"Just a minute," said a voice...

 

"Just a minute," said a voice...
by Mary Oliver

"Just a minute," said a voice in the weeds. 

So I stood still

in the day's exquisite early morning light.

and so I didn't crush with my great feet

any small or unusual thing just happening to pass by

where I was passing by

on my way to the blueberry fields,

and maybe it was the toad

and maybe it was the June beetle

and maybe it was the pink and tender worm

who does his work without limbs or eyes

and does it so well

or maybe it was the walking stick, still frail

and walking humbly by, looking for a tree,

or maybe, like Blake's wondrous meeting, it was

the elves, carrying one of their own

on a rose petal coffin away, away

into the deep grasses, After awhile

the quaintest voice said, "Thank you." And then there was silence

For the rest, I would keep you wondering.

Moving Forward with Intention~September 11

Hello Everyone, I wrote two poems after the momentous events of September 11, 2001.
The first one I wrote within days of September 11th and the second one about a year later.
May we all move forward with peace in our hearts.
Green Blessings, Julie

It was a morning like any other,
I crouched in front of my heater,
I remember a dream I had right before I woke
Lovers were intertwined in the mud,
In the rubble along a flowing river
It was my mother's call that alerted me to the tragic plane crashes
I was in shock I was afraid and excited
It was, after all, an awakening.

It was a mourning like no other
An incredible sadness lay heavy in my body.
I sought information from the radio internet
I sought my own true nature for wisdom
I felt myself rise up out of my grief
And follow the path of my dreams

The path is filled with possibilities and road blocks.
"Pray for peace" my email message read.
"We must destroy the evil" I heard him say.
"Extend compassion empathy to everyone involved." he wrote
"God Bless America" everywhere I look.
"Love is the answer to every question." She sang.

And a voice sings out in me strong and clear.
"Follow your heart's desire.
Do only what you are called to do.
Nothing more.
Feel everything strongly and thoroughly,
Let despair envelop you until you find possibility.
Let rage propel you to act without hesitation.
Let sadness bring you a last to peace within yourself."

And I cry,
"I love myself."

This poem was published in my column, The Wise Woman's Garden, in
The Beltane Papers, Journal of Women's Mysteries, Spring 2002




In the heart of hopelessness,
I found a new world.
In its sadness,
a river flowed in peace.
And in the center of all grieving,
a flower bloomed
into a joy
beyond all knowing.


May it be in Beauty.

The Roses by Mary Oliver

All afternoon I have been walking over the dunes,
hurrying from one thick raft of the wrinkled, salt
roses to another, leaning down close to their dark
or pale petals, red as blood or white as snow.
And now I am beginning to breathe slowly and evenly-
the way a hunted animal breathes, finally, when it has galloped,
and galloped-when it is wrung dry, but, at last, is far away,
so the panic begins to drain from the chest, from the wonderful legs,
and the exhausted mind.

Oh sweetness pure and simple, may I join you?

I lie down next to them, on the sand.
But to tell about what happens next, truly I need help.

Will somebody or something please start to sing?

Weaving the Green

I had a wonderful and quite a dynamic experience with my free teleclass this morning.
As I talked about the potent energy of the earth very close to the ground in the fall and winter
months, the potent wind through the trees blew our electricity out. Then it came back
on. A bit of delay in the class, but powerful display of the transformational energies
that are present during this winter-into-spring time.

Two things I shared on this teleclass this morning:

• An excerise to connect with the green emerging
• Seven ways to weave the green into your life right now.

The New Green Way ~ Shamanic Exercise:

• Go outside on the earth where you live. Look at your feet.
• Bend your knees slightly and allow your energy to sink into the earth just a bit.
• Breathe naturally, three breaths.
• Now breathe with the awareness that you are breathing in the breath of the plants around you and breathe out, offering your breath to the plants.
• Now become aware that this beautiful earth you are standing on is alive. Breathe in and out with the earth.
• Bring awareness to the green around you, no matter what the weather or what appearance of the landscape.
• Breathe in and out with the green.
• Now connect the green with the green of your inner landscape. And listen.
• Offer gratitude when this is complete.

Seven Ways to Weave the Green as winter turns into spring:

1. Spend time outside everyday, listening and breathing with Gaia, our living earth.
2. Breathe in and out with the green, whether you can see it or not. It is there now.
3. Before harvesting any plants, ask permission. Wait for an answer.
4. See all weather patterns of spring as being instrumental in bringing about fertility. Give up complaining about weather and give thanks instead.
5. Plants seeds as soon as it is possible. Plant your intentions with them.
6. Drink nourishing herbal infusion to wake up your body.
7. Notice what nourishes you and what doesn't nourish you.

May it be in Beauty.

I am the Hawk, Soaring Over the Land

It is the second day of snow here on our land on Whidbey Island. Sometimes the cold, dark rainy weather keeps me inside most of the day. The snow lures me outside, to explore the landscape. I noticed the other day that there were still some wild rose hips that looked beautifully red and plump down in the thicket. Today I venture down there to harvest some, knowing full well that the Vitamin C in them is potent because of the cold.

They are so easy to pluck. And the blood red color stands brillant against the white snow and grayish red stalks. I start out gathering rose hips and think I will get bored easily. But there is something about rose that lures me into another realm. I forget this truth until I am here in this expanded version of life, where love and beauty reign.

