Greetings from a very hot Athens where the food is wonderful and unique, and the people connect so well. The pulse class here, hosted generously by Maria Giavanoglou was attended by a large number of people, many of whom trained together and so the community feel was off to a great start. Efthymios Foteinos, who had the hardest job in the room translated impeccably.
While I was there I received a note from Ada. Last October after the Auckland pulse class, Ada, my friend and New Zealand host, wanted to introduce me to her grandmother-in-law, ‘Nan’, so we dropped in at her house on the way to the airport, which was a great honor. She was 101 at the time. We had a special chat and at the end, as we were leaving, I bent over her as she was sitting in her chair and gave her a hug. As I did so, the traditional green jade pounamu, carved especially for “a leader crossing large bodies of water” that Ada and her family had given me hours before that was hanging around my neck swung forward and dangled in front of her. She took it in both hands and stroked it with great deliberation, and intention. When I stood up and turned around, I saw that Ada was moved. “Your pounamu just received a traditional Māori blessing,” she said.
Nan passed away recently and today I received this extraordinary message from Ada:
“Last year Nan flew to Australia to see her second oldest son. Uncle was in his 80s mind you, dying with leukemia. They went to straight to the hospital and the very next morning he passed. When she got back she had a massive Luo vessel, like a boil on her shin. Very Gallbladder Luo. I wanted to release it. I was nervous to do it and there was hesitation from family too. Anyways. Just before she passed I saw her as they changed her. Even though the boil had healed by itself and the skin had been clear for months, at that point, right there, was a massive open ulcer, huge, raw and weeping. It was like it had completely imploded. Marvelous the lessons that come.”
Indeed. The Gallbladder Luo contains a broad range of latent or unexpressed emotions, including despair. It’s also the last of the Yang Luos, the last opportunity to clear from the constitution deposits of unexpressed emotions before they become committed to the spirit’s next incarnation, to be re-lived and resolved. Ada was witnessing Nan’s spontaneous self-generated treatment eliciting the release of her profound despair at experiencing the loss of her son before her own passing, and the consequent liberation of the spirit in advance of the release of her body. Such is marvelous nature of the channels that move us.
Ann Cecil-Sterman
Athens, Greece
7 September, 2026
