It has been a really long 3 years since I arrived in Denver to begin a Traditional Chinese Medicine program at CSTCM. When my world in Portland fell apart, I wandered and taught and met all of you along the way. It is your spirit that I carried with me, the Daoist Qigong that Dr. He long ago told me would heal me, and it inspired the calling of this Ancient Medicine and my part in it. When you look around and all that you wanted of the world has led you to what it needs of you, there is no arguing!
It has been a lonely path, the losing of everything, leaving behind of friends, living in a small studio, head to books, and helping to heal people in the student clinic. I have learned so much. I am ready to be done with the exams and fall back in love with the medicine.
Today I am reminded more than ever, how time moves and the distance between can grow very long. And the longing heart deals with it by narrowing its focus. I have not forgotten any of you. But rather I have carried all of our practices deep within me that has brought me on this journey.
Thank you. And it is with great happiness I send this invite to share a smile with me on Sunday, Aug 25 while the 8 of us gather for a ceremony of sorts, the official passing through the doorway and becoming Medicine Practitioners.
I will dedicate this moment to two friends that recently passed away. Both I learned about today. Rod was a good friend, he was solely responsible for the first acupuncture posters that I got for our Qigong classes, not even knowing at the time I would end up in acupuncture school! I was on San Juan Island from 2014-2016, and our daily practices by the ocean with the orcas are forever stamped on my heart. To my other friend Al, who allowed me to be the biggest I have ever been as an archaeologist, digging up his fields with my students searching for the blacksmith shop, and one finger Smith. Forever grateful for all the friendships and community that practiced in heart together.
So from Portland, to San Juan Island, to Ashland, To Bisbee, and Denver thank you for supporting this journey, for practicing with me, You have made me the teacher that I am, and pillar from which we build.
Could not have done it without you dear friends. With a warm hug and lots of love, *Bow with hands to heart* Candace
And on a very happy note, my grandson Jude Matias Istre was born on Sept. 26, and it is the very best part of being in Denver in that it brought me closer to Fort Collins.
