I grew up in a very different era… perhaps you did too.  I would spend the entire day outside, building forts, playing hide and seek, jumping in the Fall leaves.  Sure I would get ticks on me but not being the squeamish type, I would simply remove them with tweezers and be done with it.

I wish I could say that those carefree days of my youth have remained carefree for us all.  It is likely that the ticks of my youth were mostly dog ticks… far less concerning (and slower) than the deer ticks we now live among. We do live in a different time and in a place that is rife with deer ticks carrying all sorts of diseases (not just Lyme).

Clearing away brush at the end of this past February (that’s right, it was technically winter!) getting the garden ready for Spring, I joined numerous family members, friends, and patients… I was infected.  I believed that I was dressed correctly (25% DEET, my socks over my pants, long sleeves, gloves), I inspected for ticks at the end of the day and never saw one… but l am guessing that I didn’t have the skin between the gloves and my coat sleeves treated.   I had an odd little rash 2 or 3 days later, but it was too early to test… so we waited 2 weeks for the antibody response to build in my system. 2 days before I was going to be tested I noticed my right knee started to feel swollen, warm and very sore for no apparent reason. It took me until the next day to realize this was a classic symptom of Lyme disease.  But I was lucky – it was detected and treated early with doxicycline… but the blood test, a Western blot, turned out to be negative as it very often does.

My hope is to help to increase awareness so we can enjoy the beautiful outdoors safely as well as help educate folks about how to get tested and treated appropriately.

Some facts you need to know:

• • The rate of Lyme disease in NH is among the highest in the nation
  • Rockingham, Hillsborough and Strafford counties have the highest rates in NH

• 66.3% of ticks collected between 2007 & 2009 tested positive for the organism that causes Lyme disease

Ever wonder how many folks have been affected? Try this unscientific experiment, ask everyone you know (perhaps posting the question on social media sites such as Facebook): does anyone NOT know someone who has been infected with Lyme or other tick borne disease?  When I did this, I could not find one person.

Check out the Health Info Tick Awareness pages for some important information and links to some great online resources.  I cannot emphasize this enough… you must be proactive and protect yourself!

“In Taoist tradition, it is said that when the yang and yin essences of the parents unite at the moment of conception, the star seeds of the shen are scooped up in the ladle of the Big Dipper and poured down into the heart of the developing embryo.”[1]

All ‘organs’ in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) are energetic as well as physical and encompass body, mind and spirit as one. They often have some unique properties that we don’t normally associate with the organs the way we are used to thinking of them.   TCM theory views the heart in its own way… it is more than simply the organ that moves blood in our bodies.

Home of the Shen

The heart houses the spirit, or ‘Shen’.  The Shen guides us in life, provides us with intuition, and insight.  It is that knowing that goes beyond logic… the place where we can access our deepest being.  When a person is aligned with their life’s purpose and their energies are balanced, it shows up in their lustrous complexion and bright eyes.

Emptiness as the gateway

There is emptiness at our center of our being.  This is the Tao’s home.  This type emptiness does not mean that nothing is there, but rather the potential for creation lies there in waiting.  It is the moment between in breath and out breath.

Fire within

The heart is the place where those ‘star seeds of the shen’ reside.  The fire that lights this empty space is the fire of the heart.  To be able to access this fire, we must be quiet. When we can even momentarily silence the chatter of our minds, this is when we can hear their whisper quietly guiding us back to our Source of being.

In Taoism, the wu wei (the way of emptiness) resides in the heart.   So when we calm our mind and nourish those deepest aspects of ourselves, we strengthen our hearts. This holds true for our physical as well as our spiritual heart.

How does one calm the mind?  Meditation, tai chi, qigong are superb traditional methods.  But it matters less what we do, than how we do it.  Some find quietly painting or perhaps actively, rhythmically running are ways to nourish emptiness and calm the mind.

May we all find the fire of the shen within and follow the way that it is being lit uniquely for each of us.

Image courtesy of NASA Goddard Photo and Video NASA Goddard Space Flight Center