There are at least three different species of wild rose that I am noticing. The very hard, small fruit are the most vibrant at this time of year. But I venture over to the place where the large, plump hips are hanging. As I am almost to the edge of our land, I look up and overhead comes a very large hawk in its winter garb. Mostly white, with flecks of brown.

I can tell the time by this hawk. It comes in the afternoon about 2:30 pm. It flies over the land and over the garden. I am fortunate to be here at this moment to witness its flight.

Out there on the land, as the sun is ending its fullness and beginning to wane, I feel a sense of connectedness with everything. I am the hawk, soaring over the land. I am the ruby red rose hips. I am the snow, the frozen cold. I am the sun waning and the darkness approaching. I am the earth mother old and dying and the gestating infant earth, held inside the deep dark holy womb.

I remember as I write this that I am held in total darkness as the light of my existence prepares for birth. I am thankful for this vision that peace is felt first before it is seen.

May it be in Beauty.

I will tend and water and pray and sing

The garden this year has been deeply nourishing. It is the 5th year of this garden for us here at our little farm on Whidbey. I have written before about my whole life being an adventure of moving here and there and discovering new plants and new gardens. It was so easy in the past to uproot myself and leave for new adventures. When we moved here, I knew it was permanent.

There has been a stirring in me for over 20 years to root into the land and grow from there. It started in Seattle, where Tadd and I owned a little house in Ballard. We had a eight foot thick laurel hedge growing around the perimeter of our yard. Tadd, with chainsaw in hand, cut the laurel back dramatically. We discovered that the squirrels lived in there as we disrupted their homesteads. And the summer after that clear cut, I discovered a blue elder growing out of the laurel. This was right around the time when I met Susun Weed and EagleSong. My life was to change dramatically in a very short span of time and I didn’t quite know it yet.

I began to do small rituals out my my yard, to honor the earth, to pray for my life purpose to be revealed to me and for peace. I would pour herbal infusion on the elder at the end of my rituals. The elder grew flowers and then berries that summer, right in the middle of Seattle, right in the middle of the laurel. I trusted this message and thanked Mama Earth for such a generous gift. One day when I finished my ritual, I turned to walk back in my house and from around the corner of the house flew an enormous hawk. It flew very near me and then out of sight.

I was taken to my knees by this experience. And from it I felt something grow in me that now flourishes some twenty years later. I learned that wherever I am on the Earth, it is sacred. I learned that to do what we are called to do wherever we are, whoever we are is what is needed.

I am now being called to cultivate the land here. This seems like the hardest task of all. It is the land itself that is calling for this. I could easily live here amongst the great weeds and tall grasses and not grow many plants. But I am being called into something greater than I have been before and with some reluctance and resistance I am answering the call.

It is like the shedding of the snake’s skin. I am surrendering to the fact that I am
changing. It is uncomfortable with a lot of not knowing. And like the seed that hold new life inside it, I don’t yet know what I will become with it. I will tend and water and pray and sing and trust the invisible hands that guide me on.

May it be in Beauty.

Divine Design within the Imperfection

I returned from my fourth trip to Vermont Prosperity Training this last Sunday evening. It was a good training this time. Each time I am opened more. This time I really wanted to hide and not open because of disclosing my lack of integrity in relationship with money.

I am even reluctant to share it here. What will you think if you know that I am not always in integrity with money?

We had an assignment to choose four ways of changing. One of these ways was....”from tired overwhelm of a mess that’s chaotic, unconscious, frantic, scatter and make wrong”...to....”energetic actions of order and design making priorities and promises that are focused, scheduled and accountable.” In choosing this one, I saw that I could organize my finances and be straight with what I need to pay. What occurred after this was somewhat of a blur. My teacher Toni Stone proceeded to break-down the ego mind with which I was operating and help me to see that I am not fully in integrity with what I said I would do. I truly thought I was doing pretty well up to that point, that I was doing my best. I discovered that I sometimes pretend to be ignorant when really I am not at all.

Later we talked about witnessing these imperfect ways that we are and accepting ourselves as we are. I am learning from this training and also from my prosperity conversations with students that the goal is not to be perfect. The goal is to be vulnerable, to open ourselves to being ourselves. There is a kind of divine design within the imperfection.

May it be in Beauty.

Bring into the World, That Beautiful Idea

Tadd and I were living in Arlington, Washington about ten years ago. The house we were renting was an old, old Victorian farmhouse that was falling apart. I had returned from my apprenticeship with Susun Weed in New York about a year before that and was beginning the integration period of this life changing experience. I was also just beginning menopause and I felt like I was falling apart also.

I had quit my job as a teacher and was living off of some savings I had and then off of Tadd's income. I already had started a small herbal products business and was selling at farmer's markets and a bit through mail order. I had started writing a column for The Beltane Papers, Journal of Women's Mysteries and discovered I could write about plants.

There was a very, very large managed forest to the east of us. I would climb up behind our house and walk and walk through it. I spent my days walking in the woods and gardening, talking to the plants and wondering what I was going to do with the rest of my life. Tadd wondered that also.

I began to cook all our food from scratch at that time and also made nourishing herbal infusions for us to drink. I grew lots of food for us and made medicines from the plants that were near. I grew very close to one of the Douglas Fir tree up in the woods and visited her almost everyday.
I also remember the Herb Robert and how it helped me feel welcome on the forest trail.



I had some problems with my self esteem at this time. My body was changing and I gained quite a bit of weight. I had shaved my head to celebrate my transformation upon finishing my shamanic apprenticeship and I hated the way my hair looked for a long time.

