I’m up late. I didn’t plan it this way; in fact, lately I’ve been working on regularizing my routines to waste less energy and to stabilize my life. I’ve been trying to go to bed earlier.

One of the things I do every day is a little bit of qigong (from the Shaolin Wahnam tradition) and a few other exercises involving vital energy. Particularly recently, it’s been helpful in increasing my daily energy. But one caution I was taught was not to practice during a thunderstorm.

Well, I like to test the boundaries. Tonight there was a thunderstorm and I decided to breathe in a little energy and then breathe it out again. Just a couple of breaths, nothing much.

Then I lay in bed trying to get to sleep, but it was like I had drunk coffee or something. I just had too much energy in my body, the kind of energy that was too wild and kept moving instead of settling down.

So here I am. Interesting stuff, this qi. I can see why it is wise to cultivate it carefully and harmoniously.