Putting Milk Back In The Cow

"Better to dig a well before you are thirsty...to forge weapons before battle." So says the ancient Chinese Medicine book, the Nei Jing. They are well past thirsty, our pain patients, and exhausted from battle. They come with years of scars dulled by drugs that have lost their edge. Now what? We start by beholding them differently. Three pulses each wrist, front, middle back, lungs and heart, spleen and liver, kidneys. What do they say? Fast, slow, superficial, deep, slippery, wirey. And the tongue, pale, purple, red? Thick or thin coat, white, yellow, black or none? They are wounded but hopeful. And sometimes progress is measured by teaspoons, or not at all. Sometimes there is a quantum leap forward from a handful of needles stuck well. And a slow return to before. Or not. No attachment to outcome. Just persistence. For Hope is Passion for the possibility. Of less pain, less drugs, no pain. No depression. Use come back, of a back, a shoulder, a knee, a hip. Slowly at first. Barely noticed. More by third parties than in the mirror. Rarely fast enough. The poser works on many things at once, plays the odds in the hope that one horse wins,places or shows. Not so the master. She locks on to the biggest gargoyle, takes him to the ground, and works her many holds, looking for submission. A frantic tap, sooner or later, signalling another round, with a lesser evil. We can't put milk back in the cow. But perhaps we can chill and stir it, and adding some flavor, serve up some ice cream.