I sought shamanic healing to help me navigate this strange new life and trained with the Foundation for Shamanic Studies. I started a shamanic practice in my little delapidated house near the woods. In the unseen world of my journeys, I found the home base for my shamanic herbal practice. I began to teach and enrolled a couple of apprentices to come explore the way of the wise woman with me.

Then the world trade towers came down. This marked a significant change in both Tadd and myself. Tadd began to struggle a bit with finding enough work and well, I was hardly making any money at what I was doing. Our chiropractor told Tadd about a woman from Vermont, Toni Stone, who had helped his wife double her income. Tadd gave her a call and started to receive coaching from her.

Within the next year, we had moved to Whidbey Island to rent a little house on the beach. I started to receive coaching also. And within a couple of years we bought a beautiful farm where we now live and work.

It has been almost six years since we moved here to our little farm. My herbal school, Crow's Laughter Mystery School is very successful and my products are helping to heal many people all over the US and even internationally. I have always had within me a beautiful idea of how I wanted everything to be. When I started studying prosperity with Toni Stone and now Gifford Booth and many others, I learned that I could bring into the world, that beautiful idea. And I have done that and continue to paint a greater picture of it.



I have learned that sharing my gifts even when I don't think I have them to give has opened me to a greater sense of life. I have learned that being thankful for what I have been given over and over has trained me to see possibility. And I have learned to give up the easy road and instead, I have found a deeply engaging path that is rich and embodied.

I look forward to growing deeper and stronger into the richness of life and invite any and all of you to join me in celebration of our passionate abundance.

May it be in Beauty.

I am sure I am headed into the mystery again.

I have been out in the garden everyday recently. Sometimes I am overwhelmed with all the weeds. This happens mostly when I take just a bit of time, when I am in a hurry. If I take the time to breathe and listen I begin to notice more and appreciate what I am witnessing.



Today I spent 3 hours weeding the Goddess Garden. This is a space within our garden shaped like a goddess. I created this just over two years ago from stones. She's about 20 feet long.
In this garden we planted oatstraw. And today I found, little plants, lamb's quarters, shephard's purse, chamomile, borage, burdock, red and yellow dock, catch-fly, couch grass and every other kind of grass.



When I stepped out of the classroom just over 13 years ago and stepped onto
the spiral path, I discovered my wildness. I was a little frightened of it and to
be honest sometimes very frightened of it. But I also loved it.
I remember discovering a weed that was growing in my garden in Ballard (Seattle)
was Nipplewort, Lapsana communis and that this plant was utilized as a poultice for
dried, cracked nipples on breast-feeding moms.
This plant that I had thought was a problem, was actually a solution.



It has only gotten better from here. Tadd and I moved from our lovely Ballard home to
a place in South West Washington called Enchanted Valley. I apprenticed with Susun Weed and
returned to our little cabin in the woods where I began my journeys into my wildness. I certainly
did cultivate plants there and in the next places I lived, but I started a practice of never weeding a plant until I knew what it was. And some wild plants that I wanted to eat in my salad and put in my soups, well, I let them grow all over the garden.



I have learned about a lot of wild plants over the last 13 years, and I have grown very fond of my wildness. I have allowed it to flourish and I have grown comfortable with those places in me
that were so frightening long ago.



Just about a week ago, I noticed that I have a strong desire to cultivate, to weed and remove many of the wild plants so that I can grow more medicinals herbs and vegetables. I have a vision of strong-rooted fruit trees as well as lindens and Hawthornes and a old growth forest of cedar and hemlock. I would love to invite, Meadowsweet, Pleurisy Root, more lavenders and thymes, and garden roses of all kinds into the garden. It is time for me to fully cultivate the garden and land here.



And as I begin this quest, this journey, I feel a little nervous that I will tame the wild, wise woman and she won't be any fun, won't know the voices of the unseen world anymore. I am sure I am headed into the mystery again. I am excited this time as I step into the wilds of cultivation and begin to plant seeds there.
Goddess only know what can happen now.

May it be in beauty.

I could actually say I am in love with the taste of wild rose honey.

One of the most delicious and deeply sensual gifts of life is Wild Rose Honey Electuary. It's taste is exquisite and its healing unfathomable. It is so simple to make. You can make it with the wild roses which are beginning their bloom right now and you can make it with any rose.

Here is how.... Venture off to a place where the wild rose grows. As you come into its presence, begin to pay attention to your breath. Detect the smell of rose, perhaps subtle at first. And then put you nose right into the bloom. (Watch for bees. :<)

Smell this delectable fragrance and give thanks for it. Now, ask the rose if you may harvest. Yes? Well then, look for the blooms who's stamens are still pale yellow. Harvest as many as you can get in a jar just about to the top. Offer gratitude once again.

Saying thank you is a practice in itself and cannot be done too much. You can harvest the roses right into your jar if you like, but when you place them in a basket, they are so beautiful. Place these beautiful roses in your jar and drizzle local, raw honey over them. This is a slow process and can be rather messy evoking the wild wise woman in you.

You will want enough honey to cover the roses. Put a lid on your jar and label this with name and date. And wait...its hard to wait for rose honey, but oh, so worth it. Six weeks is long enough, but you could actually start to taste the rose in the honey after just one day.

You can strain this with a seive and a cloth. And....you can just eat it right out of the jar. And offer gratitude again for such precious medicine. I could actually say I am in love with the taste of wild rose honey. I must just surrender to this fact.

May it be in Beauty.

