As we gently fold into the ever darkening days of the late autumn to winter transition, I hope you have lightened the load in preparation of entering the heavy, cold and yin winter season. This year on the Vancouver Island, winter has hit hard and fast and it seems as if we’ve skipped over fall and went straight into a chilly, rainy winter.
Much like the Scandinavian tradition of “hygge”, winter is best spent cozy, warming and insular. This is a time to bring out the wool and down, nourish yourselves with warming soups, stews, stoke that digestive fire with spicy, aromatic herbs+spices and follow the rhythm of the season by lying low and investing in some deep, quality sleep. Nesting is the name of the game.
From a TCM perspective, winter is seen as a time for going internal and recollecting in preparation for the future spring season. Water is the element of winter, so it’s only logical that the kidneys are the organ associated with this season. According to the classic TCM text, The Huang Di Nei Jing (“The Inner Classic of the Yellow Emperor”), it instructs us to follow the cycle of the seasons in order to stay healthy.
“During the Winter months all things in nature wither, hide, return home, and enter a resting period, just as lakes and rives freeze and snow falls. This is a time when yin dominates yang. Therefore one should refrain from overusing the yang energy. Retire early and get up with the sunrise, which is later in Winter. Desires and mental activity should be kept quiet and subdued, as if keeping a happy secret. Stay warm, avoid the cold, and keep the skin covered. Avoid sweating. The theory of the Winter season is one of conservation and storage. Without such practice the result will be injury to the Kidney energy. This will cause weakness, shrinking of muscles, and coldness; then the body loses its ability to open and move about in the Spring.”
This month’s package boasts a variety of insightful and poignant history as well as different perspectives to see both our inner and outer landscapes. We have a thoughtfully curated Canadian soundtrack with some Indigenous flavor, more fascinating short docs, some recipes that will support your digestive fire as well as some resources to support our street entrenched community.
This November, light your fire within. Stay warm, dry and kind to yourselves and others.
We are still undecided as to whether to create a care package for December, but we’ll see how things unfold in the coming weeks.
- Nov. 1st, 2021 is Christina’s 2nd Bladder-versary and she would love it if it is within your means to donate to her 2nd annual online fundraiser for BIPOC Medical Advocacy.
- Learn more about the ancestors of Liberation Acupuncture and how the NADA Ear Acupuncture protocol became a tool for radical social justice.
How Acupuncture Became a Radical Remedy in the Bronx
What You Don’t Know About The Black Panthers | AJ+ (Black Panthers & 5 Point Ear Acupuncture (Video)) - For your inner landscape: Some wisdom about Finding Ease in Aloneness, On Being host, Krista Tippett interviews Stephen Batchelor. One of the great challenges of life is to learn to be alone peaceably, at home in oneself. The pandemic forced many of us inside both physically and emotionally, even if we were not home on our own. We’ve been forced to work out the difference between loneliness and solitude. With teachers across the ages, and drawing on his life from monasticism to marriage, Buddhist writer and scholar Stephen Batchelor teaches how to approach solitude as a graceful and life-giving practice.
For your outer landscape: From the For the Wild podcast, JOSEFINA SKERK on Sámi Lifeways
We look at extractive mining in Sápmi and how Sweden’s colonial government exploits their very limited definition of Sámi indigeneity to further land grabs and resource extraction with guest Josefina Skerk. - Your Canadian soundtrack for November:
Patrick Watson – Mermaid in Libson
Jeremy Dutcher: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
Field Guide – Your Were Here
Hasaatuk Kalilah Rampanen
Frazey Ford: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert From The Archives
Leif Vollebekk Live from The Rialto Theatre
Lido Pimenta – Para Transcribir (LUNA) [Simón Mejía Remix]
Aidan Knight – Live at Catalogue - This month’s selections from Vox’s Glad You Asked, we recommend “Is Racism Making People Sick?” and “Is city noise making us sick?”
Also a few picks from New York Time’s OpDocs, we recommend “Don’t Go Tellin’ your Momma” and “Almost Famous: the Silent Pulse of the Universe” - What seems to be a growing trend in the last few years has been a centuries-old tradition in many cultures as a means to utilize every part of the animal and maximize nutrition. With chillier weather comes soup season and we hope you can incorporate the ritual of brewing this nutritious elixir as well as reducing food waste! We also recommend saving veggie scraps (or salvaging abandoned veg in your fridge…) in the freezer so you can also throw them in when you are brewing your next batch of broth!
the ultimate guide to bone broth, courtesy of Nourished Kitchen
Easy 1-Pot Vegetable Broth, for our vegetarians/vegans, courtesy of The Minimalist Baker - It’s also time to bust out that simple, digestible and delicious recipe, Chicken & Dumplings Chinese-style
- And of course, a 5-minute Caffeine-free Chai Mix, courtesy of the Minimalist Baker to stoke that digestive fire with a warming beverage that won’t disrupt your beauty rest ;)
- Please support grassroots orgs who are on the ground supporting our street entrenched community with culturally-relevant and urgently needed resources. If it is within your means, either financially and/or to volunteer, find out more about the Indigenous Harm Reduction Team and Poverty Kills.
OR
If you encounter someone in need to shelter or other assistance, The Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness has compiled a list of Emergency Weather Indoor Shelter Locations as well as a Street Survival Guide.
