Here is a recent creative approach, shortly before the Nov 3 presidential elections, amidst the uncertainty and turmoil leading up to the final days and post election week. It embodies the joy of creating attributed to the Fire Element in Chinese medicine and the coming together of the Earth element through cooking and eating. These two elements are right next to each other, in a generative cycle.
Alex and Li-Lan took this picture one morning of their breakfast of two fried eggs, potatoes with onions and bell peppers, and independently (at least on the linear plane) decided to create a story from the photo. We agreed we wouldn’t tell each other the story, we even posted it on facebook without reading each other’s story, and THEN read it after it was posted. It was a fun endeavor and speaks to the Yin and Yang of opposite interconnectedness. Enjoy!
One Breakfast, Two Stories
Two Eggs in a Pod by Li-Lan: There was once 2 eggs from different places and different parents who came together by fate into the same egg carton. They had their own yolk but were of different colored shells. One morning, crack, open & sizzle, they found themselves cooking together and their whites blended into one another, not knowing that when they ended up on a plate, it would form a heart. United, Unique, the Same.
Divining Breakfast by Alex
I used to go to my Turkish friends house when I was a teenager. His mother would make me coffee and then turn my empty cup upside down and read my fortune through the coffee grounds. When we were in Ollantaytambo, Peru I encountered a coca leaf reader from the Q’ero tribe who did a divination for me reading the leaves. Gypsies use a crystal ball and the ancient I Ching used yarrow sticks to form hexagrams and read and bring understanding.
Here at the peaceful piedmont retreat we look at our breakfast and ask, what’s going to happen?
My breakfast looks back at me and begins – the two yolks are going to come apart and be scrambled in the courts, there will be mixed vegetables taking to the streets in protest, and confusion will reign! But, high in Himalayas there is a king who rules his country with a priority on “Gross national Happiness” all is tranquil in Bhutan
If you’d like to know more about the Chinese Five Elements, we have a series of blog post on this site Chinese Five Elements and Self Care that is categorized on the right side widget.
If you’d like to know more about Tones for your Bones: Embodying Chinese Five Elements through live acoustic music, Qi Gong, acupressure, meditations, and reflections, check out
Workshops with Li-Lan, Tones for your Bones
YouTube channel for meditations, Qi Gong, music by Alex and Li-Lan, and Five Element music playlists of contemporary music. Tones for your Bones is also on
Facebook with fun, practical, and beautiful ways of remembering and learning the elements.
Contact Li-Lan for individual Chinese Five Element coaching for physical, emotional, and mental health as well as to understand a model that can be applied to business and creative projects.
Here is a recent creative approach, shortly before the Nov 3 presidential elections, amidst the uncertainty and turmoil leading up to the final days and post election week. It embodies the joy of creating attributed to the Fire Element in Chinese medicine and the coming together of the Earth element through cooking and eating. These two elements are right next to each other, in a generative cycle.