Love and Beauty at my Doorstep

This piece is the first of three articles I wrote for Susun Weeds' Wise Woman eMagazine ind 2008. You can read all three installments here...http://www.susunweed.com/herbal_ezine/June08/goddess.htm

The Journey of the Rose
A Shamanic Herbal Tale in 3 parts ~ Part I

I am looking forward to the blooming of the wild roses this year. Each day making my way down into the yard to “check on them”. We have lived here on this land for just over three years. When we moved here in December of 2004, I remember one of the first things we did was to walk down into the wetland area. My husband was on this trek to “claim” the land he had chosen to steward. I was in search of plants. Who lives here? I saw the thickets of thorny bushes, but I didn’t yet know for sure they were roses.

Around 8 years ago, I discovered a magical place on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington where there are acres and acres of wild roses. I began to travel to this place to harvest the blooms in May/June and then the wild rose hips in October. Year after year I would make this pilgrimage to commune with rose. Wildcrafting wild rose blossoms is bewitching.

It begins like any other wildcrafting task..... asking, listening, thanking, plucking the blooms, sniffing here and there, tasting. But then as I continue, I find myself entering another world. Soon I am mesmerized by this thorny priestess; I am inside the realm of love and beauty. Peace abounds in this space. Loving myself is simple. Wild Rose tells me tales of how to love, who to love and how to teach love. This sacred space that beckons me, welcomes me is difficult to leave. It is soon time for me to stop harvesting so that I may get to the ferry before the last boat. Wild rose is saying pick me, pick me, more and more. I am pulling myself away from her, telling her I will return in fall to harvest her hips. I discover that even after I leave this space between the world, I can still travel there in feelings and sensations.

As spring came ‘round, our first spring here at our farm, I discovered the wild roses...still doubt sets in about whether it could possibly be true that I had chosen to live the rest of my life surrounded by this sorcière couverture. I made plans to travel to the Peninsula to harvest once again my beautiful blossoms. I returned to the spot where the wild roses spoke so loudly to me, seeking that feeling, craving the realm, hungry for it. The wild roses did speak loudly to me then and startled me. “What are you doing here?” they yelled. “You have roses on your land to harvest? You can harvest a few petals here and then you must return to your home and begin your journey there with wild rose.” I was heart broken or might I say that my heart was broken open at that moment. I realized that up until this time, I had to go seeking for love and beauty, I had to leave home to find it. Now I am being called to a simpler and yet more difficult task, to find love and beauty at my door step.

This year, I am restless to discover what wild rose will teach me. Her subtly, fragrant green leaves have already taken me in. Within her wise teachings, there is more difficulty in peeling away layers, in finding more love for myself and there is also laughter and singing to come.

May it be in Beauty.

There are three spaces left for...
The Journey of the Rose ~ Weekend Immersion in Shamanic Herbalism
May 29-30, 2010 ~ Amongst the blooming wild roses at our farm on Whidbey Island
Visit our website www.crowsdaughter.com for detailed information and to register and email us anytime.

The Green Teachings of the Fairies

“Green! ‘Tis the fairy garb of spring with million dew drops glistening.” Pedro Caulderon de la Barca, “Green and Blue”

It was just over five years ago that my husband Taddeusz and I came here to this land on Whidbey Island in Washington. We moved here from the rentals we had lived in for 7 years after selling our house in Seattle. Because we had moved so much, lived in so many places around Puget Sound, getting here to this place didn’t seem that significant at first. Another place to live, to discover, another adventure. What was to unfold as winter turned into spring could not have been known, but perhaps in the holy darkness of my psyche, I knew about the enchantment that was calling me forward.

I offered an herbal class at our farm the spring after moving here. As we walked on the land to discover the wild plant populations, one participant walked ahead of the rest of us. I saw her looking down at the ground and pointing. She said, “Look at this.” I came to the place where she stood and saw an old dead tree stump, quite small actually, with shelf mushrooms growing out of it. I knew immediately that this was the place where fairies dwelled. A gateway into their underworld sanctuary.

This place on our land became known as “The Fairy Dell” As spring came into her fullness, we discovered that “The Fairy Dell” was in the middle of a great thicket of wild roses. We told everyone who came to the land that this fairy sanctuary was off limits to humans, showing everyone where they could walk no further.

I didn’t know much about fairy lore. I had attended some talks given by R.J. Stewart and Dorothy Maclean at the Fairy and Human Relations Congress and listened intently. I read stories. And then I began to offer herbal mentorships for girls here at the farm. I did my journey work to discover what I could offer the girls. The fairies appeared in my journeys, giving me shamanic exercises in which the girls could connect with the unseen realm of these enchanted beings. The girls, ages 6-13 years old, understood the fairy language. They were delighted and seriously indulged in these experiences.

We listened, offered trinkets, libations and blessings. When the old tree fell over in a storm we created a staff with ribbons, herbs and beads to mark its place. It was this relationship that the girls had with the fairies that created a place in me to believe and to listen.

The fairy realm is intricatedly connected with the green world. A deva is a plant in its true and entire essence. Offered here are a few shamanic exercises in which you can discover the teachings of the fairies first hand right where you live.

