Jodi Ettenberg

It didn’t (and doesn’t) matter to me if it takes a long time, though my parents have the patience of saints. That way, if – IF – things go awry again during a procedure, I won’t be able to look back and say, “should have given it a bit more time. It’s February, and long term readers know this means my favourite holiday in the world: Vietnamese lunar new year or Tet. If I can’t seal during the winter, it certainly won’t be because I didn’t try.

For our second group meditation, we moved from the first week’s metta (loving kindness) to a simple body scan. While metta had us bringing attention to all beings and things, the body scan turns that focus to the body itself, beginning with the left foot and ending at the top of the head. If you think of your body as a house, the body scan is a way to throw open all the windows and doors and let the fresh air of awareness sweep it clean. I chose a midway breathing track for this week, since it starts with a body scan and moves into some breathing work.

When working on getting sealed, I explained here and on social media that the stakes were quite high, as a wrong move could re open the CSF leak that took so many patches to seal. And it seems that I sat the wrong way, stretching my hamstrings and dura in a way that it was not ready for. Those who read my prior post on how I went into anaphylaxis during round four of patching at Duke know that I cannot get glue patching again. As with patching generally, it requires the body to kick in and create the scar tissues needed to seal up the leak in the dura.

Prior to working as the Executive Director for the Museum of Food and Drink (MOFAD) in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Peter J. Kim was an attorney at the large (650 lawyer) firm Debevoise & Plimpton LLP in New York. As with Nathan Sawaya, the lawyer-turned-LEGO-master, Peter’s life after law interview came about through a Legal Nomads reader. It’s a new kind of interactive museum, and like Cité du Vin in Bordeaux, France, it brings the world of food to life with multi-sensory exhibits that you can touch, taste, and smell. It’s inspiring to work with talented people who are passionate about the museum’s mission.