Seasonal Qigong

"In Spring, breathe xu for clear eyes and so wood can aid you liver.
In summer, reach for he, so that heart and fire can be at peace.
In fall, breathe si to stabilize and gather metal, keeping the lungs moist.
For the kidneys, next, breathe chui and see you inner water calm.
the Triple Heater needs your xi to expel all heat and troubles.
In all four seasons take long breaths, so spleen can process food.
And, of course, avoid exhaling noisily, not letting even your ears hear it.
The practice is most excellent and will help preserve your divine elixir."

- Master Sun Simiao (581-682 CE)
From Xiuzhen shishu (Ten Books on Cultivating Perfection), Song Dynasty
Translated by Livia Kohn, Chinese Healing Exercises, p. 135

Six Taoist Healing Sounds

Bear Frolic Exercises

Seasons and Months

Qigong, Daoyin, Nei Gong, Yangshengong, Chinese Yoga, Chi Kung

Memories of the Tea House

Our "tea house," at our home in Red Bluff, California, is hidden by weeping willows, eucalyptus and other trees and shrubs. The tea house is next to a small pond and gives a clear view to the west across the North Sacramento Valley to the Yolly Bolly Mountain range.  These photos are from a Spring month. 

I in the cooler months I drink more coffee than tea, and in the warmer months more cold water and iced tea.  





"The first bowl sleekly moistened throat and lips,
The second banished all my loneliness
The third expelled the dullness from my mind,
Sharpening inspiration gained
from all the books I've read.
The fourth brought forth light perspiration,
Dispersing a lifetime's troubles through my pores."
- Lu Tung, Chinese Poet, On Drinking Tea

It is a nice quiet area to read, listen to music, write, and practice taijiquan.  The shade is invaluable in the warm months.  

Here is what the view to the west looks like in the winter.  Just west of our fenceline is a low area were winter rain collects, then open grazing fields used by horses or cattle.  About .3 miles west from our fence is a large almond orchard. Snow on the far western Yolly Bolly mountain range was down to about 2,000 feet on this day in January - a rare event.  

Corning Union Elementary School District Employment

I was employed part-time for the Corning Union Elementary School District from 1999 until July of 2016; 17 years.  

I worked during the academic school year (August to June) for 119 days each year; normally, 3 days for 8 hours per day each week (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday).  My schedule was flexible, and I earned overtime on many occasions.  I had unpaid vacation for a week around Thanksgiving, two weeks for Christmas, one week in February, one week at Easter, and most of the summer from June 2 to August 15.  

From 1999-2005, I was employed in a certificated position as the District Librarian.  I managed five elementary school libraries, textbooks, and computer labs.   I took two elementary education credential classes per semester at California State University at Chico during this period, so as to keep the certificated position. 

From 2006-1916, I was employed in a classified management position as the Technology and Media Services Supervisor.  I managed five school libraries, computer labs, and textbooks and consumables for 2,300 students in grades K-8.  I also wrote many grants, and did the budget management for grants totaling $4.2 million to this district.  I was also a certified substitute teacher during this period.  We opened four new libraries in this district during my tenure there.  My office was at the Maywood Middle School Library.  

Technology, Media, and Libraries Services Group
Donna, Maria, Christina, Jeanie, Jackie, and Mike in 2014

Many classes visited our five school libraries each week

Karen and a Special Education Class of students

Children Everywhere All the Time

We managed over a dozen computer labs in five schools

Our service group had many behind the scenes storage areas

Working on textbooks for 2,300 students

Student Library Volunteers

Talking with and Helping Students

Working on the East Lab Grant with Mr. Dillon

Working with great teachers like Marna Whitley

There's so much to be done

To experience the Five Animal Frolics we need to keep in mind the "Frolics" aspect of this movement art: being playful and exuberant, freeing up our time for fun, delighting in bodily movements, enjoying games of imitation, taking pleasure in the moment, and delighting in the exercise of fantasy and imagination.  We should be smiling as we enjoy our playful frolics.  We should strive to return to our youth, and rekindle those memories of our joyful childhood games, innocence, freedom of fancies, and silliness.  We are never too old to embrace that precious child within each of us.  

Bear Frolics: Lessons, Bibliography, Notes

The Complete Tales of Winnie-the-Pooh.  By A. A. Milne.  With decorations by Ernest H. Shepard.  New York, Dutton's Children's Books, 1994.  344 pages.  Color illustrations, hardbound.  ISBN: 9780525457237.  Originally published in 1926, 1954.  This book includes: Winnie-the-Pooh, and The House at Pooh Corner, VSCL.  
 
