Whispering of Willows 49

By Dr. Anna Zhao

Winter has arrived; when the cold wind blows, the bare trees appear to be trembling. Dr. Ali clothed all the roses with a layer of plastic, to protect them from freezing. It has been raining almost every day recently, with the sky gloomy and grey. The blooming flowers and the densely packed golden fruit are now but a distant memory.

No matter how cold and gloomy the outside becomes, the soft lights in the clinic are shining warmly. We again worked on Christmas Day and will be open for New Year’s Day as in previous years.

 Last Christmas Eve, a teenage boy came in with his violin, and the moving music he played made us cry with joy. No violinist to add to our day this year, but a few people’s sincerity left unforgettable impressions on us.

 One of them is C. He works hard all year round, and today, due to his wife’s urging, he came in to let us tune up his extremely sore body. After his treatment, C paid the bill. He searched in his wallet, taking out all his other cash, all the ten and twenty dollar notes, and said, "This is a little gift for both of you."

My eyes widened and I quickly replied, "Ah, no, C, we appreciate your kindness but we do not accept gifts."

He looked at me, puzzled, "Why not?"

He insisted, and Dr. Daniel, who to this point had not said a word, gingerly folded all the bills one by one, making a neat stack, which he quietly put back into C's wallet. Then with a smile, he gave C a pat on the arm, and saw him out.

Recently, in addition to physical injuries, we have dealt with quite a few patients with internal medicine issues, many with respiratory issues, such as chronic cough or sore throat. Several patients waited for hours in area hospital emergency rooms, finally getting impatient enough to depart for our clinic. We did what were trained to do; acupuncture, cupping, massage and herbal medicine. Dr. Daniel joked that maybe soon, I could solely prescribe herbal medicine like many traditional Chinese medicine practitioners in China.

 Indeed, if I had to choose, my favorite treatments would still be herbal medicine and Qigong. Qigong means medical meditation and visualization.

This is a Qigong treatment I gave Y a few days ago; she gave me permission to share it in this article:

 Y's main complaint is insomnia. She said she hadn't had a good sleep for a long, long time. And when she finally fell asleep, she always woke up in the middle of the night, and it was difficult to fall asleep again. Even if she fell asleep after tossing and turning, the quality of her sleep was very poor. She had the habit of clenching her teeth when she slept. When she woke up, she not only didn't feel relaxed or refreshed, but felt exhausted and achy, and that her cheeks were hard, tight and painful.

"Ah," I inserted a needle into her forehead, "Y, just by looking at your tongue, I feel that you are under too much stress."

"I wasn't like this before," she replied bitterly, "Life has hit me too hard."

I brought her into a quiet state, and then suggested: "Describe to me a picture of your happiest time."

She thought for a while, "A picture from my childhood often appears in my mind. At that time, I was a cheerful, giggly girl. I still remember when I was young, we had just immigrated from Eastern Europe. I held my mother's hand and walked with her in the snowy forest. There were many little squirrels running around on the pine trees in the forest, and I opened my mouth in surprise. Focusing on the scene, I accidentally fell into a deep snow pile, but I was not annoyed. I laughed loudly. My laughter shook loose the snow on the surrounding pine branches showering upon me like rain. I stayed there, sprawling on the snow blanket mischievously, waiting for my mother to help me up. My mother said, ‘Oh, Honey, my snow-white angel, are you hurt?’ I smiled and replied, ‘I'm not hurt, I'm just listening to the breathing of the white earth’... Looking back now, all this seems to have taken place just yesterday, yet, since then, so many changes have happened in my life. My mother is no longer alive, I had a miscarriage, got divorced, and had cancer once. I am no longer that happy and naughty little girl..." Tears slid down her face.

"If you learn to close your door, you will find her." I said affirmatively.

"Close the door?" She opened her eyes and looked at me in surprise.

"Yes, it's not a tangible door, but the door separating your inner and outer worlds. Our Chinese Medicine says that the heart governs the spirit. When the invisible door is closed, your spirit will be with you, and your heart will feel settled. When your heart is settled, you will naturally sleep well. You asked me what to eat to sleep better. Indeed, what we eat is very important to health, but you have to know that this is mainly for the tangible body. The most important element is the inner door. In addition to energy from food, we humans are actually always exchanging energy with many things around us, such as your environment, your interactions with people, the TV programs you watch or online information you surf, the books you read, your reactions to things, your emotions and thoughts, etc. If you don't learn to close the inner door, it's like permitting anyone or anything’s energy to enter your self – allowing any influence to cause havoc. How can you completely relax and sleep well with this happening?"

She looked deeper in thought, so I continued, "If you have a chance, let Dr. Daniel give you a massage. He is a person who is particularly good at relaxing," I laughed.

"Why are you laughing?"

"Because I remembered a recent event," I said, "Dr. Daniel works in two clinics. He works all year round and has never taken a day off. One day, when he was giving massages to people in another clinic, he actually dozed off. And it happened twice that day! As a result, there was a complaint made by these two people. The boss of the clinic asked him: 'Why did you fall asleep while working?' Guess what he answered?" I laughed again.

"What did he answer?"

"He looked at the boss innocently and said, 'I treated a total of ten patients today, but only two people complained about me. Isn't this actually good?' As a result, the boss could only be amused by him and said, 'Ah, I really admire your optimism.'”

"Dr. Daniel is really an optimistic person. If I had a complaint from a client, I would have been anxious for a long time..." Y came to smile too.

 "When you can't fall asleep again, Y, just imagine this scene," I said, "Just imagine that you are lying on the ground covered with snow, your loving mother is standing beside you, beaming. You, with a carefree heart, are lying there relaxed and happy, listening to your mother's voice, listening to the breathing of the earth, everything is so peaceful, beautiful and secure..."

On Christmas Day, she sent me a text message: Dear Dr. Anna, I want to tell you that I have slept much better these few nights by following your method. Thank you for reminding me to close the door to my inner world. If the little girl has not come back completely, at least, I have seen her shadow..."

Tell me, what better Christmas gift is there than this?