Quiz questions:
1) What attracts me to Chinese Medicine? ..... it's all inclusiveness. i can't imagine ever getting bored with my studies of Chinese medicine because its discussion can include an infinite number of life-giving areas to ponder: the human body, the mind, Nature, culinary arts, qi gong/tai qi, literature, poetry, theology, history, herbology, astrology, the Elements, I Ching, Acupuncture, and how we relate to the world and to ourselves.
2) What do I honestly think of Physics, really? ..... i think of movement and energy, force and inertia, gravity and impact. i am no longer familiar with any mathematical equations related to the law and order of physical properties. i see how these are interesting mechanisms for some, but i don't think that i am searching to have the universe explained to me in this way. i am, however, very interested in exploring the ambiguity of reality and time and the forces of nature that are at work in our solar system and on earth.
3)Now that I think about it, have I ever experienced time "slowing down"? .....yes, most certainly. sometimes to my delight and sometimes to my despair. recently, on a 12 day trip to guatemala my senses were so entertained by the new sights and experiences that i felt like i was there for a month. each moment was so rich and full, as we took our time to do everything. as i rush about in my daily life time doesn't seem to flow in this same generous way.
My reflections on "The Meaning of Time":
whew. this is a big one. i relate time to the minutes on the clock and also to periods in my life, as in "we had a good time" or "that time in my life was very special because..." or "this time i'm going to do things differently." either way, something that seems to be very measured or exact-- either a moment in time is over, happening, or hasn't happened yet-- feels very ethereal and hard to grasp. the meaning of time is what you make of it,really. of course, other people do try to impose their meanings of time onto our days as we schedule appointments or accrue late payments. for me, i think that i am trying to take this concept of time into my own hands and obey a greater law that determines my happiness on a daily basis. this is the LAW OF FLOW. flow, just like time, is most certainly relative, and must be considered at the bend around every second. you don't always have to cognitively make room for flow in your life, but the habit of doing so leaves space for it to happen on its own. flow is like opening up all of those unimaginable spaces between each second and aligning yourself to move into the next without resistance. this doesn't mean to just "let it all go," but to follow the path of least resistance according to our Spirit's sense of peace. sometimes this means following our own beat and measuring truth by our own standards and sometimes this means incorporating others' notions of time into our flow in order to cause less resistance in our day. we all know how much better we feel when our credit card bills are paid on time or when we haven't missed half of the movie or interrupted an important class discussion because we decided to show up when felt like it. flow turns time into a sensory experience because it is the slightest intuition, feeling of dis-ease, or clarity of thought that makes us (often unconsciously) choose our next movement; if we are aligned with the path that the universe is constantly unfurling for us, time will feel neither fast nor slow, invasive nor lost. the #1 rule of flow is to follow the path that will bring you the most abundance; this may mean knowledge, silence, material necessity or many things depending on what is perfect for you in that moment. i, myself, have many thoughts and reminders about the importance of flow in my day, but have by no means "tapped in" to this spirit-filled way of being. i feel stress, or my resistance to flow, most of the time. i jumble the nostalgia of the past and anxiousness about the future with the present constantly. time feels like it puts up a lot of borders that i'm always negotiating my way around. flow is what i'm here this lifetime to find.... i'll keep trying....