The Te of Piglet.  By Benjamin Hoff.  New York, Penguin Books, 1992.  257 pages.  ISBN: 0140230165.  VSCL.  

The Tao of Pooh.  By Benjamin Hoff.  New York, Penguin Books.  VSCL 
  
The most famous literary Bear is Winnie the Pooh.  Over 26 million English language books by A. A. Milne about the Pooh Bear and his friends have been sold since 1926, the books have been translated into scores of languages, and Disney Films has made him even more famous and a lucrative commodity line.  Benjamin Hoff has explored how Pooh Bear is a quintessential "Taoist Bear."   

So ... it is just fine for you to Dance like a Bear.
Become a Silly Bear for a awhile.
Enjoy the real honey of just being right were you are,
   here and now, content,
   Pooh, it is quite easy.
 

"Christopher Robin and I walked along
Under branches lit up by the moon
Posing our questions to Owl and Eeyore
As our days disappeared all too soon
But I've wandered much further today than I should
And I can't seem to find my way back to the Wood
So help me if you can
I've got to get back
To the House at Pooh Corner by one
You'd be surprised
There's so much to be done
Count all the bees in the hive
Chase all the clouds from the sky
Back to the days of Christopher Robin and Pooh."
- Return to Pooh Corner,  Words and lyrics by Kenny Loggins, 1969, MCA Musi

Giving Away My Prayers

I very rarely have prayed since I was 15 years old.  I figure that I should not bother the Gods or Goddesses with my concerns, and leave more access time for people with really urgent desires to pray or for people in dire circumstances. I do try to be generous in some way to others.  

One Greek philosopher, Epicurus, argued that the Gods and Goddesses seemed seldom interested in human problems (if at all), lived at another level of existence, consider us irrelevant or we are out of their sphere of knowledge, and they lived in a remote and blissful state.  Humans had to figure out how to solve their own problems. Praying was ineffectual.  

Why would Gods and Goddesses be concerned or know about humans?  How do supernatural beings get information about our petty lives.  How do supernatural beings create change in the natural world?  Many say, for the Goddess Guan Yin or Tara or Our Lady of Guadalupe or Lakshmi or Athena, that all will Listen to us, have compassion, and might be able to help us when we are in need.  The Divine Mother: The Essential God Duty.  

It would have been a little too bold in ancient Greece for Epicurus to call the gods or goddesses imaginary, archetypes, an opiate of the masses, or (like Nietzsche) "dead."  However, even many religious believers at times shrug their shoulders in disappointment when everyone's prayers are not answered.  We can't deny the facts of our senses, so maybe our beliefs are less accurate about the results of prayer.    

I am reminded of a story about a farmer and a preacher:

"A farmer purchased an old, run-down, abandoned farm with plans to turn it into a thriving enterprise. The fields were grown over with weeds, the farmhouse was falling apart, and the fences were broken down. During his first day of work, the town preacher stops by to bless the man's work, saying, "May you and God work together to make this the farm of your dreams!" A few months later, the preacher stops by again to call on the farmer. Lo and behold, it's a completely different place. The farm house is completely rebuilt and in excellent condition, there is plenty of cattle and other livestock happily munching on feed in well-fenced pens, and the fields are filled with crops planted in neat rows. "Amazing!" the preacher says. "Look what God and you have accomplished together!" "Yes, reverend," says the farmer, "but remember what the farm was like when God was working it alone!" "

Over the years, other people have invited me to pray in small or large groups.  One yoga teacher, had us chant and recite Hindu prayers.  An abbreviated rosary was said or gospel songs were sung at funerals.  I have occasionally listened to Christian or Hindu or Taoist or Tibetan Buddhist music.  People would recite the Lord's Prayer at sad gatherings.  Likewise, I join in, as is the custom, at ceremonial religious or political gatherings.  It is easy for me to, in appropriate circumstances, to respectfully recite the Pledge of Allegiance, or stand respectfully and sing while our National Anthem is played.  Courtesy and conformity and respect with others are useful at times, when we know their limits.    

So, for five decades, normally, I have not attended any church services or prayed.  

The options of Bhakti Yoga just do not suit my personal tastes, desires, outlook, or needs.  

Since my teenage years, my spiritual focus has been more on Virtue Ethics, Pragmatic Living, and Getting the Job Done Right for me and others, all as a kind of Karma Yoga.  

In addition, for five decades, my spiritual focus has been more on Philosophy, Wisdom, Understanding, Science, Self-Realization, the Big Hinges, all as a kind of Jhana Yoga. 

