Yesterday and today

Yesterday I did not have a job. Today I was offered a full-time position doing copyediting work at The Dallas Morning News. It will involve editing using AP style and doing some writing with short turnaround time. My friend Andrew in Taipei trained in the newspaper industry when he got out of his undergrad and it taught him discipline, writing under deadline and many other good skills. Now Andrew is writing on Jet Li for Newsweek and Zhang Yimou for Taiwan News. Hmmm.....

Kort is giving me allergy elimination therapy (NAET). Yesterday's session involved muscle testing for organ weakness and testing for a BBF (body balance formula) allergy. So usually when you find that you are allergic to a substance, you have to avoid certain things. Say you are allergic to eggs - then you must avoid eggs, things with eggs in them (like cake), chicken, and feather pillows. I should also say that while Kort was stimulating the acupuncture points in my back, I found myself incredibly irritated and angry. So what did I have to avoid for 25 hours? Getting in a fight with anybody or losing my temper. Unbelievable. And did I succeed? By the wire. It's been past 25 hours and frankly, I think I will have to be re-exposed and retreated for this mystery BBF substance because my irritation around certain people/issues has hit its ceiling. On the plus side, it was a more contemplative day with mind-body awareness, but things went pretty awry at about 4 p.m.

Yesterday, I learned that a long-time contributor to the Dallas poetry community is going into hospice care for advanced stage cancer. I have not seen this poet since I left town in December. I am filled with sadness and hope to be able to spend as much time as possible with him in these final days. I will begin reading again The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying in preparation.