This First Meditation/Journey can be done in a comfortable chair in your home:

• Close your eyes and find yourself at home outside in your garden or yard.
• Within this space, go to a plant with which you feel a connection.
• Notice your breath.
• Breathe in and out 3 time naturally.
• Now breathe and imagine you are breathing in the breath of this plant. Breathe out and offer your breath to the plant.
• Ask your plant, this plant, “What have you for me?” and listen.
• Now look down at the base of the plant where it comes out of the ground. Look for movement, as if you can see the wind.
• Acknowledge this as the fairy beings that dwell around this plant.
• Watch this energy move, and see if you can sense this energy communicating with you. What might it be telling you? Listen.
• When you sense this is complete, step back from the plant and acknowledge it by saying thank you.
• Open your eyes.

Activating the Fairy~Plant Connection: You are going to be activating the fairy~plant connection. The Devic realm will be honored and blessed. The magical realm of the plants will be activated. Fairies and Devas work together in the magical realm of the plants. This ceremony will open these realms. It can be done in each season.

• Fill a bowl with water, and place plants in it.
• Choose plants with which you feel a strong connection. Ask permission before gathering these plants and offer gratitude.
• Hold the bowl of water and plants in your hands.
• Breathe in and out, allowing the entireness of the plant to be breathed into you. As you breathe out, offer your entire self to the plant. Do this for 21 breaths.
• When this is complete, offer this water at the base of an old tree and offer gratitude to the fairies~devas~plants~water.

Song of the Birds: The fairies say that when you breath the song of the birds into your body, when you are in the garden or surrounded by plants, that you go to the place where plants walk around like humans and speak in the language you can understand.

• Find a place where you can sit and listen to the song of the birds.
• Close your eyes.
• Listen to the songs, breathe the songs into your body, feel it enter you body.
• Allow the song of the birds to take you to the unseen realm of the plants. And see what you discover.
• When you are home, cooking in your kitchen, open the window and allow the bird song into your kitchen. Breathe it in. This will bring the fairy energy into your home.

The connections with the fairy realm are not always light and fanciful. The fairies are powerful beings with strong intentions and will ask you to do things for them. Be strong in your own intentions as you begin this connection and trust your own intuition always.

May it be in Beauty.

First Printed in The Beltane Papers, Journal of Women's Mysteries, Spring 2009
www.thebeltanepapers.net

i listen

A rule for participants visiting our land and farm:
Do not to pick any plants or gather anything unless you ask me first.

please honor the land
come into relationship
with plant and animal
people grab and rip grass
seeds taken
tulip petal stolen
Crazy witch?

noticing grass
between my fingers
i greet my apple tree
she shares her wisdom
voices of the land
whispers of plants

a feather
on the ground
is this something
for me?
compassionate beings
changing me

breath
attention
intention
a whole world
opens

i listen

Before St. Patrick

I can easily say,
I love rain.
I love gray days
the holy darkness
that holds our world
when it rains.

Stinging Nettle shone
vibrant green
in the rain.
Full of life force,
presence.
There is a
new green,
this time of year.
From deep, down
in the fertile earth,
comes life once more.
I think perhaps
that before St. Patrick
there was
The Green.

We Must First Breathe Out

I returned from Vermont late Tuesday night. I spent the weekend at Toni Stone's home in Fairfax at a Prosperity Training. This was the second in a series of 7 weekend trainings over the next year, every other month. I decided to do this training because my life has been so vitally enhanced by the prosperity tools I have utilized and because of the prosperity coaching I have received over the last 9 years.
I always choose challenge. Even when I say I don't like it in the middle of it, that I am going to be easier on myself next time etc. etc. The work that we did over the weekend didn't seem so challenging on the surface. We made books about our season in the prosperity cycles. We studied Feng Shui together and the Chinese Zodiac. We did needle point, we wrote, we colored. We prepared meals together and we had deep conversations about what is so.
I woke up on Sunday morning in a fit of despair. I felt like I was the most inept person alive, that I cannot even get my life together. I laid in bed for awhile in this "seeming" problem and then decided to get up and begin my chores. I thought if I moved my body, I could move my emotional body as well. I met one of my fellow prosperity practioners in the kitchen, Tim, an electrician and stand up comedian. I shared with him about what I was experiencing. He said, "There is no destination we are trying to get to. We just keep going forward, keep practicing." This helped.
We sat down in the large comfy living room/course room to write and have conversations. I shared my despair about being such a fuck-up. Toni said to the group, "Who isn't a fuck-up here? Who isn't inept?" Well, no one raised their hands. I realized that it doesn't matter, all this stuff that goes on in my head about my experience. That spending time in self concern about what my life is like was keeping me from being fully alive. This experience was ego shattering for me. It drew me away from the mind chatter of what I think I am, back into myself and who I truly am.
A shamanic teacher of mine once said that the mind chatter, the voice that goes on and on in our heads is like the out-breath. Just let it go. As the words, the thoughts float through our consciousness, just allow them to be expelled.

Intuition and inspiration are the in-breath.

In order to breathe in the breath of possibility, we must first breathe out.

May it be in Beauty.

Growing Quickly When Its Necessary

In Seattle today, at Warren G. Magnuson Park, I visited the cottonwood trees. There is one tree especially who's strong presence I seek when I return to this beautiful place. The buds of this tree were swelling, plump and even though they were out of reach, I could sense the thick, gooey, resin of Balm of Gilead. This other worldly medicine is in its prime right now. I almost forgot to harvest this year, distracted by so many changes, until I was spontaneously drawn to the park this afternoon before a healing session. As soon as I drove into the park, I saw the cottonwoods and remembered.