Gardening, Walking, Sex, Travel, Teaching, Yoga, and Science have all led to mystical experiences for me.  

I taught Hatha Yoga for 16 years in Red Bluff, California.  I taught 3 or 4 yoga classes each week, and two Taijiquan/Qigong classes per week.  I loved sharing these body-mind-spirit practices with persons in these hundreds of classes.  

In different ways, we all can do some kind of good in our lives.  Others will occasionally tip their hats to us.  

And, all the Gods and Goddess would indeed be complimentary of all of our good deeds if they knew about or cared about 7 billion humans and trillions and Mega-trillions of mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds, fish, insects, bacteria, plants, life.

I think that there is even too much for Gods and Goddesses to care about.  And, their being so busy with billions of incoming prayers, they just can't get around to everyone.  

So it goes: roll with the flow.  

Older Men Thriving

"Be the Fiercest" by Deshun Wang:






Strength Training for Seniors   

Paths to Fitness and Well Being

Sensing Ourselves

“Proprioception is, literally, how we “sense ourselves.” There are three main sources of input into our proprioceptive system. One of them, kinesthesia, is the feeling of movement derived from all skeletal and muscular structures. Kinesthesia also includes the feeling of pain, our orientations in space, the passage of time, and rhythm. A second source, visceral feedback, consists of the miscellaneous impressions from our internal organ. Labyrinthine or vestibular feedback? The feeling of balance as related to our position in space is provided by the chochlea, and organ of the inner ear. The physiological term “proprioception” refers to the ability to evaluate, and respond to stimuli sensed by the proprioceptives, actual nerves imbedded in our tissues (muscles, joints and tendons). These cells constantly communicate with the brain, orienting the body to its movement, position, and tone. It is our sixth sense. The other five senses provide information about the outer world. Proprioception provides information about the inner world, which we alone inhabit. Physicist David Bohm used the term “proprioceptive intelligence” to describe an optimal state of self-sensing, self-correcting, and self-organizing awareness? allowing for coherent participation in life through the integral functioning of all modes of intelligence.”
- Risa Kaparo, Awakening Somatic Intelligence, 2012, p.25

"Awareness is the function of isolating "new" sensory-motor phenomena in order to learn to recognize and control them. It is only through the exclusionary function of awareness that the involuntary is made voluntary, the unknown made known, and the never-done the doable. Awareness serves as a probe, recruiting new material for the repertoire of voluntary consciousness. The upshot of this is somatic learning begins by focusing awareness of the unknown. This active functioning identifies traits of the unknown that can be associated with traits already known in one's conscious repertoire. Through the process the unknown becomes known by the voluntary consciousness. In a word, the unlearned becomes learned."
- Thomas Hanna

Body-Mind, Somaesthetics, Somatics: Quotations, Bibliography, Resources

Benefits of Walking

"It engages your buttocks with the world
It modestly reduces fat
It improves glycemic control, especially after meals
It improves triglyceride levels and lowers blood pressure, especially after meals
It might help you live longer if you do it briskly
It is well tolerated by people with arthritis
It is good for your brain
It reduces stress
It boosts immune function
It helps prevent falls in the elderly
It gives you a chance to think
It can be a kind of meditation
It is in your blood, in your genes
It enables recognition of the felt presence of immediate experience."
-  Mark Sisson, Reasons to Walk this Year, 2014

"Walking might:
Allow you to see new aspects of your local environment
Make you a bit mellower and more peaceful
Set a good example for others
Enable you to meet other people and dogs
Make for good conversations with a friend while walking
Engender more gratefulness and kindness
Lift your mood and improve your attitude
Give you time to think, reflect, or contemplate alone
Energize your body, mind, and spirit
Bring new scents and smells to your nostrils
Provide mystical experiences and epiphanies
Reduce or resolve your worries
Enjoying good memories or testing your memory
Allow you to feel and see the effects of our invisible Air
Give you more confidence in achieving your goals
Get you in better awareness of your feelings
Change your perspective
Allow you to help with neighborhood watch
Let you be alone for awhile
Make your legs feel good
Appreciate the beauty in our world
Allow you to come under the 'Spell of the Sensuous'
Provide some time for listening to music or lectures
Reduce the onset or ameliorate physical ailments or diseases."
-  Michael P. Garofalo, Ways of Walking, October 2016  



Ways of Walking Website:  Quotations, Information, Facts, Poetry, Inspiration

Benefits of Walking

Caloric Expenditures While Walking

Walking Meditation

Exercise Options for Older Persons

Aging Well

Diabetes and Caloric Restriction

I have been dealing with the disease of diabetes since I was 52 years of age - for the last twenty years.  Vigorous daily exercise and reasonable eating from 1998 to 2016, kept my A1C around 7.2.  

