two down, four to go

just did a little redesign on this site and scanning over the entries from the past two years made me think about how fast the time has gone. i'm 1/3 of the way through my education here at NCNM and as expected, it feels like i both got here yesterday and that i've been here for a decade. here are some little tidbits of knowledge i've gleaned over these two years.

• portland is full of coffeeshops, bikers, and naturopathic clinics
• the kidneys are complicated. the liver is complicated. all of our organs are little universes that for the most part, defy our comprehension
• the first two years of studying naturopathy is essentially cramming as much basic science information into one's head as humanly possible
• the most impressive clinicians (to me) are the ones who are flexible with their ideas and able to navigate their body of knowledge with agility
• homeopathy is an impossible thing to represent accurately
• botanical medicine is much more empirical than one might imagine
• there are people in my school that are exceedingly knowledgeable and competent and can compare to some of my best college professors
• there are people in my school that i wouldn't trust to change my toilet paper
• coffee doesn't really help anything, ever
• meditation helps everything, always
• jumping into cold water outside is one of my favorite things to do now
• the onslaught of information in the first two years can suppress the desire to ask questions about material. it's difficult enough to just ingest the material, let alone digest it well and ask an intelligent, probing question.
• spinal adjustments are extremely satisfying to perform
• the "etiology" of the majority of pathological conditions is unknown or poorly elucidated at best, even in conventional textbooks
• doing massage (shiatsu, in my case) has proven to be essential as a supplement for learning about the muscles and bones and rhythms of the body during these two years
• relationships never turn out how you plan them
• my impression so far of what naturopathy aims to be: [naturopathy] = [conventional medical knowledge] + [herbal and energetic modalities] - [symptom suppression techniques]