Whatever comes to mind. Sometimes a story I read, sometimes something that came to me while holding my mala beads.
My coworker said stressed. My mom said fire. One word my language has that English can't hold — and a two-thousand-year-old way of reading the body as weather.
A blonde girl on TikTok lit her first moxa stick, and the comments ran into the tens of thousands. I stared at the screen — not surprised that foreigners found moxibustion, but because the smell seemed to drift right out of the screen. My mom has been doing it for thirty years. "A seven-year illness needs mugwort aged three years."
From being held down as a kid to soak my feet, to finally boiling water myself — an ordinary person's journey to understanding Chinese foot bath therapy. Ginger, peppercorns, mugwort, safflower — not superstition, but real plant compounds at work.