Most diabetes patients die from cardio-vascular disease.  So, as the odds predicted, I had a pacemaker inserted in 6/17 and a LAD heart stent placed in 10/17.  Of course, being 72 years of age does not help with the progress of any disease.  Also, the problems and anxieties of serious heart disease resulted in a reduction of exercise.  

In the last year, while suffering from heart disease, my blood sugars were rising.  I tried three different medicines in 2017: Trulicity, Januvia, or Glipizide combined with Metaformin.    

I see my internal medicine doctor next Friday.  I am considering asking for a referral to an endocrinologist, and a change in medications.   

I have been attending, since November, the cardio rehabilitation classes three days each week, for 1.5 hours per class, at the Peace Health Hospital complex in Vancouver, WA.  The class consists of one hour of aerobics, and a half hour of weight lifting, core work, or stretching.  They offer a 1 hour lecture each Wednesday on heart health care.  Fortunately, my health insurance covers this cardio rehabilitation program - how lucky I am.  

Unquestionably, moderate exercise helps with reducing blood sugar.  Typically, after a breakfast (600 calories) and a one hour wait, my blood sugar will be at around 220.  After I finish the 1.5 hours of exercise, my blood sugar is 150.  Ideally, it would be around 110.  Exercise does help, it has few side effects like medicines, is inexpensive (e.g., my nearby LA Fitness Gym membership costs $31.00 per month).  I enjoy walking and weightlifting, and I practice Taijiquan. 

  
The most important factor in controlling diabetes is carefully choosing what you eat, and more important, what you do not eat.  Reducing caloric intake has the beneficial effect of reducing blood sugar.  Also, any overeating of high glycemic index (carbohydrate) foods increases your blood sugar.  In the past, sometimes I am inconsistent and negligent about my diet.  

My goal for January and February is too eat under 100 grams of carbohydrates per day, and around 1,500 calories per day.  My body-weight goal is 225 pounds.  For a, currently,  6'7" and 246 pound man, this is a significant caloric reduction.  

If I eat under 1,300 calories a day, my morning fasting blood sugar goes down to 135.  However, it is very hard for me to control my lust for food and eat under 1,300 calories per day.  Also, my energy level drops and fatigue sets in earlier the less I eat.  However, overall, I must strive to bring my blood sugar to proper maintenance levels.  Always Compromises!!


"The Longevity Diet: The Only Proven Way to Slow the Aging Process and Maintain Peak Vitality Through Caloric Restriction." By Brian M. Delaney, and Lisa Walford, 2010.  

Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease: The Revolutionary, Scientifically Proven, Nutrition Based Cure.  By Caldwell B. Esselstyn, M.D., 2008.  

Chen Style Taijiquan 18 Form

Chen Style of Tai Chi Chuan, 18 Movements Form

Developed by Grandmaster Chen Zhenglei

Chen Style Taijiquan 18 Form

A Hypertext Notebook by Michael P. Garofalo, M.S.  

Bibliography, Links, Resources, Research, Notes, Quotations, Key Ideas, List of Movements, Instructions, Videos, History, Principles

January Gardening Chores

I now live in in Vancouver, Washington, USDA Zone 8b.  The best listings of garden chores I have read for Vancouver are the following:

Tsugawa Nursery, Woodland, Washington - Garden Tips for January

January Gardening To Do List

Vancouver, Washington, Zip Code: 98662.  Zone 8b, 15F-20F Low, Average First Frost October 21-31.  Average Last Frost: April 1-10.  Ecoregion 3a: Columbia/Vancouver Basin.  Palmer Drought Index: Extremely Moist.  


From 1998-2016 we lived in Red Bluff, California
From 1946-1998, I lived in East Los Angeles, California

January Gardening Chores
Red Bluff, North Sacramento Valley, California, USA
USDA Zone 9 

Typical (Average/Normal) Seasonal Weather for Our Area Normally, in January, we have high daytime temperatures of 54ºF, low nighttime temperatures of 37ºF, and get 4.2 inches of rain.

Red Bluff Gardening Notebooks of Karen and Mike Garofalo
January - Quotations, Poems, Lore   Compiled by Mike Garofalo.  

