Ellen F. Franklin, PhD & Donna Carey, LAc
March 2025
We have just returned from five weeks in Asia, fortunate to celebrate the Lunar New Year of the Wood Snake in Singapore, and Thailand. Despite being told it was too early for cherry blossoms as we concluded our journey in Japan, the plum blossom garden at Osaka castle and the early blooming Japanese cherry in Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, Tokyo, did not disappoint. After days of clouds and freezing rain, clear skies and a ropeway ride from Hakone offered a clear view of Mt. Fuji. (We will share more of our journey in a future communication.)
Back home at the Mothership in New Mexico we’ve had snow, extreme high winds and no real sense that Spring is in the air. This morning the temperature hovered around 17F and there is a thin layer of ice on the pond.
We welcome the Spring Equinox, and the Wood Element amplified by the Wood Snake. The wood snake encourages resilience, wisdom, reflection and renewal with a particular focus on nurturing inner strength, emotional and physical health and well-being. The Spring Equinox aligns with this energy, and qualities of the Wood Element which include growth, change, shedding what no longer serves us, and pushing through daily challenges with a sense of promise of things to come.
It is far too easy to get bogged down in the daily drama and chaos as we witness attempts to erase history, and the targeting of human rights, ethics and integrity on every level and across the world.
We were uplifted by a recent column in Anand Giridharadas's The.Ink, The opposite of Fascism: Living Well and Fighting Back in a Time of Terrorism. We encourage you to read it, and if appropriate subscribe. https://substack.com/home/post/p-159466609 This particular quote stuck with us:
“The best revenge against these grifters and bigots and billionaires and bullies is to live well, richly, together…To embody the kind of living — free, colorful, open — they want to snuff out.”
Although these times are exhausting, each one of us has tools, skills, wisdom and resources to care for one another as active participants in the extraordinary sound community we’ve built together. Choose something today, do something colorful, take a walk in nature, enjoy a self-care treatment with Ohm, reach out to a friend. Think for a moment about what helps you identify a renewed sense of purpose.
There is a clarion call to focus with clear intent on the beneficial power of sound vibration to affect change on a global scale. We’ve faced these challenges before, perhaps never on this scale, but despair is the enemy of peace and harmony, and balance begins with each of us. Perhaps one of you would like to host a regular gathering on Acutonics Cosmos to share ideas about navigating through these extraordinary times. There is so much collective wisdom in our beautiful community.
Photos © 2025 Ellen F. Franklin:
Ellen & Donna, Shanghai financial district
Snake NahTrang Vietnam
Mt. Fuji
Plum Blossoms Osaka Castle