Origins

Who are you, traveler? Where do you come from? Where are you going? Where do you set your roots? Where do they feel the most joyous, powerful, and free? How can you express yourself as your most beautiful authentic self?

Dear traveler, wanderer, seeker, pilgrim--- who are you? What is your name? What are all the different names that different people call you? What do you call yourself, as you fall into then rise from your dreams? What is your true name?

Who are you? Where does your name come from? What are its roots and origins? What are your roots and origins?

(photo: Gila Wilderness, NM)

Project Me 2015

Happy New Year, 2016, friends and extended family! Below is a group email that I sent out, during winter solstice. Let me know if you want to be added to my list. This "Project Me" daily self-portrait has been an ongoing commitment since winter 2005. Yes, I've been photographing myself almost every morning, for the past 10 years. This year I missed the most days in all of the 10 years of self-portraits. I left for work pre-dawn two days a week (sometimes more), camped out a lot, traveled even more, and now live in a dark environment where it's difficult to photograph with natural light, which is my preference. So, my project's changing. We'll see how it progresses. I'm still in love with the process. It's already evolved over time, ofcourse. You can see past "Project ME" yearly contact sheet collections via here:
http://linjiling.blogspot.com/search/label/projectME

I use a free program called, "Contact Sheets" to compile the images. Contact Sheets does a poor job of arranging things perfectly chronologically--- but, it's relatively close. See if you can rearrange things correctly, if you'd like.

Making daily self portraits is a humbling experience that underlines my humanity, and seeks to document the transient nature of life. My life. "My" life. I share these images as a way of documenting things both for myself, as well as to share for others to see what they will in me, and in themselves. Reflections of reflections of reflections. Divinity and humanity, animal and God in all of the above.

Enjoy this journey. I love hearing your feedback.

I hope that this fresh new 2016 year brings you amazing adventures that you never even deemed possible.

With that, my mass email is attached below.
With humble love and deep gratitude,
Jiling

~

Dear community, （家人們好！中文在最底下哦！）

As this year evolves into the next, I look back with a huge, “Whew!” And look forward with a massive, “Yes!” I hope that your year has been amazing, and would love to hear about it, too! Mine has been quite epic: I traveled to or through 38 of the 50 USA states, starting 2015 in the gorgeous Gila wilderness of southern New Mexico (NM), then traveling to California (CA), driving cross-country via the southern route to Connecticut (CT), where I taught Earth skills to youth and herbalism to adults while home-basing in an ancient barn with my dear elder Billy and sweet buddy Karen to travel out and come back, teaching- studying-adventuring to Montana, Florida, New Mexico, and even Maine, and most recently driving back across the country via the northern route to Oregon, where I now sit with most of my worldly belongings still heavily weighing down my car on a pre-dawn morning, sipping tea, dreaming, smiling, and organizing my schedule for the next two weeks, before I return to CA for a final celebration/ stuff-collection, before starting the Doctor’s of Science in Oriental Medicine (DSOM) classical Chinese medicine (CCM) program at the National College of Natural Medicine (NCNM) here in Portland, OR a few days after the inception of 2016.

I’m writing this email to update you on my life, and welcome you to visit me in Portland, since I’m here for the next four years of my life for school, and more. I feel some uncertainty around being in a city for so long, and am still hammering out the details of my living situation, and new home. I hope to find an affordable/ for-trade natural-living situation that allows me to live close to the Earth, while focusing on school in a peaceful, supportive environment, continuing to develop my western herbal skills, and honing my Chinese medicine (acupuncture and herbs) skills as a practitioner, educator, and scholar. I want to make a lovely nest, and stay there for four years. Got ideas/ suggestions?

In 2016, I have two herb-gatherings lined up: I’ll travel to NM in September, and WI in July. Besides that, I’ll occasionally travel to southern CA to visit my family, and NM to look for a place to live. Starting school this winter, I have no school breaks until summer 2017, where I hope to return to Taiwan/ China to fall in love again with what originally drew me to this medicine... then, back to the USA. I won’t be traveling around as much for now. But, I’m still rollin’. See you around! If you have suggestions/ connections for my herbal (western, and now Chinese, too!) work/ travels, or here in Portland, or anything else, then please connect me!

My current longterm plans involve being amazing here in Portland for the next four years, then moving back to NM to develop a small homestead/ healing center, and create a Chinese medicine/ western herbalism integrated practice. We’ll see how the next four years ripen and evolve that vision. I’m open to possibilities. The future smells delicious. The present is even juicier.

  

May the richness of your life bring joy and satisfaction to all your days. May you find your inner strength and courage to follow your path of heart. May the world rise to meet your Earthen beloved feet. May the coming new year, and each simple-yet-complex moment of your whole simple-yet-complex absolutely gorgeous journey, be absolutely delicious.

Love (and a wink),

Jiling

~

家人們好！

基玲今年在美國繞圈圈， 去了五十州內的三十八個州。 大部分時間住在東北岸教野外求生和藥草課。 剛搬到俄勒岡州， 進入中醫研究所， 未來四年的路程。 打算四年之後， 搬回新墨西哥州蓋個小木屋， 開診所。 四年之內， 打算一邊好好的學習中醫， 一邊繼續教西方藥草課， 看病人， 和享受人生！

祝你新年快樂， 心想事成， 萬事如意！

敬， 基玲