January Gardening Activities and Chores in Red Bluff 
USDA Zone 9

Pruning leafless trees and shrubs.
Adding compost, ashes and fertilizer to the vegetable and flower gardens.
Taking cuttings from dormant figs, grapes, and other shrubs.
Spraying dormant fruit and other trees.
Weeding and mowing where needed.
Burning piles of gardening cuttings.
Planting bare root trees and shrubs.
Fixing wood and metal fences.
Placing cold sensitive potted plants in protected areas outdoors or indoors.
Sharpening and oiling garden tools.
Protect tender plants from frosts.
Checking for and repairing any leaks in sheds.
The soil is usually too wet and cold for much garden digging.
Indoor activities: sorting seeds, planning, reading, writing, etc.
Caring for indoor plants.
Weeding the winter garden.
Watering potted plants as needed.
Adding Ironite and other soil supplements.
Fertilizing under trees and shrubs.
Keeping tools and equipment out of the rain and moisture.
Browsing seed and garden catalogs.
Reading gardening, botany, and agricultural books.
Planning garden improvements for the new year.
Fixing any leaking roofs or rain gutters.
Keep a journal.  Write a poem.
Take a slow walk in the garden.  

January Gardening Chores and Tips for Other U.S.A. Zones

Oak Hill January Tips - Georgia

Oregon State University January Tips

Earth Wise Creations January Tips - Zone 9

Seasonal Garden Chores - Links

Top Garden Projects for January by Ed Hume in the Pacific Northwest

52 Weeks in the California Garden by Richard Smaus

The Gay Gardener - Monthly Chores

Monthly Gardening January Tips from Ortho 

Monthly Garden Tasks in an English County Garden

Winter Rose Care

The Garden Helper Tips for January - Northern U.S.

Fruits and Nuts - January Tips - Virginia

Gardening Tips - January - New York Botanical Garden

Master Gardeners Tips  

January - Quotations, Poems, Lore

Books about Taoism by Ray Grigg

The Tao of Being.  By Ray Grigg.  Green Dragon Publishing Group, 1988.  204 pages.  ISBN: 978-0893341152. 

The Sage's Way: Teachings and Commentaries.  By Ray Grigg.  Trafford Pub., 2004.  172 pages.  ISBN: 978-1412021685.

The Tao of Zen.  By Ray Grigg.  Boston, Charles E. Tuttle, Inc., 1994.  Book Sales, 1999.  Notes, 357 pages.  ISBN: 0785811257.  VSCL. 

The New Lao Tzu: A Contemporary Tao Te Ching.  By Ray Grigg.  Tuttle, 1995.  187 pages.  ISBN: 978-0804830348. 

Taoism: A Bibliography  By Mike Garofalo.  

"Ray Grigg is the author of six internationally sold books on Taoism and Zen, The Tao of Relationships, The Tao of Being, The Tao of Sailing, Zen Brushpoems, The Tao of Zen, The New Lao Tzu and has been a serious student of Eastern Philosophy for more than 45 years.

Prior to writing professionally since 1985, he was a teacher in senior secondary schools of British Columbia, teaching principally English and English literary history but also designing and teaching courses in fine arts, cultural history and comparative world religions.

Besides writing books, he contributes a weekly environmental column, Shades of Green, to a Vancouver Island newspaper and also interviews for a local TV channel. He is a former director on the Advisory Council for The Centre For Studies in Religion and Society at the University of Victoria in British Columbia. He continues to give occasional presentations and workshops on Taoism and Zen. His latest interest, following travel, photography, Eastern philosophy, design and sailing, is kayaking.

He lives with his wife, a classical musician, in a self-built home on ten acres of forested land on Quadra Island, British Columbia, Canada. A large organic garden and orchard supply much of their food needs. Their pets are the wild birds and animals that share their property."
-  The Sage's Way

Chen Style Taijiquan 19 Form

Chen Style of Tai Chi Chuan

Grandmaster Chen Xiaowang

Chen Style Taijiquan 19 Form

A Hypertext Notebook by Michael P. Garofalo, M.S.  

Bibliography, Links, Resources, Research, Notes, Quotations, Key Ideas, List of Movements, Instructions, Videos, History, Principles

Columbia Plateau, State of Washington, USA

"The Columbia Plateau is a geologic and geographic region that lies across parts of the U.S. states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. It is a wide flood basalt plateau between the Cascade Range and the Rocky Mountains, cut through by the Columbia River. In one of various usages, the term "Columbia Basin" refers to more or less the same area as the Columbia Plateau."
- Wikipedia, Columbia Plateau

Also:

Great Basin Desert II

Great Basin Desert  I

Travel in the Northwest

Columbia Plateau, Washington

Columbia Plateau Photographs