We seem to be past the stress related to pathogens—today our top priority is Shen stagnation, a TCM-style pattern describing the mind-spirit feeling stuck or burdened, with reduced emotional flow, clarity, vitality, and ease of expression.
We’re taking a cocktail for the Shen stagnation—with 9 repeats—and although we cleared the Sustenance Balancer related to what was being run from yesterday, today we wanted to run it on:
PERFECTIONISM.
For those who like more details, here’s a little more of what our scan included related to stress:
Exhaustion
Overwhelm
Perfectionism
Self-esteem
Shen/Life Force support
Restoration
Physically, the strongest themes involved circulation and blood flow, spleen and immune regulation, autonomic nervous-system balance, and inflammation.
The overall message:
GET SOME REST.
Now…
in this next segment of the FFT, Brayden is making a list of his ASSets because he has decided not to bankrupt his family with medical treatments that don’t have a solid track record.
He decides, also, to make the list with a notebook and ink pen instead of on a screen.
No easy task for a donkey.
But this decision turns out to be more significant than he realizes.
And this part isn’t entirely make-believe either.
Researchers using high-density EEG have found different patterns of brain connectivity when people wrote by hand rather than typed.
Let’s see where all this takes us…
BRAYDEN COUNTS HIS ASSets
Brayden rode the subway home.
The walls were lined with screens, all set to the Asses Sharing Stories Network.
His mind, of course, was elsewhere.
All he could think was:
I am dying.
And he had already made one decision:
I am not going to bankrupt the donkeys I love for treatments that have never saved a single donkey.
That evening was completely normal.
Which somehow made it worse.
Belle asked how the appointment had gone.
“Fine,” he said.
It was the first lie he had told her in years.
They ordered from Oatstanding Pizza.
Tonight’s special:
Straw & Cheese.
Screens were going, but nobody was really watching.
Belle was scrolling through her phone.
Their basement-dwelling foal kept shouting upstairs that the Wi-Fi was slow.
Just a typical evening.
Eventually everyone went to bed.
Brayden went to his office.
Nothing new there.
But this time he walked to the back of the room and opened a hidden cubicle.
Inside was an old storage box labeled:
MAGIC
He pulled it down.
Inside was a small leather notebook and an actual ink pen he had received years ago as a gag gift at an office party.
The tag had read:
MANUAL THOUGHT RECORDING SYSTEM — ONCE USED BY HUMANS, NOW BANNED
For some reason, Brayden had never parted with it.
Now he awkwardly placed the pen between his teeth, nudged the notebook open with his muzzle, and stared at the blank page.
Writing was not known to donkeys.
Obviously.
They had no hands.
PLUS—
they had been taught that handwriting was evil.
Humans did it.
For the donkeys of Planet Earth, digital was everything.
Donkeys simply spoke into screens.
And speaking was not to be underestimated.
It had taken generations to develop language from a wide variety of Hee-Haws.
But Brayden’s crisis had gotten him wondering whether maybe…
just maybe…
it was time to try something different.
Besides…
he had always wanted to use that pen.
Slowly and awkwardly, he began to write.
The handwriting was terrible.
He started with:
House
Then:
Retirement accounts
Investments
Savings
Vehicles
He paused.
Looked at the page.
Then wrote across the top:
ASSets
Brayden stared at the word.
A tiny laugh escaped him.
Then suddenly—
one of the screens lit up.
HEE-HAW! HEE-HAW! NEWS YOU NEED TO KNOW!
Bold headlines appeared:
NEWS BULLETIN
THE F.D.A. — FOOD, DRUGS & ASSES — HAS JUST ANNOUNCED APPROVAL OF A VACCINATION FOR:
PROGRESSIVE CEREBRAL HOLLOWING SYNDROME
FREE, STARTING TOMORROW, AT ALL BRAY-AID PHARMACIES
Brayden stopped writing.
Yesterday there was no cure.
Today there was a vaccine.
Free.
Everywhere.
He stared at the screen.
Then at the pen between his teeth.
Was this magic?
It certainly felt like it.
Maybe that old box had been labeled MAGIC for a reason.
