Yesterday I went berry picking. It was a sunny breezy day after heavy rains and the berries were plump and relatively untouched by critters and bugs and summer’s dank heat. The flora and fauna were lush enough to give me pause as I trailed along in shorts and hiking boots vigilant for the poison ivy that seems to hug the briars. These first wineberries and blackberries burst from their briars into my cupped hands as if searching for their purpose in all their succulence. Here is my haul.
This time of summer is abundance. It is, in Chinese medical speak, yang within yang. This means light upon light, heat upon heat, spirit upon spirit, and activity breeding activity. The birds sing maniacally and the winged insects buzz, zip and zap about. The trees in their full foliage generously bend their sinewy limbs to the breeze.
Fire is the season of heart and connection. It’s color is as red as the wineberries I collected with my puppy Roxy (also known as TAO, The Adorable One) sniffing underfoot. In the midst of summer fire we gather with friends around grills and parks, baseball and watering holes. We watch fireworks displays as if the world’s combustion engine has generated so much excess the sparks are spitting out into the universe with fireflies twirling in commiseration.
The elements in your life that bring light and energy and connection are those that nourish your fire, your heart. The heart is both powerful and delicate. In Chinese medicine, we think of the heart as the Emperor. All life is in service to the heart, the true desire, the ‘you’ness of you. It seeks to venture forth, to connect, but it also requires a settling, a resting like a red bird nestled in a leaf- lined nest.
The Heart Protector guards the gate to the heart. It can assist in protecting the fragility of our spirit, and it can overwork and constrict our desire to give and reach outward. The energetic pathway of this Pericardium begins in the middle of the chest at the sac surrounding the heart and then it descends down the body through the diaphragm and another part comes up past the nipple and around the armpit and down the inside of the arm to end at the tip of the middle finger. The ‘fire’ point on this meridian is near the center of the palm.
Here is a photo marking the location of my Heart Protector fire point:
When you shake hands with someone upon greeting or parting, you are touching your heart protector with theirs. You are also touching the fire point of your heart meridians together, but I shall save the particulars of that for another post.
What of your being and true heart might you wish to grasp with your life and share with the world? Is there anything blocking your ability to live fully and completely your life? If so, we would welcome the privilege to facilitate that conversation and keep you company on this journey.
The sound of fire is laughter.
May you have a gracious plenty of that in these warm summery days.
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