crucible of one hundred constantly changing days: the transformation of my family from vesica piscis to the tripod of life. Today, a celebration of life. Hooray!

I am a new mother, besotted wife, second-generation acupuncturist, priestess, happy Brooklynite, world traveller, and I plan to write on a broad spectrum of things I want to share.

I hope you enjoy.

Love,
Nancy