I am tied to the seasons now. I have been returning to harvest Cottonwood aka Balm of Gilead for I think about 15 years. The plant's messages and compassion are getting stronger and stronger for me. I cannot avoid it, pretend I don't understand it or doubt it anymore. I am happily surrendered to this life along side the plants. Cottonwood has worked her magic with me quite a bit lately. I have offered her my fear and she has given me inspiration. I have harvested her buds and she has given me healing oil. I have asked her advise and she has smiled at me, comforted me and taught me to grow quickly when its necessary.

It is Imbolc today...the traditional time of initiation. I am initiating spontaneity. I am opening to the wise and wild path of change and growth, fast and fine.

What will you initiate this year?

May it be in Beauty.

Invisible Quiet

I walked out on the land today.
I asked the apple tree for some advise about my work.
I walked up under the Douglas fir trees and greeted the burdock,
who’s leaves are almost invisible now.
I collected a few evergreen branches to feed to my goats.
I looked down at the beautiful beech leaves on the ground,
amber and glistening from rain.
I looked up at the majestic cedar.
Outside, I was quiet and slow.
Witnessing, listening, feeling.
Inside, I am working through,
continuing, calling, crafting, journeying, writing,
emailing, dreaming, intending, and affirming.
My inner world is very busy right now creating.
My outer world is gently being.
I was reminded by my walk out onto the earth,
that the gentle slow and low energy of this new moon day,
can nurture me best outside. I will follow earth’s energy inward,
and work diligently on the inside.
And I will allow myself to notice the
invisible quiet of the earth on the outside.

May it be in Beauty.

Calling us into Relationship, October Blog Party: Bio-regional herbs for Colds and Flu

Click on this link to visit Rosalee de la Foret's blog and links to many other herbalists who has written their blogs with the theme: Bio-regional herbs for Colds and Flu
http://methowvalleyherbs.blogspot.com/2009/10/october-blog-party-bio-regional-herbs.html

When I moved to Whidbey Island, just over 7 years ago, I had a good relationship with a few plants that boosted my immune system and helped me release viral and bacterial infections, helped me soothe myself through being sick and support me back to wellness. Some of these plants didn’t grow where I lived and so I depended on buying the fresh root and at times the dry root to make tincture. I had no idea what I would find here, on this precious island, and I am still amazed every time I think about it.

At a recent plant walk I offered on the island, I spoke to participants of how we don’t need to worry so much about colds and flus on Whidbey Island because we are surrounded by amazing immune system plants. I will share a bit about a few of these plants, how to prepare them simply at home and then at the end offer a few ways to nourish your immune system so that you are less likely to contact a cold or flu in the future.



Wild Rose Rosa nutkana and other species:
We have wild roses here on our land on Whidbey Island, almost an acre of them. They are in abundance all over the island as well as all over Western Washington, into the mountain and beyond. Wild Rose is anti-viral to name just one of many ways this plants offers itself to us. I met a man years back at an herbal conference who had done significant research on Pacific Yew as an anti-cancer herb. He told me that at University of British Columbia in Canada, they were testing some native plants for their anti-viral properties and the wild rose rosa nutkana, leaf and flower tincture killed the cold virus in the laboratory.
I was amazed and excited, I had some wild rose tincture at my booth, which is what sparked the conversation. I had not utilized it in this way. I began to make the tincture as he suggested and have utilized it now when I have a cold. It has been gentle and very effective in my healing. Students of mine have used it and we have found that it strongly supports healing, and can turn what appears "bad" to "not so bad "in a short amount of time. This “Pacific Yew Man” as I call him, said that he believed that wild rose hips tincture would have a similar effect. My husband and I now utilize both of these preparations for healing our upper respiratory infections. One of the beautiful things about this herbal preparation of wild roses is that it also supports the relaxation of the nervous system, which is beneficial when we are sick. It helps bring us into a more positive perspective about our health.

You can easily make wild rose tincture and wild rose hips tincture yourself at home. Right now, the wild rose hips are ripe and ready to offer themselves to you for healing.

• Find a stand of wild rose hips from which to harvest. Spend some time with the plants and breathe in their oxygen, breathe out offering your breath. Listen and see what these plants specifically have for you.
  
• Ask their permission to harvest and gather the wild rose hips in a basket or cloth bag. Say thank you for such beautiful medicine. If these rose hips are in abundance, gather enough to dry as well for infusions full of Vitamin C and pectin.
  
• Place your wild rose hips in a jar, filling it 2/3 full with these ripe red berries. Fill the jar again with 100 proof vodka. (You can now find organic vodka at the liquor store) Put a lid on your tincture and label it with name, date and perhaps something the plant spoke to you. Let this brew sit for six weeks, the turn of a season.
  
• Strain it through a sieve with a clean cloth draped over it. Squeeze out the liquid, as much as you can and place this incredible life giving medicine into a beautiful bottle.
  
• My husband and I use 25 drops about every 3 hours when we are right in the middle of a cold and then lessen it to once or twice a days as we are getting better.
  
• Next year, when spring is turning to summer, you can gather the wild rose flower and leaf tips and make a tincture in the same way.

One of my practices that keeps me connected with the compassionate wisdom of the plants that I utilize for medicine is to continue to thank the plants for their healing. And so I return to the plants again and again and wish them well, say thank you and remember what they have offered me.



