Feng Shui With Me

Feng Shui with Me

Master Lin Yun was the answer to improving Kathy’s Ch’i. Of late, good fortune had passed her by. Armed with Lin Yun’s book, Feng Shui and the Art of Color, I was eager to apply his teachings.
“Karma is catching up with me,” Kathy said. The sound track from Hell Hath No Fury blared in the background. “Bad deeds in past lifetimes. I am desperate to reverse this run of bad luck.” Clearly she was ready for the ebb and flow of Yin and Yang.
“Kathy, we can harmonize your Ch’i,” I said. “Color can harness the power of nature and the universe. It can alter your destiny. Feng Shui is like a diamond. When you cut the jewel, you must pay close attention to every facet. In this case, color.”
I suspected Kathy had done a little research of her own when she handed me a red envelope. I took it as a symbol of mutual respect and a sign that she was open to the possibilities of Chinese wisdom.
Kathy and I united in pursuit of Tao. A contumacious pair, we sat on a shag rug the color of ripe peaches. In the ancient Chinese tradition, peach is a double-edged color. Peach Blossom Luck, stage one, is for single people. But, for a married woman like Kathy, it morphs and mutates to its final stage, Peach Blossom Death.
“This peach carpet has to go,” I said. “You need a color that harmonizes with your Ch’i. And that white front door, it’s a gateway to sadness. We need to follow the five-element creative cycle. Start at the base of the house and work our way up.” Energy flows like a river. It needs to meander through gentle curves. I noticed the path leading to her front door resembled the barrel of a gun.
Kathy and I were like paper boats in a storm drain. Overhead an exposed beam threatened well-being.
“See that?” I pointed to hand-hewn oak crossing the ceiling. “It’s setting up a constant disturbance of breath. The energy patterns rain down on you like hammers. The beam really should go.”
Kathy wore her scowl like a trinket. The quest to expel bad Ch’i continued to expose barriers. Looking at the vaulted ceiling, I could almost see the energy bouncing around like balls on a billiard table. Lin Yan’s cautions and suggestions for improving your karmic lot came in multiples of nine. We plunged ahead.
“Let’s make the Colored Line Running from Heaven to Earth. Get some construction paper and twine.” Together we assembled the string of harmony and suspended the colors from the offending beam, in their proper sequence: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, purple. Inwardly I hoped that her house faced east.

Kathy needed a bundle of firecrackers to ward off the onslaught of negative energy. Instead I told her to hang a crystal in a west-facing window.
“Visualize blades of light slicing through it, a vibrant prism saturating the kitchen with positive Ch’i. After you remove the wallpaper, that is,” I explained, as if this were a prerequisite for crystal hanging. I glanced at Kathy. She would have made a good Edvard Munch painting.
“And what is wrong with the wallpaper?” Kathy tossed the words at me like spitballs.
“Well,” I said, “It’s blue and white. Those are mourning colors, wintery and dormant. You need a soft rose tint on the walls and deep red chair pads. Or better yet, purple. Some Chinese think purple is luckier than red. They even have a saying, ‘It is so red, it’s purple.’” I was convinced that brilliant color was the antidote to the hopelessness and frustration that circled and stalked her house like invisible enemies.
I don’t recall whether Kathy painted the window boxes the same color as the casements or if she added panes of etched glass by the door. I never asked her if she practiced the Green Tree Meditation or performed the Rainbow Body Purification. Bad luck brought us together; in time we drifted apart. But the mystical energy we created binds us. I hold the well-worn red envelope and sense a subtle pulse.

Story ID:	1097
Written by:	toni giarnese (bio, contact, other stories)
Story type:	Musings, Essays and Such
Location:	new hartford ct USA
Year:	2006
Person:	Kathy