More things from the man that works with indigenous medicine yesterday--

--He has been working to inform nurses about the various indigenous systems of medicine, so that people can get the best of both worlds (complementary medicine). I think that is good because as suspicious I am of conventional medicine, it does certain things really well: mainly acute situations, also disease prevention with vaccines and correcting single-nutrient deficiencies (I suppose that can be an acute issue, depending).
--My friend asked him what to do about stress, and he went over a number of things. He said meditation is very good and cleansing, but stress drains energy and meditation won't give the energy we need. A few things he mentioned: eating good food (he said to try avoiding meat for three months, and avoid junk--just real basic advice, nothing too strict), exercising hard daily so the body feels that it is alive, certain plant medicines, etc.
--Every action causes a reaction.
--Other things: this reality is just one of many, to think this is all there is is a delusion, ritual is important, talk to plants and thank them and if you have a question you should ask and listen for the answer.
--He told a story about a traditional healing woman he was learning from. He asked her if wormwood would work for some horrible parasitic worms many children in the village had. She said, ask the plant. He thought she was crazy, but for three months, he went to the plant everyday and asked it. No answer. He gave it to the children anyway. Their illness (potentially fatal) were cured. He went to the woman and complained that the plant hadn't said anything. She said, you fool, what happened? The children got better. The plant spoke through the children. Don't ignore that.
--He got a PhD and went to Uganda. His degree was worth nothing there and he knew nothing. He went to Peru, it meant even less. in Mexico (his home), it was even more true.
--Remember the people always, and their traditions, and make sure your work has relevance to that. It was amazing to hear such things at Cornell, in the art of academia.

I actually went running that day, pushing myself, because of what he said. I have been exercising, but nothing very hard, and moderate exercise doesn't have the same psychological effect that hard exercise does.
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Spring is really here and we have had a few days of sun! I feel light inside like I haven't for a long time. Additionally, one of my classes "Nutrient Fertility in Agro-ecosystems", is the best I've had. It puts everything I've learned together and the teacher is focused more on teaching/learning/understanding than grades. He's also getting to be somewhat of a bigwig. He works with biochar, which helps increase the capacity of old, weathered soils (such as found in the Global South) to hold onto nutrients and sequester carbon for climate change mitigation.
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I'm going to Las Vegas in a couple weeks with some other grad students. I'm really lucky because one of the others going is very cheap, and another is not into glitz and glamour--so the three of us will be camping out in the desert for all three nights! I'm really excited. I'm bad at camping, my back gets sore and I won't sleep well (I fully admit that civilization has made me soft). But I much prefer the beauty of the Vegas desert to the excesses of that city. It will be great.