Lomatium Lomatium nudicale: I found out about this plant from Ryan Drum, www.ryandrum.com, at an herbal conference. I had heard of Lomatium dissectum, a plant that is strongly overharvested. Ryan talked about how traditionally, the seed of the lomatium nudicale was utilized by the native first people here around Puget Sound. He said it was much more sustainable to harvest the seed than the root and really, the root is not a traditional medicine. I was intrigued with his stories.
I had just moved to Whidbey Island and asked him if he thought this plant grew on our island. He said “Yes” that he had seen it up near the central part of the island on the beach. I purchased lomatium seed from Ryan so that I could make tincture with it and begin to bring its medicine into my life. I have found the place where Lomatium nudicale grows on the beach. It is a member of the carrot family, and has a beautiful low growing umbel of seeds that ripen in late summer. I am excited to share this medicine with others, passing on its gentle and effective healing of upper respiratory infections. I also discovered that it has been called the “Indian Consumption Plant”
There is one more bit about it that is significant here. The Lomatium nudicale seed is a spirit healer as well. It was given to another when the giver wished to be heard. This to me represent relationship. And I have found in my studies and journeys that the immune system is about just that, relationship.
This plant is a little more elusive than wild rose. But if you do happen onto it, gather the lomatium seeds in late summer and make a tincture very similar to the directions above. Infused honey is another preparation that can be helpful when we are in need of support in healing a cold or flu. In this case, fill a jar half full with the lomatium seeds and pour local, raw honey over this to the top. You can use this preparation in a week or two, but do wait for at least six weeks for it. It will be worth it.
Tinctures are such a great way to make herbal medicine last for long period of time. I like to advocate that people also make infusion with plants. The mineral richness of the healing herbs will be extracted in a strong tea that sits for a long time. This is also the more traditional use of the herb.
Infusion of Wild Rose Hips:

• Pour one quart of boiling water over one ounce of dry rose hips.
  
• Let this sit for 4-8 hours.
  
• Strain off the liquid and put the wild rose hips in a saucepan with more water.
  
• Boil this for a long time.
  
• Strain this through a cloth draped sieve (so you don’t get the little hairs inside the hips)
  
• Add the two liquids to each other.

This is an exquisite infusion and full of goodness.

There are two , two weeds, that grow in my garden and on our land with which I make nourishing herbal vinegars. They are Dandelion Root Taraxacum officinale and Burdock Root Artium lappa. Now is the time to harvest these roots. They are filled with inulin, a starchy substance that nourishes your gut flora. It is becoming more and more widely known that most of the immune system is in the gut. When you have a healthy gut, you are well. Here is a link to a blog post I offered awhile back with instructions for harvesting dandelion root and making an herbal vinegar with it.
http://crowsdaughtersherbs.blogspot.com/2008/01/dandelion-has-been-potent-ally-of-mine.html
You might think the dandelion root would be bitter, but right now it has sweetness in it. I put this dandelion root vinegar on my salads, in my soups and on my well cooked greens.

The healing plants are calling us into relationship. "Come outside" they say, " And discover a whole new world of nourishment and healing at your doorstep."

May it be in Beauty.

We are Water, Mostly, and So are Plants Water

The rain came this morning to our land here on Whidbey Island.
I prayed for it and then wished I hadn't because of the start of our Herbal Wisdom Summer Mentorship for Girls starting today.
But once I stepped out on the earth, onto the rain soaked grass and felt the warm moist air on my skin, I softened. A gentleness washed over me, soothed my overwhelmed, overheated and overexcited body/mind.
Water is a much needed companion in summer's heat and fire.
Water washes away that last bit of unneeded energy so that we may manifest our desires.
We are water, mostly, and so are plants water.



I will not wait for the overwhelm of summer's heat to take its toll on me next time.
I will drink water, I will sprinkle water on my brow, I will soak my feet in water, I will swim.
Summer is the time to grow, grow, grow. Summer is the time to continue through, to put all that we've got into what we desire.



And as we focus our intentions on our desired outcomes, we may bring gentleness, peace and well-being into our practices with water...

• Walk barefoot on the rain soaked land
• Wash your face with spring water
• Soak your feet in warm, salty water
• Drink nourishing herbal infusions
• Bless the you that is water
• Cry tears of sadness and joy
• Spend time wading in a lake, a stream, an ocean
• Thank the rain
  

May it be in Beauty.

The Alchemy of Our Divine Nature

I walked out this morning as the sun rose over the tall evergreen trees, to check on my goats and to visit the tipi that sits on our land. I stood in the bowl (a natural concave) before the tipi entrance and look up at Grandmother Cedar, released my burdens, sloughed off what is no longer useful and entered the tipi to replace the water and check on the now dowsed fire. Our Summer Solstice~New Moon Earth Celebration last night was powerful and precious. Fourteen people gathered for community potluck and then new moon ritual to release anything we no longer want for ourselves, our families, our community our world. And then we gathered blessings for our world, scattered rose petals for love and beauty, laid yarrow stalks for transformaton and placed cedar boughs on our path to bless each step we take in the world. I am moved by the rituals we have here, I receive a great deal from them and am inspired to know that each person evokes their own inspiration.



It was mentioned last night that the word Solstice means "pause". My shamanic teachers have offered wisdom to me about this time of year as not a waning but a widening, an expansion of the earth's energies and a great time of manifestation. At Summer Solstice, the energy of the earth is fully activated from the deepest parts of the earth up and out to the deepest reaches of the cosmos, connecting us with our ancient past and our ancestors and also into our infinite future. My garden this morning was powerful, so many plants speaking to me, offering themselves to me.



