THE ACUPUNCTURE GROVE PROJECT
We are a part of nature, not apart from nature
Your treatments are not just to help you feel better and live well, but also a portion of every treatment goes towards restoring our nature and feeding those less fortunate.
The idea for the Acupuncture Grove clinic comes from an old story dating back to China’s Three Kingdom’s period (220-280 C.E.). I was first inspired by the Xing Lin (杏林), or “Apricot Grove”, story from my teacher Dr Edward Neal who runs the Apricot Grove Institute.
The story is of Dong Feng who was a physician renowned for his great skill and compassion. For every patient that was cured of a disease, he would ask that an apricot tree be planted and tended to in a nearby grove as payment. If the disease was particularly serious, he would ask for 5 trees to be planted. Over his life and career, the apricot grove grew to over 100,000 trees. Wealthier people who visited the grove to pick apricots were asked to leave rice in the public granary that would then feed those who did not have enough to eat.
In this way, through his practice, he was able to not only positively impact the individuals he treated, but also benefit the local environment and support the community through food shortages. Because of this, Dong Feng was recognised as one of China’s great sage-physicians.
Today we live in interesting times
Healthwise we face multiple chronic disease and mental health epidemics with 1 in 2 Australians dealing with one or more chronic health conditions at some point.
Regarding hunger, we have enough food for everyone in the world to be fed, yet as many as 783 million people go hungry globally. In our own backyard, there are more than half a million families struggling to put enough food on the table every day in Australia.
Environmentally we all know about global warming and climate change thanks to our unsustainable use of land, water, resources and energy, which is driving us into a 6th mass extinction event.
Now more than ever could we do with some of the spirit of Dong Feng and his Apricot Grove. When the environment is healthy and the community is fed, there is less disease, and when the people are fed and healthier they support each other and their environment. This generates a positive interconnected cycle that supports life.
That’s why Acupuncture Grove donates a portion of every treatment towards both environmental regeneration and feeding those less fortunate through Greening Australia and Food For Change.
Greening Australia is involved in multiple programs to achieve landscape restoration that supports increased biodiversity, improves water quality, sequesters carbon from the atmosphere and supports local communities.
Food For Change approach alleviating food insecurity in Australia from two main angles. First by utilising unused land and an army of volunteers they can grow and provide fresh nutritious fruit, vegetables and herbs. Secondly they rescue food locally by connecting local food donors (like IGA) with local food relief organisations to maximise food utilisation and reduce waste.
While the clinic is small and my own skills are nowhere near that of ancient sage-physicians, I do hope that we can make some small beneficial impact, and as the clinic grows, continue to grow in how we can contribute to a brighter future.