Living the Elements: Wood – Springtime!

Springtime!

There are a number of different serious blog pieces still in the works, but right now, I really just want to have some community fun. I’ve put together a list of some of my favorite Wood-element art and music.

I’d love to hear from you: Are you listening to, looking at, or reading anything that moves and heals and awakens your Wood element this spring? Please share in the comments section below. I’m always up for more healthy Five Element nourishment through the arts. Meanwhile here are some of my favorites, just to get you started.

Song: It’s Not Easy Being Green by Kermit the Frog

At first listen this might not seem to be your average Wood song, because it begins with a distinct Lack of Shout. When Wood is showing up missing, often all we see is the K’e cycle elements: gloomy Metal and self-pitying mopey Earth. This could easily be a case of blood deficient Wood creating low self-esteem.

(For more about Liver Blood Deficiency and self-esteem in Wood, see my YouTube video SI WU TANG, and my CEU Liver 1: Rising Again)

Song: Tony’s Song from West Side Story

Is this a Wood song, looking towards the future with hope and expectation, or is it a Metal song, with the wide-open receptivity of the Lung, and the Colon’s ability to Welcome Fragrance (CO-20)? Maybe it’s both! According to Heiner Fruehauf, the Lung and Colon can also be considered organs of the springtime, and thus part of the Wood element. In the calendar/clock system, Lung is the organ of first light (3-5 a.m. or the month of February), and Colon is the organ of full daybreak (5-7 a.m. or the month of March: Da-da-da-DUM da-Dum! Morning trumpets)!

At the very least, it’s a great energetic portrait of what it feels like when you definitely do not have a Liver-Lung exit entry block!

(For more about the energetics of a Liver-Lung exit/entry block, see CEU Liver-Lung Block.  For more on the CO-St block visit the Five Element Archive for the Exit-Entry Blocks: Colon-Stomach Block PDF. If you aren’t already an archive member, find more information about a membership here.)

Song: Tubthumping by Chumbawamba

The chorus says it all: I get knocked down, but I get up again; you’re never gonna keep me down!

(For more about getting up again when you’ve been knocked down, see CEU Wood: Healing from Trauma, and CEU Liver 1: Rising Again)

Poem: [in Just-] by e. e. cummings

e. e. cummings always feels like a poet of the Wood element to me, with his delightfully arhythmic rhythms and his abrupt creative non-standard punctuation—but here he really goes out of his way to express the spirit of spring.

in Just-
spring         when the world is mud-
luscious the little
lame balloonman

whistles         far         and wee

and eddieandbill come
running from marbles and
piracies and it’s
spring

when the world is puddle-wonderful

the queer
old balloonman whistles
far         and         wee
and bettyandisbel come dancing

from hop-scotch and jump-rope and

it’s
spring
and

the

goat-footed

balloonMan         whistles
far
and
wee

(For a more in-depth look at the meaning of Wood in springtime, see CEU Intro to Wood.)

Sculpture: Henrique Olivera

Now that’s a fabulous portrait of what a Liver-Lung exit-entry block might feel like! Kind of like springtime in lockdown, eh? Finding freedom within has been a big theme this year. I look at this sculpture and it inspires me to do some ribcage-releasing stretches and twists immediately.

(For more about exit-entry blocks of the Liver and Lung, see CEU Liver 13-14: Finding Freedom.)

Add your favorite Wood/springtime Five Element resources in the comments below.

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6 Comments

  1. rae ritke says:

    Oh oh oh! What a wonderful thread. I actually started singing it ya t easy being green this morning on my walk! And here it is..

    So this might just be my personal Wood energy, but I’ve been listening to broadway musicals. Specifically Chorus Line, Godspell, and Hamilton.

    Each of these for me were groundbreaking, and genius. Hamilton with its rapping off beat is great for my wood energy and frankly is just bonkers brilliant. And I seriously cannot Not get up and dance for chorus line.

    Chorus line “I hope I get it”
    Hamilton: “My shot”
    Godspell- whole album. 70s original. Not remake.

    1. rae ritke says:

      Oh! This is wonderful. I know that cranky wood energy….hahaha.

  2. julie bibleheimer says:

    I’ve been following Thea’s advice from a Wood online class (about 6 or 7 years ago) this spring and trail running – a river route with gullies, streams, roots, rocks, twists, uphill and downhill traverses. This has tremendously fed my wood element – which can too often feel like the image in this blog, of the gnarled twisted tree trunk. The songs that fit my spring trail running mood the most include This is Me (from the Greatest Showman), Try Anything by Shakira, and most everything by Michael Franti but especially Good to be Alive. Justin Timberlake’s Can’t Stop This Feeling, for example, makes me feel like a seed that can sprout towards the light when it has all the just right ingredients of sun, light, warmth, coolness. But Good to be Alive makes me feel like a seed that is gonna grow towards the light even if there is a drought or a frost … I have been wondering about Alicia Key’s song Girl on Fire, though. Wondering if it is strong wood that has fed Fire? As when I listen to it I switch from a running machine that is feeling my blood pumping through my muscles and sinews to feeling it pumping in my chest, and I become aware of my heart beat. Jue Yin?
    I’ve been very inspired by Thea’s wood teachings and this blog post!

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