TCM Deep Dives is a series of ongoing explorations of Traditional Chinese Medicine—bridging physiology, emotion, and spirit. Each arc invites you into a living system, where you begin to recognize patterns of harmony and disharmony and respond with steadiness and care.
If you’re new to this series, I recommend going in order: beginning with the introduction, followed by the Spleen, the Lung, and the Kidneys. Today builds on that foundation.
Bent over my laptop in a basement studio outside Washington, DC, I spent my days translating Arabic news stories into English. Nothing particularly in-depth or layered. Nothing that touched my love for the language. Mostly surface-level political headlines, one after another, all looking alike.
A sharp, recurring pain pulled at my right shoulder blade. Dull numbness settled into my wrist. I was irritable, everything catching. My body closed down, locked in place.
How could so little time have passed since Georgetown? Or the year-long fellowship in Cairo after that? Immersed in language, study, and aliveness. Drawn towards adventure and newness.
Now my days unfolded in an underground apartment with a drop ceiling, a narrow strip of grass for a view. I worked and ate a few feet from my bed—a cheap futon that took up most of the space.
An old fridge hummed and banged in the corner. Off to the side, a pile of books: early reads on yoga and herbs, and a secondhand copy of Crossing the Unknown Sea: Work as a Pilgrimage of Identity.
In the evenings, I’d walk fifteen minutes to yoga. I’d stretch and feel something open, then return home to a life that was small.
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A few years later, I’m walking down a steep hill in Nelson, British Columbia. Forest and mountains surround me, a glacier-fed lake below.
It’s my first year studying Chinese Medicine. My notebooks are filling. My body is moving. Something in me expands.
I can hardly believe this is my life now—that I chose this, that I get to do this.
Gazing at mountains and sky, breathing in the clear air, a wave of gratitude washes through me. For every decision, every action, every piece of logical, well-meaning advice I ignored.
This isn’t just a story about changing paths. It’s a story about the Liver—the organ responsible for the smooth flow of Qi and Blood. Flow is just the beginning.
