Baby it's cold outside!

The two main goals of The Dragon's Way program are to conserve and to increase Qi so we can have the Qi we need to heal our bodies.  In the winter, we expend Qi unnecessarily when we are constantly defending ourselves against the cold.  Practitioners of Traditional Chinese Medicine advise that we take particular care to keep our upper back, neck and chest covered and warm.  Doing so will help to keep us from "catching cold" when it's blustery outside.  So come what may, stay bundled up but don't forget to find JOY in the season because winter is FUN.  At least that's what we say at our house.

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Onions

Several years ago I read an anecdotal story of a rural farmer whose family survived the 1918 flu pandemic while many around them, including 40 million people worldwide, died from this terrible illness.  A doctor, who visited the family, was curious to discover the reason for their good health: an unpeeled onion placed in a dish in all the rooms of the home.  Surprised, he asked if he could have one of the onions to examine it under the microscope.  When the doctor did so, the he discovered the flu virus in the onion.  Apparently the onion had absorbed the virus thus keeping the family healthy. 

With children of my own to keep healthy during the cold and flu season, I was curious if this story could be true so I gave the onions a try.  After all, what could an onion hurt? Happily, the onions seemed to drive away the sicknesses from our home and we not only got over colds and flu more quickly, we started having fewer brushes with seasonal illnesses. 

Since then, I have been a diligent consumer of onions during wintertime.  Just last week my youngest daughter started to come down with a cold.  Immediately, I filled her room with onions and within a couple of days, all her cold symptoms were gone.  Was this a coincidence?  Perhaps, but just in case it isn’t, I am going to keep buying onions.

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