And on a lighter note: an ode to spring, Passover and Easter.

We had our third free day this past weekend, in the window
between Passover and Easter—had to laugh that morning at our calendar planning
and obvious lack of being religiously observant—at least in an organized
religion kind of way. But people came anyway!

The day was one of these occasional New Mexico spring
crazy ones: cloudy, then snowing, then sunny, then rain turning into hail,
clattering on our metal warehouse roof with patients cozily cooking below. Talk
about an energy field! And yet the clinic was also without doubt the coziest
yet—our sunny yellow walls and people happily snuggled in their recliners. Two
people remarked at the end of their treatments that they were having personal
emergencies and couldn’t believe how lucky they were to be there—that if they’d
been left alone in a private treatment room they would have lost it. It was
like we were all riding out the storm together. Lots more hugging and promises
of return, and by the end, sunny AND raining! Happy spring, everyone.

Author: melissa tiernan

Found community acupuncture in my last year of acupuncture school and it was like cool water on the dry desert of aculand. It addressed all those nagging questions of how to make acupuncture accessible and inviting to people like me, in my own communities as well as actually make a living and I knew I would practice this way for the rest of my life. I have learned more (about acupuncture, about people and community, about myself) in the past few years of running a CA clinic and being an acupunk at another BDC clinic than ever before. It's one of my all-time favorite places to be. I am eternally grateful to this community for its welcoming support, its passionate determination and its irreverence for useless sacred cows. I look forward to our continued work in supporting community acupuncture clinics worldwide!