There are a few plants that bring their most potent medicine at Summer Solstice. St. Joan's Wort, Hypericum perforatum, connects us with the soul of who we are. She is a most precious nervous system nourisher and healer and a plant teacher. Plant teachers are those plants that will heal anything and everything. St. Joan's Wort is one such plant. Nervous system, liver, immune system, energetic system, healing thoughts, emotions and spirit. The beautiful yellow flowers reveal within them, a deep magenta-red substance who's smell calms and who's medicine is like to other.



We have a native Artemesia plant here on Whidbey Island, Artemesia suksdorfii. This powerful plant's fragrance is intoxicating and calls me over whenever I am in the garden the last few days. I utilize her for bringing focus to my dreams. I will gather the flowering stalks now to dry and make smudges and to place under my pillow. I won't use her indicriminately though. She is powerful enough that I use utmost integrity and intention when I evoke her magic.



Yarrow, Achillea millefolium grows wild on the beaches here on Whidbey and in my garden wild, from plants I transplanted from my beach home. Yarrow is utilized by wise woman who want to stop excessive bleeding, flooding during menopause. She also is a native healer for the immune system and a wound healer. I call upon her to transform my entire being, bring new manifestation to my world. I dreamed of her years ago...a phoenix in a garden burst into flames and was reborn as a yarrow plant.



We have an incredible opportunity to transform our lives, our world into one that works for all beings. It is already here before us, we only need evoke new thoughts to see and receive it. Noticing what is working, speaking prayers of peace, of prosperity and humanity, of kindness and nourishment, of inclusion for all in this sacred earth community is what will transform our thoughts. It is the alchemy of our divine nature that supports the growth and expansion of this new world.



A simple practice to support this perspective:

• Write down 100 things in your life that are working.
• Write down 100 gratitudes.
• Say thank you to 10 people everyday that have helped and supported you in any way.

May it be in beauty.

A Wild Thing to Do

It was been a beautiful spring and early summer here on Whidbey Island. We have had more sun than usual at this time of year and the garden is expressing herself exuberantly. I have planted a few vegetables this year and have been rewarded with wonderful romaine lettuce, dinosaur kale, and walla walla sweet onions. More veggies to come soon.... What I am especially enjoying this year are the weeds. I am inspired to share a few ways to utilize the weeds in your garden. It is quite a wild thing to do and offers you incredible minerals and even healing in every mouthful.

Our Chickweed Stellaria media is still coming up in many places, cool evenings and shady area are helpful for its continuation. Chickweed is cooling, nourishes our skin, our eyes, and is a tonic for the heart among other wise healing ways.
Sow Thistle Sonchus oleracea is another wild green packed with mineral salts. You may be weeding this plant out, even cursing it and not realized its potential for nourishing.
Isla Burgess tells us in her book, Weed's Heal that Sow Thistle cools fevers, returns health to intestinal issues, and nourishes the blood.



Lamb's Quarters Chenopodium album: I am so happy this weed returned to my garden this year. It is one of my favorite cooked greens, it out does kale and spinach for mineral richness and flavor.
Wild Greens Pesto: Gather chickweed, sow thistle leaves and lamb quarter leaves (the ladder two best harvested before flowering) cut them up just a bit and put them in a food processor with a bit of olive oil and sea salt. Blend this and add more olive oil until you get a nice paste. If you have basil you could add a bit of that for flavor, or any of the Mediterranean herbs (Rosemary, thyme, sage, oregano).You can add fresh garlic if you like or fresh young onions from your garden. Cook whole wheat spaghetti pasta until al dente, strain and mix in your pesto. Sprinkle parmesan or feta cheese on this and serve immediately. Enjoy!



Red Clover Trifolium pratense infusion and vinegar: The red clover returned this year with a gusto. The deep fushia flowers are abundant and covered with bees. I have been harvesting the flowers everyday and placing them on a flat basket away from direct sunlight to dry. The warmth of the summer days helps to dry them quickly. When dry, they are ready to infuse ~ fill a jar with the dry red clover flowers, don't pack them just drop them in and fill the jar again with boiling water. Place a lid on this and leave it on the counter overnight. Strain it and drink. Iced is nice during the summer months. Red Clover nourishes your blood, your liver, your lungs, is anti-cancer and anti-tumor and is very calming. Red Clover connects us with our bloodline and promotes a sense of happiness. What an amazing repetoire for a weed!
If you have an abundance of flowers, gather them and fill a jar with them packing slightly. Then pour organic apple cider vinegar over them, label this with name and date and let this sit for about six weeks. When you strain this, you will have a sweet, nourishing and tonifying treat.



Oh, Dandelion Taraxacum officinale: There are countless ways to utilize this precious, potent plant. The dandelion leaves right now are full of the bitter richness that support healthy digestion. Gather the dandelion leaves in a basket. Hold several leaves at one time and snip them small. Fill a jar with these leaf pieces and then fill again with organic apple cider vinegar.
Six weeks of infusing allow the abundant minerals to be released into the vinegar. Strain this and eat it on salad, on cooked green (someone say lamb's quarters) or put a teaspoon of vinegar in a glass with water and drink 10 minutes before eating. This will support your body to metabolize more minerals.

When I gather plants for eating and for crafting, I always ask permission to harvest. The plants are most often agreeable to my request. I listen to these compassionate beings and I am told which leaves to harvest, how much and sometimes other bits of wisdom are offered. It is a life close to the earth that is cultivated with this practice.

May it be in Beauty.