Hi, dear blog readers
I just sent the below update to my email list of mostly dear friends and family. Sometimes I post my big updates on my blog too, but not always. If you'd like to jump onto my email list, then please let me know! Otherwise, I wish you a simple and lovely Winter Solstice and New Year. Hello darkness, welcome light.
With love and gratitude,
Jiling
~
Happy Winter Solstice, my dear extended family!
(情愛的，中文在底下，哦!)
Here's my end of the year update!
How has 2017 been for you? Here in Los Angeles, I just finished my first quarter at my new Chinese medicine school, AMU (Alhambra Medical University), which is much more relaxed than my last school. This allows for abundant outdoor adventures and improved information integration, including camping most weeks, and hiking daily. I slept under the stars in the San Gabriel National Monument during both the Perseid and Geminid meteor shower (and big tests), cultivate herbs in our backyard, collect aromatic botanicals in our mountains, practice morning yoga in the sunshine, visit the ocean/ mountains/ desert regularly… and am learning, growing, and enjoying a lot in a relaxed way.
Outside of school, I'm completing a monthly 300-hour yoga teacher training in northern California, to become a 500-hour registered yoga teacher. Like my Interplay leader training last year, it's a creative life-affirming somatic process that complements my current academic studies.
While in school, I'm seeking a more stable part time job that matches my school schedule, which changes every three months. I might start selling Jiling Botanicals products online again, teaching community classes, or find other ways to employ my western herbal and other passions and skills: healthcare, outdoor education, yoga, art, and adventure. I am still making friends here, while seeking Chinese medicine practitioners to shadow outside of school and a committed contact-improv dance partner to experiment with, and find/ create a contemplative movement practice community, ideally interweaving with Interplay, outdoor yoga, herbal medicine, and ritual. I'd love to hear your work/ friend connections/ suggestions!
My favorite parts of this year were traveling between WA, OR, and CA, then adventuring in China/ Taiwan. In 2018, I have two precious weeks of break between academic quarters in March, June, September, and December, when I will likely study for exams, hunt for Home, and travel for work, play, and volunteer herbal/ conventional first-aid for festivals/ events. In June, I teach in Wisconsin at the Midwest Women's Herbal Conference for the third year, and go backpacking in the Sierra Nevadas. Other travels are yet to be determined. Hopefully we'll cross paths, this coming year! I'm mostly in Los Angeles studying and hiking, so come visit for tea or a hike.
This coming year, I'm actively seeking a long-term Home to start a small homestead, clinic, and school upon impending graduation, in June 2019. I will investigate spaces/ opportunities around southern California mountain, coastal, or desert progressive communities, and around Silver City or Santa Fe in New Mexico. Other possibilities include Northern CA, Arizona, and Colorado. I will continue living in the western USA, although I plan to regularly visit New England and Asia via teaching workshops.
Besides starting my own practice, other post-grad possibilities include joining an academic residency, setting sail as a cruise ship acupuncturist, joining an existing practice (much easier than starting on my own), partnering with another healthcare practitioner or retreat center… or, who knows! With my current nesting tendencies and fattening library and apothecary, I plan to create long-term Beauty in grounded community-oriented ways, by building a sweet home-base. I'd love to hear your Home/ post-grad ideas/ suggestions/ connections for a licensed acupuncturist, western herbalist, artist, and outdoor enthusiast who loves/ needs flowing water, a warm dry climate, and like-minded community!
For energy conversation, I deactivated Facebook. I regularly share photos on Instagram, will blog about Chinese medicine/ western herbalism/ my adventures at least once every three months, just re-opened my Jiling Botanicals FB page, and will begin crafting a more formal business plan/ name/ website for everything-Jiling-now-plus-Chinese-medicine. Email or phone is the easiest way to reach me, although I can chat with you online via FB messenger, Google chat, or Wechat, or have an actual phone chat as I drive my daily 30 miles home from school.
I hope that the end of 2017 finds you in a peaceful joyous space, surrounded by Beauty. I'd love to hear about some of the highlights of your year, and what you look forward to, or plan to create, in 2018, and how I too may support your path. Thanks for being part of my life journey!
In celebration, health, and thrival,
Jiling
情愛的家人朋友們，祝你冬至快樂！基玲第一個學期在洛杉磯中醫學院，仁愛醫藥大學，剛完成。一切都順利。我很喜歡我的新學校，因爲比老學校輕鬆！華人也比較多，比較舒服。洛杉磯天氣好，陽光普照。我天天爬山，每個禮拜都露營，又開心，又平靜。我應該6月2019年畢業。新年，2018年，我要開始找地方定下來，買一塊地，蓋個小屋子，和開個小中醫和西方草藥診所與自然療法學校。我會看看加州和新墨西哥的山和海區。一定要住在河流附近。也許也會看看亞利桑那和科羅拉多州。今年夏天在大陸和臺灣工作與旅游，好開心哦！不知我什麽時候會回來，但希望2018年會再有機會回來拜訪你們！祝你新年快樂，事事如意，身心靈健康快樂！
敬上
基玲
